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East Stirlingshire Exiles
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So, it was after Steve’s 2nd attempt and Sam’s 1st full attempt in March, that Steve realised that he needed to do another full attempt before Shoreditch closed. The record was still there for the taking, and with the forthcoming closure of Shoreditch, whoever held the record on the date that Shoreditch did close would hold the record for that specific 275 configuration forever.
Steve then found that his University exam timetable had been rather kind to him, and left him with a space of two weeks in which he could make the attempt; the next problem was finding someone that could do the attempt with him. Chris Searle, who had been Steve’s teammate on both his previous attempts, was unable to make it due to the harsh nature of his exam timetable, so it was after a lot of consulting of dates and exam timetables, and some gentle persuasion, that he ended up persuading Sam to accompany him for his 3rd, and her 2nd attempt, their final attempts of this 275 configuration, on Tuesday 30th May.
Oliver Lewisohn kindly offered to put us up on the night before the Challenge at his place in Chesham, and agreed to start the independent stopwatch. Chris Searle, although he couldn’t make the whole day, agreed to meet us to provide us with some lunch, and Ric Brackenbury kindly offered to meet us at the end of the day to stop the stopwatch at Upminster for us. So, we had our support team and our stopwatch carriers sorted - we were ready to stake our claim for the record!
The day started well up in Amersham, until we headed down to North Harrow for our first run of the day to West Harrow. We arrived into North Harrow just over a minute late, leaving us under five minutes to make the connection. Making our way through the streets at an early hour, we got within a minute of West Harrow when we were informed that the train had just arrived there. It then proceeded to leave thirty seconds early, thus giving us a nigh-on-impossible time of four and a half minutes to make the connection! Ten minutes down on the plan early on in the day was not the best way to start, as this then transpired to be nearer twenty minutes down an hour or so later due to not such good connections!
Our other major hold up of the day came on the very much despised Hainault/Woodford/Epping section of the Central Line. We had arrived onto the Central Line knowing that with the 20 minutes frequency of the Woodford via Hainault services, that we had arrive near enough dead in the middle of the two services. A few swift calculations later and we decided the best way forward was to head to Hainault first, slum it there for the 10 minutes, and then head onwards. It was not the right decision it later emerged. Getting into Hainault was fine, waiting at Hainault along with some great musical accompaniment (well, singing) from Chris, and somewhat reluctantly, Oliver, the waiting was fine, the short journey from Hainault to Woodford was fine. Then the trouble started.
Normally, you would have a 3 or 4 minute connection at Woodford before heading up to Epping. There was a train due along in 3 minutes when we arrived at Woodford. Great! It was then that we realised that this train was being re-routed. It had originated as an Epping train, but was being re-routed as a Hainault via Woodford train! Sorry?!! Has anyone even seen a Hainault via Woodford train in normal service, excluding when there are engineering works? Anyway, once the fury of seeing this re-routed train had ceased, we were then greeted with a further 6 minute wait for the next Epping train. However, because the previous train had been re-routed, this resulted in there being no other train at Epping, and thus we had to get the same train out, meaning a further 12 minute wait there before heading back out again! We calculated afterwards that we spent a total of more than 35 minutes just waiting for trains in this Central Line Section!
Still, where there were bad times, there were also good times. Probably the best of the best times was our phenomenal Mill Hill East connections. We joined the Northern Line somewhere in the Central London area, and thanks to some good fortune, ended up being on a Mill Hill East train. Sometimes these trains sit at Finchley Central for a few minutes before continuing onwards, ours didn’t. After speeding to Mill Hill East, we whizzed back down to Finchley Central, to be greeted with the sight of a High Barnet train approaching the station. Total length of time from arriving at Finchley Central the first time to departing it to go to High Barnet? Just over 10 minutes!
What else? The sight of Chris at Tooting Broadway station complete with Subway sandwiches had to be a good point, never has a Subway sandwich tasted so good!
The most comical section of the day occurred at Kensington Olympia. We were approaching Olympia on foot, and as we knew there were delays on the District Line, we had sent Oliver to go there on the train from Earl’s Court, just in case there would be a tight connection. As it was, there was a tight connection, Steve was leading the run, and as he got level with the very rear of the train (this being the way the platform is situated), the doors started to close. Cue Steve throwing himself at the train doors, just about stopping them from shutting with his chest whilst his leg slides down the gap between the train and the platform edge. Cue the doors opening again, Steve helping himself out of his predicament, only to stand there holding the doors open as Sam ran into the station compound. Lots of shouting from various people ensued as the door was wedged open, until Sam leaped into the open door space. It was at this stage that not only did a random man outside start chasing the train, banging the window, screaming that "If you two ever hold a train door like that again I will kill you", but that we realised that Oliver wasn’t on the train. A few seconds later, we located Oliver…stood on a different District Line train, heading for Olympia, sat on the double track section just outside the station, waiting for our train to pass by!
We also ended up running approximately the distance from New Cross Gate to New Cross by mistake - we had arrived at NCG, therefore on the right side of the road to catch the bus to NC. That is, if you go to the correct bus stop! We didn’t, realised we had turned off the road, when we didn’t want to, promptly got off the bus and sprinted to New Cross where we made the train with a minute to spare.
And so the stations went by and the time ticked away, the Heathrow section was done with many a concerned gaze from the people as we ran through the appropriate sections of Heathrow Airport, the stations continued to pass by, until, at around 21:30, we realised that if all the trains from here on went to timetable, then we would end up on exactly the same last train as Geoff & Neil were on when they set their record.
And would you believe it, things did run to timetable! We arrived onto the District Line for the final section of the day, the home run into Upminster. Ric had joined us by this point, and the tension mounted as the stations passed by, with a swift look at the times from our last attempt after each and every District Line station. Would we make it or wouldn’t we make it? It was evident as soon as we got on the train that it would be exceedingly close. Ric kept telling us that this train (which was one of the nice refurbished trains) was moving quickly for a District Line train, but to us, it seemed to be moving slower and slower, before finally coming to a stop at Upminster station. A quick wrench of the door and a quick bound onto the platform later, and Ric confirmed the finishing time. 18 hours, 35 minutes, 38 seconds. 18 hours, 35 minutes, 38 seconds. It took a moment for it to become realisation, but then it hit us, we had done it, by 5 seconds! Never before has a total of 5 seconds sent us into exuberance. 18 hours, 35 minutes, 38 seconds we told ourselves, 18 hours, 35 minutes, 38 seconds
Many thanks to Oliver Lewisohn, Chris Searle and Ric Brackenbury for their various help at points throughout the day, your help was most appreciated and will not be forgotten.
Photos can be seen at http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l9/tytc4/
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