The June issue of Underground News includes an article under the above
title by W.R. Lynch, which begins as folllows:

# When a new record was announced in 2005 of 18h 35min 43s to visit
# every LUL station, it sparked me off to analyse the logistics,
# survey the critical points and have a go myself. I failed by
# 35min 55s to beat the record, and, although it was an interesting
# project and I got some satisfaction from completing the course,
# I had always felt that the all-stations bash was a less than
# satisfying exercise in that it left odd parts of the network
# not traversed, and I couldn't raise the enthusiasm to try again.
#
# What did nag away at my thoughts, though, was the observation
# that the record was achieved in 2h 16m 17s less than the traffic
# day of 20h 52min. Could the skipped network sections be fitted
# within that 2¼h to make an all-lines bash?

Lynch decided that the correct rule was for lines sharing tracks or
running side by side to be counted once, so only one trip would be
required between Barons Court and Ealing Common, for example; and
that non-Underground trains could be used on such sections (e.g.
Silverlink from Richmond to Gunnersbury), although this turned out
not to be needed. He or she also decided that it was reasonable to
exclude the Watford north curve, which trains use only at the start
and end of the day and which does not appear on the system diagram.
The Heathrow loop was, of course, unavailable.

Now, the Guinness Book people have a set of rules for visiting all
stations, which include the requirement that to get from one station
to another one must either walk or use scheduled public transport.
Lynch could not construct an itinerary using that rule, so he or she
decided to additionally be allowed the use of a bicycle. And since
folding bikes can be carried without restriction, that was the trick.

Lynch's first three attempts, one each month from December 2005 to
February 2006, were failures, but informative ones. The fourth
attempt was on March 7, 2006, and it succeeded. Train 214 left
Hammersmith at 04:39:35 with Lynch and his or her folding bicycle
on board. And 51 trains later, Lynch arrived at Upminster at
01:20:08 on train 104 -- not the last, but the second-last train
of the day. That's 20 hours, 40 minutes, and 33 seconds. Lynch
reckons the distance as 509.7 km, or 2.67 pence per km on a £13.60
Travelcard...

Rather than carry the folding bike for the whole trip, he or she left
it parked at 16:30 at Stanmore. There were two more bicycle legs
after that, but an ordinary bike had been left at Harrow & Wealdstone
in advance; it was used for these, between about 21:30 and 22:10,
and parked in turn at West Acton. (Lynch says that switching bike
proves not to be worth the trouble, though.)

Lynch concludes:

# I recruited no witnesses and took no photographs. So what?
# If you prefer not to believe me, that's find by me. I'm also
# quite happy for you to attempt the same challenge to whatever
# standard of proof you like, or to adjust it to suit yourself --
# my rules are not law. Good luck!

Lynch's route, if I haven't miscopied it, was:

Hammersmith, Edgware Rd.;

Paddington, Gloucester Rd., High St. Ken., Wimbledon;

Morden, Tooting Bdwy., (via Charing Cross to) Mill Hill E.,
Finchley C., High Barnet;

Cockfosters, Barons Ct.;

Ken. Olympia, High St. Ken., Edgware Rd., (clockwise to)
Tower Hill, Aldgate E., Liverpool St., White City, W. Ruislip;

Ickenham, Uxbridge, Harrow-o.t.H., Amersham;

Chesham, Chalfont & L., Moor Park, Watford, Moor Park, Baker St.,
King's X. St. P., Walthamstow C., Brixton, Stockwell, Kennington,
(via Bank to) Edgware;

Stanmore, Wembley Park, Finchley Rd., Canada Water, Shoreditch,
New X. Gate;

New X., Canada Water, Stratford, Epping, Woodford,
(via Hainault to) Bank, Waterloo, Elephant & C., Harrow & W.;

Rayners Lane, Ealing Common;

W. Acton, N. Acton, Ealing Bdwy., Acton Town, Heathrow T.1,2,3,
Turnham Green, Richmond, Upminster.

Each "paragraph break" indicates a foot or bicycle segment.
--
Mark Brader | "The race is not always to the swift,
Toronto | nor the battle to the strong --
| but that is the way to bet it." --Damon Runyon

My text in this article is in the public domain.

In message , at 00:47:46 on Sat, 3
Jun 2006, Mark Brader remarked:
Now, the Guinness Book people have a set of rules for visiting all
stations, which include the requirement that to get from one station
to another one must either walk or use scheduled public transport.
Lynch could not construct an itinerary using that rule, so he or she
decided to additionally be allowed the use of a bicycle. And since
folding bikes can be carried without restriction, that was the trick.

and...

He or she also decided that it was reasonable to exclude the Watford
north curve

There are many ways that you can construct new rule sets. At one extreme
you could allow any means of transport over road sections (including
friends with cars, taxis etc), and at the other you could allow only
walking [I think that forbidding even walking would make the challenge
impossible].

For people to be able to compare your "achievement" with that of others,
unless you are the first to do something [1], then you really need to
attempt a recognised task [2], and abide by a recognised rule set, which
the Guinness one is.

[1] For example, has anyone taken a one-week British Rail Rover ticket
and attempted to cover that entire network?

[2] Is "doing all the routes" (leaving aside the Watford North issue for
a moment), rather than "visiting all the stations" really different
enough? If there's really two hours spare, what about adding the DLR to
the challenge?
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
There are many ways that you can construct new rule sets. At one extreme
you could allow any means of transport over road sections (including
friends with cars, taxis etc), and at the other you could allow only
walking [I think that forbidding even walking would make the challenge
impossible].

For people to be able to compare your "achievement" with that of others,
unless you are the first to do something [1], then you really need to
attempt a recognised task [2], and abide by a recognised rule set, which
the Guinness one is.

[1] For example, has anyone taken a one-week British Rail Rover ticket and
attempted to cover that entire network?

A week? Surely it'd take *much* longer than that? Probably closer to at
least a month or two, possibly a fair bit longer, I'd have thought. There
are a *lot* of little branch lines, served by much more infrequent and
slower trains than on the main lines.

[2] Is "doing all the routes" (leaving aside the Watford North issue for a
moment), rather than "visiting all the stations" really different enough?
If there's really two hours spare, what about adding the DLR to the
challenge?

Well I think this particular challenge was pretty pointless (but hey, it's
not like the standard Tube Challenge could be construed as anything but!),
mainly because it didn't really set out all it set out to achieve. Assuming
there was a mistake in the write-up of the route and the person did cover
the District Line between Acton Town and Turnham Green, there's still the
fact that a lot of the lines have only been covered in one direction, so
actually the whole network hasn't been fully traversed. I'll stick to
aiming to doing all 275 (well, 274 if you don't count Shoreditch) in the
usual way!

--
"For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

# What did nag away at my thoughts, though, was the observation
# that the record was achieved in 2h 16m 17s less than the traffic
# day of 20h 52min. Could the skipped network sections be fitted
# within that 2¼h to make an all-lines bash?

Traffic Day? I'm guessing by that they mean the time from the first
operational train departing its starting that day, to the last one arriving?

W. Acton, N. Acton, Ealing Bdwy., Acton Town, Heathrow T.1,2,3,

Turnham Green, Richmond, Upminster.

Unless they changed to the district at Acton Town they'd have missed out
Chiswick Park, surely?

--
"For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."
"Mark Brader" wrote in message
...

Have you read Keith Lowe's book, "Tunnel Vision"? It's quite funny, and
well researched.

It's going second hand for just £1.44 from a seller on Amazon
http://snipurl.com/rafu

"AstraVanMan" wrote:

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
[1] For example, has anyone taken a one-week British Rail Rover ticket
and
attempted to cover that entire network?

A week? Surely it'd take *much* longer than that? Probably closer to at
least a month or two, possibly a fair bit longer, I'd have thought. There
are a *lot* of little branch lines, served by much more infrequent and
slower trains than on the main lines.

My initial instinct was to say Roland Perry was nearer the mark with seven
days, but then I thought of Scotland alone, with:

i) Lots of long, slow secondary routes (Kyle, Far North, Mallaig etc)
ii) Lots of doubling back (eg Stranraer, unless buses are permitted, but
they would be slow in any event).
iii) A dense urban network in Glasgow

I think Kyle and the Far North alone would fill a day (or more), and
Mallaig/Oban would be another full day. Glasgow urban routes would fill a
day, as would the suburban bits around Edinburgh (North Berwick, Bathgate,
up to Dundee etc). That still leaves an awful lot of Scotland, but I think
Scotland could be covered comfortably in seven days- albeit with little time
for sightseeing!

England is a mixed bag, because whilst there are long, slow branch lines,
there are also plenty of high speed main lines, and a generally more
frequent level of service. I'd say three weeks for England, and maybe four
days for Wales.

So added together, it does look like a month or so - and that's assuming the
person undertaking the trip had the energy to cope with 5am starts and
midnight finishes for a month.

I've done 7 day Rail Rovers in the past, and have ticked off most of the
'InterCity' routes, but made relatively little impression on the branches.
And by the end of each week I was totally fatigued - travelling being
somewhat draining even when you just sit in First Class for a few hours
being fed tea and cake.

Chris

"Chris Read" wrote in message i) Lots of long,
slow secondary routes (Kyle, Far North, Mallaig etc)
ii) Lots of doubling back (eg Stranraer, unless buses are permitted, but
they would be slow in any event).
iii) A dense urban network in Glasgow

And thinking of places not in Scotland - you've got that line over to
Aberystwyth - a good 2 hours or so from Birmingham.

I've done 7 day Rail Rovers in the past, and have ticked off most of the
'InterCity' routes, but made relatively little impression on the branches.
And by the end of each week I was totally fatigued - travelling being
somewhat draining even when you just sit in First Class for a few hours
being fed tea and cake.

You can always plan sleeps so you're on a long distance train. That'd be
one way of doing things....

--
"For want of the price of tea and a slice, the old man died."

Roland Perry writes:
There are many ways that you can construct new rule sets. ...

True.

For people to be able to compare your "achievement" with that of others,

Y'know, that sounds kind of demeaning.

unless you are the first to do something [1], then you really need to
attempt a recognised task [2], and abide by a recognised rule set, which
the Guinness one is.

"Unless you are the first". *Is* anyone else known to have done that
before? Obviously Lynch wasn't aware of it.

"Peter" writes [rearranged for convenience in responding]:
Well I think this particular challenge was pretty pointless (but hey, it's
not like the standard Tube Challenge could be construed as anything but!),

Exactly! As pointless challenges go, I think it's as praiseworthy as any.

mainly because it didn't really set out all it set out to achieve.
... a lot of the lines have only been covered in one direction ...

That *was* what the person set out to achieve. All *routes*, not all
tracks.

Assuming there was a mistake in the write-up of the route and the
person did cover the District Line between Acton Town and Turnham Green,

No mistake; under the terms Lynch decided on, the District/Piccadilly
section from Ealing Common to Barons Court is one route and only had to
be done once. Lynch took the Piccadilly from Heathrow to Turnham Green.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "My ambition is to see a saying of mine attributed
| to Dorothy Parker or Mark Twain." -- Joe Fineman

My text in this article is in the public domain.

"Mark Brader" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry writes:
There are many ways that you can construct new rule sets. ...

True.

For people to be able to compare your "achievement" with that of
others,

Y'know, that sounds kind of demeaning.

unless you are the first to do something [1], then you really need to
attempt a recognised task [2], and abide by a recognised rule set,
which
the Guinness one is.

"Unless you are the first". *Is* anyone else known to have done that
before? Obviously Lynch wasn't aware of it.
The record holder (on 5th May 2005) was Geoff Marshall , See
www.geofftech.co.uk For new Guinness rules see
www.geofftech.co.uk/tubechallenge/therules.htm Hope this helps!

DERWENT "LUL in a Day"
Sat, 3 Jun 2006 12:56:27 +0100, Roland Perry



[1] For example, has anyone taken a one-week British Rail Rover ticket
and attempted to cover that entire network?


Roger Elliot visited every station a few years back - it took him 3
weeks though.

PRAR
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