Labyrinth Challenge - 32 to 41

32. Ickenham

33. Hillingdon

34. Uxbridge

35. Ruislip

36. Ruislip Manor

After last month's flooding, the ticket gate line is still completely out of order. Apparently, Oyster users will have their journeys auto-completed. Two big poster stands explain all this - placed right in front of the labyrinth! I don't think they would have appreciated me insisting on photographing the labyrinth and trying to move the stands, so I had to make do with the serial number through the small gap. I will have to come back at a later date.

In October I went back to get a better picture.

37. Eastcote

38. West Harrow (In a very small waiting room. Barely room to get far enough way to get it all in!)

39. Harrow-on-the-Hill

40. Northwick Park

41. Preston Road

Restart (at West Ruislip, before walking to Ickenham) : 12:13:18, Friday 1 July 2016
Finish : 13:51:32
Elapsed time : 1 hr 38 min 14 sec
Total challenge time so far : 7 hr 43 min 4 sec

Distance travelled on the Underground : 17.22 km
Total challenge distance so far : 88.13 km

Rare journeys : Paddington to West Ruislip

One of London's rarest train journeys travels over a certain section of track once per weekday in each direction. Operated by Chiltern Railways, it's the 1057 from South Ruislip calling at London Paddington only, which then returns as the 1136 from London Paddington to West Ruislip, also calling at South Ruislip. Look at TfL's official London Rail and Tube Services map and you'll see that South Ruislip / West Ruislip trains terminate at Marylebone, and that Chiltern Railways do not operate from Paddington. Apart from this once-a-weekday service, that is!

I discovered this trip when it was covered by Diamond Geezer and Londonist.

Most services like this exist because withdrawing a service altogether involves a lot of red tape and it is often easier and cheaper to run a minimal service than actually shut the line or station. An 1844 Act of Parliament which required at least one service per day on every route in the United Kingdom resulted in similarly infrequent trains, so these are often called "Parliamentary trains".

However, in this case, the unique piece of track is the Acton-Northolt line which (no longer) has any stations of its own. The line is still used for freight and is not in danger of closure. The main reason for the existence of this service is maintaining driver "route knowledge". The line is occasionally used as a diversion by Chiltern Railways when engineering works affect access to Marylebone. In 2008 during work on the West Coast Main Line, Virgin Trains diverted their Euston-Birmingham service on a meandering route that included this line. So once every so often, every Chiltern driver takes this train to keep their route knowledge up-to-date.

The train leaves Paddington and follows a conventional route as far as Old Oak Common (just before Acton Main Line) where the Acton-Northolt line branches off to the right. The line (single track most of the way) then parallels the Central line from North Acton to Northolt, past Hanger Lane, Perivale and Greenford, but with no interchange with any of those stations. Between Northolt and South Ruislip the Acton-Northolt line merges with the regular Chiltern line that has come from Marylebone.

So, since I discovered this train it has been on my London Transport bucket list. I finished the first leg of my Labyrinth challenge at West Ruislip so that, if the opportunity arose, I'd have an excuse to use this journey to start the second leg.

That opportunity arose on Friday 1 July 2016!

The last semaphore signals in London (at Greenford)

Achievement unlocked.

South of the Thames challenge

On Saturday I had a go at one of the alternative challenges which is apparently not very popular, as there are only three times listed at http://www.explorerticket.co.uk/tubechallenge/southtop.htm. I figured that even if I was really slow, I'd still be in fourth place. Which is exactly what happened.

The challenge is visiting the 29 of the 270 tube stations which are south of the river Thames. Yes, there are only 29.

Start at Kew Gardens
District to Richmond, dep. 10:18:24, arr. 10:21:50
South West Trains to Putney, dep. 10:32:43, arr. 10:38:13
Walk to East Putney
District to Wimbledon, dep. 10:45:30, arr. 10:53:09
Bus 219 to South Wimbledon
Northern to Morden, dep. 11:07:17, arr. 11:09:40
Northern to Stockwell, dep. 11:10:31, arr. 11:27:03
Victoria to Vauxhall, dep. 11:28:56, arr. 11:30:46
Victoria to Brixton, dep. 11:32:51, arr. 11:37:28
Victoria to Stockwell, dep. 11:39:43, arr. 11:41:29
Northern to Borough, dep. 11:43:24, arr. 11:51:14
Northern to Elephant & Castle, dep. 11:55:38, arr. 11:57:23
Bakerloo to Waterloo, dep. 12:01:25, arr. 12:05:09
Jubilee to North Greenwich, dep. 12:09:58, arr. 12:21:14

Elapsed time = 2:02:50

Labyrinth 1-31 : Oyster record

When I started planning it, I realised that I had to be careful using my Oyster on the Labyrinth Full Network Challenge. Because of getting off a train, finding and photographing the labyrinth and waiting for the next train, you have to be aware of the "maximum journey time". You can be charged a maximum fare if the time between touching in and touching out exceeds the maximum journey time. To complicate things further, the maximum time depends on the number of zones you pass through and whether it is peak or off-peak.

So, I made a note of whether the labyrinth was inside or outside of the ticket gateline and made sure that I'd have enough time even allowing for minor delays. The only unnecessary, precautionary touch out/in was at Watford. Otherwise my journey would have been from Zone 7 Moor Park to Zone 5 North Harrow, but heading further into Zone 7 before turning around, so I decided to split it up.

I made one mistake at Sudbury Town. I knew that the labyrinth was inside the station, but I hadn't realised that there is a gateline on both platforms. So, arriving on the southbound platform, I had to touch out, go over to the northbound platform and touch in again to get to the labyrinth. There are issues with touching in and out at the same station without making a journey, so I headed back to Sudbury Hill before turning around and continuing to Alperton.

Links:
http://www.oyster-rail.org.uk (this is your best guide to the Oyster fares system)

Labyrinth Challenge - 1 to 31

1. Chesham

2. Chalfont & Latimer

3. Amersham (I thought about waiting for the little girl to move, but no, that's what the labyrinth is for)

4. Chorleywood

5. Rickmansworth

6. Moor Park

7. Croxley

 8. Watford

 9. Northwood

 10. Northwood Hills

 11. Pinner

 12. North Harrow

 13. Rayners Lane

 14. South Harrow

 15. Sudbury Hill

 16. Sudbury Town

 17. Alperton

 18. Park Royal

 19. North Ealing

 20. Ealing Common

 21. Ealing Broadway

 22. West Acton

 23. North Acton

 24. East Acton

 25. Hanger Lane (by complete coincidence, when the doors opened, the labyrinth was right there so I managed to take this photo and get back on the same train)

 26. Perivale

 27. Greenford (I wanted to try the incline lift, but it was out of order!)

 28. Northolt

 29. South Ruislip

 30. Ruislip Gardens

 31. West Ruislip

Start = 10:54:53

Finish = 16:59:43

Elapsed time = 6 hr 4 min 50 sec

Distance travelled on the Underground = 70.91 km

DLR challenge - timing details

This morning I set a time for the DLR challenge as follows...

Beckton, dep. 11:05:05
Poplar, arr. 11:24:42, dep. 11:29:42
Stratford, arr. 11:40:27, dep. 11:48:40
Stratford International, arr. 11:50:57, dep. 11:53:18
Woolwich Arsenal, arr. 12:15:46

Southeastern, dep. Woolwich Arsenal 12:20:12, arr. Lewisham 12:33:38

Lewisham, dep. 12:39:30
Bank, arr. 13:07:58, dep. 13:10:33
Shadwell, arr. 13:13:12, dep. 1:20:11
Tower Gateway, arr. 13:22:36

Elapsed time = 2:17:31

Labyrinth challenge - so it begins