Martin’s Mad Mile-athon attempt for NSPCC – 1st June – Please give me your support!

[crispy1978]

Many congratulations good sir on hitting 1472 miles in 24 hours! Until HS2 arrives that figure will prove impossible to beat with no repeat mileage!

Is it literally impossible to beat? I've not tried so assuming you are right but wondering if there is a potential opportunity somewhere?
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Well done. Looking forward to reading your report.

Likewise!! Should be an exciting read!

 

[Techniquest]

Every option I looked at is impossible to beat it in 24 hours without repeating mileage, but if anyone can beat it I'd like to see the route!

 

[evotista]

Hi All, I've started on the trip report but it is going to be a while yet before I'll have got everything I want to poured into it....it'll be good though, so be patient it will be worth it.

As regards finding longer routes ..... it's difficult!! .... I spent weeks analysing so many options ..... I did find one route that would have gone up to 1490 miles, but was way too risky.

I think we'll need the MML and GWML electrifications, and IEPs on the ECML to be all done (totally) before opportunities open up to have a crack at the record again...so give it till 2020 and with speeded up schedules and wholescale timetable recasts I'm sure opportunities would open up to break 1500 miles.

 

[cambsy]

There is a challenge to going up and down the same line all day to achieve maximum mileage, as have to have minimum connections between trains, highest average speed etc, quite a few years ago i tried to see if i could get near or beat the most miles in 7 days guinness world record and i managed to get just over 10.500 miles, using the East Coast main line and Lowland sleepers, lived on the trains for pretty much 7 days to the hour, wish you luck in your attempt at a version of most miles in a day.

 

[evotista]

This is a really long one everyone, and certainly not the average content for a trip report .. so grab several drinks, make yourself comfortable and enjoy the tale of ….

Martin’s Mad Mile-athon

The Inspiration

Life sometimes surprises, sometimes amazes and sometimes disappoints … and I suppose the inspiration for my challenge occurred sometime ago from reading this very forum, The very fine efforts of Peter Mugridge in doing the trip up and back from Lands End to John o’groats in just over 49 hours perhaps was an initial spark followed by the thread on here as to who had travelled the most distance in a day trip. My recollection of exactly when those threads started to make me think of doing similar was last summer…but not seriously.

And then a bad day occurred…just one email is all it took to make a significant dent in my view of the world. The death of a very dear friend unexpectedly is I’m sure bad for anyone, but for me it has been a wake-up call. You expect your friends to just be there, and able to resume friendships at any given point .. particularly best friends. All of our lives tend to be so packed with work, family commitments etc. that you may not see a good friend for months which before you know it soon rapidly becomes years… and yet you know the next time you’ll meet them, the friendship survives those breaks and can be resumed at a drop of a hat.

When that email arrived in my inbox last October informing me of Steve’s death a whole range of emotions came with it for me …. All of a sudden the realisation that all those years I thought I still had to spend time as a friend with Steve were now gone ….a deep shock set in, for I didn’t even know he was ill (we live far apart and have no other family connections to keep me informed of how he was)

A truer friend I think I will never have.

So from death, came the realisation that all those things I keep putting back have to come forward. The idea of doing a Mileage challenge was then foremost in my mind…but now with the added element that I’d do it for Steve, in his memory. So rather than make it a wholly selfish experience, I thought it best to let some good come out of attempting it and push myself to do it for Charity…Steve’s preferred charity was NSPCC, and my initial thought was to aim at a target of £1 for every mile travelled.



The Planning

And so you might recall this thread…. Having hardened the resolve to do this the next step was route planning. My original proposal being …

Ashford – St Pancras, Euston – Stockport, Stockport – Sheffield, Sheffield – St Pancras, Kings Cross – Edinburgh, Edinburgh – Glasgow Queen St, Glasgow Central – Birmingham New St, Birmingham New St – Reading, Reading – Plymouth = 1444m 67ch

I was however convinced there must be a way of doing more.

EM2’s existing record was set this way…

Plymouth – Paddington, Euston – Manchester, Manchester – Sheffield, Sheffield – St Pancras, Kings Cross – Edinburgh, Edinburgh – Birmingham New St, Birmingham New St – Tamworth = 1343m

On that thread above, AeroSpace proposed :

Margate – St Pancras, Euston – Edinburgh, Edinburgh – Kings Cross, St Pancras – Derby, Derby – Taunton, Taunton – Paddington, Marylebone – Birmingham Moor St, Birmingham New St – Stafford = 1467m 37ch

That suggestion was tempting but when all considered too risky given a 7 minute connection at KGX and 5 min connection at DBY.

For weeks I kept analysing other options…as AeroSpace pointed out though, a lot of the optimisation comes down to maintaining as high an average speed in the night hours from midnight to 6am. As we all know there aren’t many services that operate in the death of night!… never mind ones that maintain a fast average speed. The sleepers are the obvious option…here’s some average mph analyses

1A40 = PLY – PAD = 46.75 mph (via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway)
1C99 = PAD – PLY = 43.87 mph (via Swindon and Westbury)
1S26 = EUS – EDB = 53.51 mph (Lowland Sleeper)
1S25 = PRE – EDB = 68.33 mph (Highland Sleeper - Not an official set down, but could be done as if you were going to Fort William in the seated section you would have to change coaches)
1S25 = CRE – EDB = 62.15 mph (Highland Sleeper – Getting on at 23:56 one stop before Preston)
The down side to using the 1S25 option is even though it gets you to EDB quick, you then have a totally dead 1 and ½ hours waiting for the KGX Chieftain service so swings and roundabouts

Other options considered use of the GWML and the overnight services to Fishguard, use of a loop out to Canterbury to take advantage of HS1 during the day and return back to Victoria…and I even looked at using the late 23:30 out of KGX to LDS as a final leg option starting out initially in Preston on the sleeper.

Anyways…when all things were weighed up, I kept coming back to my original option but however tweaked to now cut the corner across Scotland…missing out on Glasgow but instead gaining miles by being able to get back to London to catch the Night Riviera sleeper from the start.

So, the final route decision was made as follows with WTT timings:

0513 Ashford International (AFK) – 0551 London St Pancras (STP)
0616 London Euston (EUS) – 0815 Stockport (SPT)
0828 Stockport (SPT) – 0909 Sheffield (SHF)
0929 Sheffield (SHF) – 1129 London St Pancras (STP)
1200 London Kings Cross (KGX) – 1622 Edinburgh (EDB)
1652 Edinburgh (EDB) – 2107 Birmingham New Street (BHM)
2118 Birmingham Moor Street (BMO) – 2313 London Marylebone (MYB)
2345 London Paddington (PAD) – 0514 Plymouth (PLY)
Total = 1472m 2ch

Selecting a date for the challenge had to be considered and the obvious date in my head would be in May or June, primarily due to prolonged daylight and decent weather potential. The only conundrum being whether to do the challenge before or after the timetable change on May 18th …. So initially I pencilled in May 11th as a possible. In the ensuing period though, the landslip at Harbury happened which instantly put a spanner in the ticketing works! I knew it was unlikely it would be months before the landslip was repaired but I felt uneasy committing to buying lots of tickets until I knew the route was back open. So, to give a bit more breathing room to let everything settle down and also to avoid the May bank holiday weekend I shifted my target date to 1st June

The Ticketing

With the route decision made by late December and Harbury landslip now sorted, it was now the waiting game of awaiting for various tickets to get released since I was going to purchase the tickets wherever possible on the cheapest Advance fares tiers that I could.

The first one bought (prior to Harbury) was the KGX – EDB fare – since these are available at least 6 months before. Buying them through the East Coast website had the added advantage of a 2% web discount …not bad at £39.70 for 393 miles.

There being 7 tickets to buy in total for the 8 legs that make up the Challenge, it became obvious fairly soon that the initial fare from Ashford Int to St Pancras was never going to be cheap (No advances available) and at £35.30 for 56 miles I decided I’ll leave that ticket to a couple of weeks before.

Advance fares were soon bought in March for the Euston to Stockport leg (£35 – never cheaper than that on the 06:16) and the Stockport to St Pancras (via Sheffield) EMT + conns fare (£54). This EMT fare is rather annoying since the 09:29 out of Sheffield always has a price premium on it … if only I could have travelled ½ an hour later and the price would pretty much halve!...but the route is the route and I had already put all price considerations out of my head in the resolve to do this.

Next the EDB – BHM ticket was purchased but as a precautionary measure given the tight connection in Birmingham, I bought an Advance all the way back to Euston…it being only £5 more - £30 versus £25. Therefore if the connection majorly failed … I could just keep on the train all the way back to Euston and at least make the 23:45 sleeper still. To cover the officialdom of finishing short on the Euston ticket presuming the Moor St connection was on I also bought a day single from Wolverhampton to Birmingham at £2.40!..so I could present that if needed at New St

Tickets for the other legs gradually fell into place….£49 for an Advance Sleeper Solo to Penzance. It made no odds price wise to go to Penzance versus Plymouth (yes really £49 to either!!) and I’d had in my head the idea that even though the Challenge would officially finish at 05:13 at Plymouth, I would continue on to Penzance to have Breakfast at the seaside!!

I had to wait a long time for the BMO to MYB ticket to be released before Chiltern got their act together and released their Advance fares…but finally in late April they released the £6 fare for BMO to MYB I’d been waiting for.
The tickets just to get me down to Ashford and get me back were also a challenge. The ticket down to Ashford was always going to be an Advance but due to Engineering works on the Southeastern network, the VTWC and conns Advance fares were not being released, and then only some were released in very strange timings. Eventually, I lost patience with waiting and bought a £38 Advance fare some 4 weeks before the date (May 31st)…already having seen some £24.50 come and go. However a couple of weeks before the challenge some £18 ones came up!!!....oh well ;-(.

The Penzance back to Manchester ticket became a monsterous 7 ticket split fest!!...splitting at Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Cheltenham, Birmingham, and Stafford…and having the good fortune in that to be using a XC HST for the Plymouth to Birmingham section. Combined cost to get me back form Penzance was £49.70 and not the railway equivalent of robbery that XC charge of £157.20 on the average Advance on the 0935 from PNZ to MAN!!

Accommodation was sorted next, since I would need somewhere for the Sunday night near to Ashford station. After a bit of googling, it turns out there aren’t many hotels directly near the station, so in the end I booked an internet only Premier Inn deal at Eureka Park which is some 1 ¾ miles away, which I figured worst case was walkable in the absence of catching a taxi….the Premier Inn came in at a reasonable £39 for an internet booking

The Journey down

So at 8:00 am on Sunday 31st May, I left home to catch the first bus of the day into Bury (472) at 08:18 to Bury Interchange. The bus was on time and quick trot over to the tram station meant I was straight onto the tram service into Piccadilly. The Metrolink network being fairly disrupted the last few weekends as work continues apace on Victoria, and St Peters Square…but thankfully this weekend services would take me straight to Piccadilly (the Altrincham services however were stopping short at Cornbrook with a RRB to bridge the gap to town)

Arrival into Piccadilly was quick and meant I had over an hour till kill before my 10:20 Euston service , so a sit down coffee was required to get me going and settle my nerves. .Pret being my preferred coffee house. I sat and pondered the unknowns of tomorrow…would it go alright?…what if the first critical change in Stockport failed?

Soon enough 10:00 came round and I boarded the Euston service from Platform 6, 390019 being in charge. So off we went on time at 10:20, and the journey down was swift and without event with an on time arrival into Euston at 12:57. Given the drive to mitigate every potential unknown in the Challenge, I decided to re-time the walk from Platform 6 to the Southeastern HS platforms at St Pancras….i had walked the route via Brill place and Phoenix Road last year but hadn’t properly timed it. So with my service to Ashford out of St Pancras due at 13:37. So with stopwatch enabled on the phone, off I stomped from the ramp on Platform 6 at my fastest sustainable walking pace and when I arrived at the HS barriers at Platform 13 the clock stopped at 8 mins 28 secs. At that point a quick PNB was required and I was amazed to discover that there are toilets at St Pancras that are not charged for!!!

So then it was onto the 13:37 service to Ashford (395017), except in an effort to take the opportunity to bash a bit of the Southeastern metals I decided to get a day return on top of my ticket to Ramsgate from Ashford, and therefore do the “loop”…from Ashford to Ramsgate out via Dover and back via Canterbury ...well I had nothing better to do than otherwise while away time at the hotel in Ashford!

My first time on HS1 and I have to say WOW….once we get properly going after Stratford international boy does it rocket….it felt properly fast to me and certainly noticeably faster than when on the average Pendolino. Before long we were in and out of Ashford and on the slow lines now to Dover…the tight curve into Dover been particularly squeal-tastic. The trundle around the coast continued with some delightfully sleepy stations gone through on the leg up the coast to Ramsgate..I liked the views out to the east as we came towards Minster. Arrival in Ramsgate was 2 mins late into Platform 1 but as luck would have it a quick dash through the subway had me straight back out on the 15:13 Ashford service but now via Canterbury. A nice seat was took on the networker 375925 to Ashford and off we went across Kent…before Sturry we passed an abandoned station which looked fairly complete , turns out this is Chislet Colliery halt which closed in 1971!

Arrival eventually into Ashford was on time at 16:13 and while disembarking from the platform I quickly asked one of the Dispatchers what the situation would be in the morning at stupid o’clock for gaining access to the station. He replied that the station opens at 0430 and the first service would be off of platform 5 or 6. So with the station recced it was time to make my way out to the hotel…typically though the weather was deteriorating and I debated should I taxi it or not. A quick surveying again of the clouds knowing it would take me about 30 min walk made me decide I’d chance it, plus also I needed to get something to eat for the evening and I knew there was a Tesco metro en route. So with an eye again for the morning I put the stopwatch on to ensure I get an idea for the time to get from station to hotel. A quick call off at the Tesco metro and a meal deal is got before I continue on the hotel – 26 minutes from platform to hotel

Once checked in I make arrangements with the hotel for a taxi for first thing…however I had made a presumption that Ashford would have taxis at 4:30 on a Monday morning !...apparently not! No taxis start in Ashford until 5:00am on a Monday, so hey ho…a walk to start my day it was going to have to be!...at least I knew if I left about 04:20 I’d would be there in plenty of time and the forecast for the morning was dry and fine.

For the rest of the evening I just spent relaxing, I even took the luxury of a bath since I knew tomorrow was going to be demanding. Lights out was by 22:40 with 4 alarms on 2 separate phones set and a door knock requested for 0400!!...tomorrow of all days I could not be late rising, not with so much riding on the day…….




The Challenge

So, my eyes opened, it was still dark….quick glance at the phone confirmed the time …. 0252. My brain was instantly in overdrive …after over 6 months of waiting for this day it had finally arrived. Thoughts of further sleep were pretty much dismissed instantly, so with TV on quietly, the very first thing to do was call up the internet on the phone and go to the National Rail homepage and the all important service status page!...please give me a set of green ticks!…yes…all green. So to get set a quick shower was in order to fully wake me up and with the door knock acknowledged it was time for a final check and at 0410 off I went heading back to Ashford station! The light was already fairly decent and by 0440 I was walking up to the entrance to the station.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/umV8UC] 20150601_043836 by M W, on Flickr[/URL]

As expected the gates were open (no ticket staff on until 0530) so I wondered through the subway and straight up onto Platform 6. I was surprised to see that there were staff already prepping the Pumpkin café for the day ahead even though it was not due to open for a while. With the first selfie of the day took at 0442 it was a matter of waiting for the first train to arrive. And in it rolled at 0453 (double 395s), 20 mins before we were due out….again this slightly surprised me since RTT said it didn’t get in until 0503. I checked with the driver to ensure it was the 0513 and hopped on into 395015 – the front unit - and took a seat in the leading unit and already a good 5 or so early morning commuters were doing the same.

With the timer on the phone prepared we moved off at 0513 and 20s…I was off finally on this challenge and I gave out a silent prayer for the luck gods to be with me all the way. So while whizzing into London I made my first tweet and facebook postings and before I knew it we were going through the tunnel to Stratford Int. With an on time departure from there I knew I was confident that at least the first connection of the day was not going to go wrong. We arrived at a suitably quiet St P at exactly 0551 and I was off through the barriers with serious walking pace to get myself across to Euston via the sneaky back route…quick selfie at St P and 8 mins later I’m doing the same at Euston concourse! Then it was straight down to Plat form 6 where a 9 car Pendo (390009) was prepped and receiving it’s typically early morning business passengers for the swoosh up to Manchester. I boarded and found my allocated seat in a bay of 4 in coach E with a businessman diagonally opposite me in the bay of 4. The loading in coach E was fairly busy and after the stop at Milton Keynes we shot up the Trent Valley section of the WCML and with little drama were soon pulling off right at Colwich (where quite a slowdown was required, at least a lot more than I expected … looking at the sectional appendix this Down junction has a 45mph restriction !!)

Quick stops occurred at Stoke and Macclesfield and as expected the train was now packed to the gills with commuters heading for Manchester all the way down the aisles at which point the TM announced that 1st had been declassified so I got up early before the final approach into Stockport to ensure I could fight my way to the vestibule end of the carriage and get ready for a swift exit onto Plat 3 at Stockport. Arrival was bang on time at 0815 and down into the subway I went, through the expected ticket check at the bottom of the stairs and then into the main ticket foyer before it was up onto Platform 0 (I wonder how many stations in the UK have a platform 0?.... Kings Cross comes to mind…but there can’t be many…answer that trivia anyone?)

Checking on RTT showed that my incoming Cleethorpes service was running only 1L or so which thankfully gave me little cause for concern. So with another selfie in the bag it was a pleasurable wait in the sunny Stockport sun looking down the line across the viaduct trying to pick out the tell tale high intensity headlight of a 185 on approach.

Soon the 185108 arrived and we departed at 0830, with me now in a bay of 4 with a set of 3 Spanish businessmen!... I assume they had just flown in into Manchester Airport. The trip across the tops to Sheffield had some great views with the sun being properly out and my main concern was now if we were going to get held either at Dore station Junction or on final approach into Sheffield. Thankfully neither of those situations happened and I was soon onto Plat 2 at Sheffield 1L.

Next train out wasn’t until 0929, so firstly a quick PNB was required and my first Latte (with a sandwich) was bought from the Pumpkin on Plat 8…having been up since 0252 it was much enjoyed!! So next unit up for the day was as expected a Meridian (222002) and I joined a fairly empty Coach D in a bay of 4. This being only my second time on a Meridian I was quite impressed generally with the interior environment and the acceleration,,,this one seemed to be far more nippier compared to any Voyager I’d been on. At chesterfield I was joined by a bloke who was en route to Birmingham Airport with work and we had a chat about the strike (It hadn’t been called off at that point!) and also about my challenge. He got off at Derby and I was then joined by two more blokes of which one of them proceeded to moan all the way to London about trains, and how long it took to get to London! …. 1hr and 30 mins is hardly bad for 128 miles I thought. I deliberately chose not to engage them in conversation, it being far more amusing listening into their witterings about work!

We pulled into St P (now for my second time today) and being only 2 mins late in, it was then somewhat of a fight to get out of St P since there were queues snaking everywhere … about 0930 there had been a person hit by a train on HS1 and now everything (SE and EuroStar) was suspended and therefore chaotic. I must admit when planning this challenge, one of my main causes for concern was the possibility of a suicide attempt putting a kaibosh on it…looks like I dodged that one having been on HS1 only 3 hours before.

After squeezing past all the queues in St P, a hop and skip across the road took me to the Cross and another selfie was got in the bag before another quick PNB and refresh was required (the upstairs ones being easier to get to). The Chieftain was in on it’s usual Platform 0 – 43277 and 43238 in charge. I had a wander up to the far end of Platform 0 and took a couple of shots.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/tGEht2] 20150601_114658 by M W, on Flickr[/URL]

I found my seat in Coach B (quiet coach – a priority seat so I had plenty of room) and we set off on time at 12:00. The journey north was thankfully uneventful. The trolley came through so I bought a tea, sandwich and cake to keep me topped up knowing that this leg would be the longest. I noticed the level crossings north of Doncaster that have supposedly been fully automated with MCB-OD, were still having a manned presence (this backs up the article in this month’s Modern Railways about the trouble with applying this technology to a mainline like the ECML).

With an on time departure from York, Coach B was pretty full and soon Darlington had been and gone, I noted 142093 in one of the bays at Darlington, which made me think about the need to come back this way soon and get the track to Saltburn and Bishop Auckland done at some point. Then we arrived in Newcastle and with a quick crew change we were out on to the top end of the ECML through the curves at Morpeth past the sleepy Chathill station and then onwards to Berwick. The Chieftain was performing well and as we were progressing north I kept checking on RTT the Pendo that I was to join at Edinburgh was going well with it’s Northbound journey from BHM to EDB….it was 5L at Preston but I was confident that would be made up en route.

Over the border we went and then hit the slower section of the ECML as we progressed towards Dunbar. This leg of the challenge was thankfully giving me little concern however if it had gone wrong at this point pretty much my whole challenge would have gone to ruins since missing the connection in EDB would not be able to be recovered in any way. We arrived 1E into Platform 8 at EDB…so another quick selfie was required, and then a quick spot of an M & S meant some sandwiches were bought and chocolate…and then it was over the bridge to Platform 11 to find my next Pendo (390013) sitting waiting to get me South. For this leg I had booked the “best” seat in the Pendolino house …. yes you’ve guessed it…. Coach C Seat 2, opposite the TM’s booth!

This leg was always the one to worry about. Extensive research through the Raildar website shows that this service is habitually delayed …not necessarily massively but enough to make me concerned at the potential consequences….the BHM to BMO connection is only 13 mins I kept thinking to myself. On top of that, the weather was now getting worse, I crossed everything I could for the hope that today of all days 9M60 would perform to time. We departed on time and negotiated the excruciatingly slow Carstairs curve at a snails pace. The stops southbound came and went quickly and as we got towards Preston things were still looking positive. However this is when my anxiety levels then went through the roof…… for we got caught behind a delayed Blackpool to MIA TPE service and we crawled all the way to Wigan and then pretty much crawled the length to Warrington. I cursed the train gods and kept monitoring RTT watching hopelessly as the minutes late started to rack up. We then got a bit of speed going on the way to Crewe but at Crewe North Junction came to an abrupt halt alongside an already halted Pendolino agonisingly within sight of Crewe station but not in it yet!....then I think a stroke of signalling luck occurred….we went into Plat 1 before the other Pendo was given the off. (Later research showed that this Pendo was the 1M17 GLC to EUS and ended up 46L into Euston!!)

Crewe station stop gave me more angst since rather than getting in and out quick…we faffed around with 2 lots of wheelchair bound passengers having to be sorted with ramps etc. We left Crewe 14L and even though I knew there was recovery dwell time at Wolverhampton, the prospect for making the connection at BHM were looking too tight for my liking. The section south of Crewe was still slow , we were slowed through Norton Bridge and then did an all line weave North of Stafford station at a snails pace to gain the road for Wolverhampton. With my fingers almost breaking off due to me crossing them so hard, we finally got some speed going as we went down to Wolverhampton. Time in to Wolverhampton was initially hard to see since the clocks get masked by the name boards for the station but as it turned out 2046 was the time and we had made it to hit the planned departure at 2047….yess!! With another quick prayer to the gods I spent the next 13 miles watching the clock into BHM where we arrived into Platform 7 on time at 2106!

I positioned myself at the door to Coach C and the moment the gap opened I was off!!!....I piled up the escalators (They were working by the way!) and ran at full speed out through the concourse (past 2 policeman who thankfully didn’t raise an eyebrow!) to Stephenson street and then right , racing along the walkway to Moor Street. I must have been quite a sight since people parted to one side and were obviously shocked/puzzled to see this blur flying by on a random Monday night!! Typically it was raining and raining fairly hard at that…but I kept going and got to the top of the steps near the Bullring and proceeded to fly down them at speed. I almost lost it at this point …slipping on one of the steps due to the wet weather …. But by some miracle of momentum and my legs being a blur I got a sound footing on the next step and successfully bounded off the step at the bottom and across the road into Moor Street concourse.

By this point I was a panting mess!!!...the gates were not in operation as expected so I ploughed on over the footbridge and onto Platform 1….arrival at Platform 1 was 2110 and 10 seconds !!!!!!!!!!!!!! So there you go everyone… just to confirm for future reference you can do Platform 7 at New Street to Platform 1 at Moor Street in 3 and ½ minutes!!!...at least you can when you have over a £1000 riding on it! Gasping for breath such that pretty much the whole platform could hear me, I caused a fair few comments from fellow passengers waiting on the station…but it was time for another selfie!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/tGuexy] 20150601_211429 by M W, on Flickr[/URL]

The feeling of elation sweeping over me knowing that success was still within my grasp.

168002 rolled into Platform 1 at 2116 and I located myself in the 1st coach and off we went on time to Marylebone. Further tweets and facebook posts then took place as we did the regular stops out to Leamington Spa….things were looking good, but I refused to let myself think it was job done yet…I promised myself that I could only relax once safely at Paddington on the Night Riviera. We zipped along in the dark now but came to a full stop just north of Banbury and this forced my stress levels up again as we lost 5 minutes until eventually being allowed into the platforms. We departed Banbury 6 down and with another stop to go at High Wycombe I kept constantly refreshing the RTT page for my service and wishing that the mins late would come down. The final dash in through the suburbs of London seemed to be done at maximum attack speed ….the driver only finally hit the brakes somewhere after Wembley and we got a smooth approach into MYB where my time of setting foot onto the Platform 2 was at 2316…. only 3L! The barriers were still in operation, so with my bargain £6 single ticket swallowed by the gate and a quick selfie outside Marylebone I was off for the third and final time today across London.

It was raining but not too heavily and having the route mentally mapped in my head I walked briskly and jogged in parts across Marylebone road and past Edgware Rd tube onto Praed street. Giving everything to the cause …. I had just one objective in my head to get to Platform 1 at Paddington as quickly as possible…and sure enough I found myself striding across the Paddington concourse at 2326…10 minutes from Platform to Platform including taking a selfie outside Marylebone!

This meant it was now time for tea!!...a quick baguette was got from the Upper Crust and bottle of water was got from Costa and then with photos quickly took I was on board into coach D and I found my berth 11L no problem, The Sleeper attendant gave me a warm welcome and gave me the run down on the berth and asked when I wanted to get up. This request would be a bit non-standard since I needed to get up at Plymouth even though I was travelling onto Penzance …. I explained that I needed to get a photo at Plymouth as part of the challenge. I allowed myself to finally relax at this point…my smile must have been as wide as the Paddington train shed!!...having been on the go since 0252 this morning and effectively surviving off adrenaline all day with added nervous tension, it was now out of my hands and all down to the Night Riviera to bring the final record breaking leg home. Once I’d settled myself into the berth and made some more tweets and Facebook posts, it was time to wind down and set the alarm to wake me up before Plymouth. My only time previous on a Sleeper told me to expect little sleep, however that Sleeper wasn’t helped by having some fairly bad wheel flats, so let’s hope for better this time.

We departed PAD on time at 2345 with DRS 57303 in charge and the journey out to Reading was uneventful but eerily slow…we mustn’t have hit any more than 20mph the whole way. We were still on time at Reading and it was around about this point at 0035 in the morning that my body finally gave up and sleep took over….

The next recollection is pulling away from Taunton late at 0300, after which I dozed further until we pulled into Exeter St David’s at 0359. I took a photo out at the platform sign and soon realised that my brain had kicked in and sleep was over for the night…so I got up and got washed and dressed and decided to see what I could make out on the way past Dawlish. I stood at the droplight and peered out across a fairly choppy sea as we passed through the repaired section at Dawlish…the very first bit of light was starting to make the sky a dark blue rather than black colour. Despite there being an engineering allowance of 13 mins at Dainton tunnel, we went straight through and then through Ivybridge with the light now properly showing. I chatted to the attendant and mentioned the need for her to take a photo once we arrived in Plymouth. With little further drama, we arrived into Platform 5 at Plymouth at 0512….job done and with an admittedly tired smile, the moment was captured.

1472 miles 2 chains in 23 hours and 59 minutes…….a new British Record

20150602_051547 by M W, on Flickr

I texted my wife and had a quick chat with my best friend who was getting up for work in Manchester and it was after that call that I suppose the enormity of achieving my goal took over me. I plonked myself down in the lounge car and the attendant served me breakfast tea and a croissant that I asked for…we pulled out at 0545 on time, but for the next hour I struggled to keep my emotions in check …. crying quietly at times….. not in despair, but in relief and happiness tinged with sadness that Steve would be proud of me but the fact that I’ld never see him again once again hitting home.
 


The Journey back

The Night Riviera arrived 1E into Penzance and with drizzle in the air after a quick PNB it was straight over in to the café (Sullivans) opposite for the obligatory Full English Breakfast … the breakfast of kings as they say!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/umVcfy] 20150602_080422 by M W, on Flickr[/URL]

I had a quick wonder around in the drizzle before boarding the 0935 back up to Manchester changing at Plymouth and Birmingham with the added bonus on the way to Bristol we got diverted via Weston-super-Mare, so some extra bonus new track for me! I also noted 50035 en route back up near Cheltenham looking in fine nick. I arrived back into Piccadilly on time at 18:00 and come 19:00 I was finally stepping foot back into my house


Conclusion

I hope you’ve managed to stay with the above all the way, as you can see it was a fairly epic write up never mind the doing of it!! Would I do it again?....I certainly wouldn’t discount it, ….but I’ll leave it a while yet for the network to improve and I would hope in the future 1550 - 1600 miles would be possible. However more importantly, I've managed to raise over £1500 for the NSPCC and do my part to honour the memory of my best friend Steve.

Costs

Tickets down = £50.20
Hotel = £39
Tickets back = £46.60
Challenge Tckets = £249
Unused Challenge tickets (In case of missed conns) = £47.40
Sundries (wifi , food etc.) = £50
Total = £482.20!!

Traction travelled on:

390, 395, 375, 185, 222, 43, 168, 57 + Mk3s

Operators Travelled

VTWC, SE, TPE, EMT, VTEC, CH, FGW, XC

Network Rail Track Miles travelled – From May 31st to June 2nd
2245 miles 4 chains

Unique Miles travelled as part of the Challenge
1472 miles 2 chains in 23 hours and 59 mins

New miles travelled
146m 10ch

Average speed maintained during the Challenge
61.37mph

 

[fishquinn]

A brilliant report and congratulations on completing your challenge!

 

[Techniquest]

Wow, that was quite the read! Well written and easy to follow as well, and I got right sucked into the world of your trip report (I hope that makes sense!), always a sign of a well-written story! Being very familiar with each location you visited and mentioned in the trip report helps mind, I could easily use the very active imagination to place myself on the scene!

An amazing job done there, both with telling of the tale (I dread to think how long that took to type!) and the actual trip itself. I share your pain with the curve at Carstairs, it is indeed beyond frustrating that it's so slow. One day, aye, we might well see something like this done again but with more mileage possible, although not for a long time yet sadly!

I believe the issue you had at Stafford is either getting fixed or alleviated with the works that NR are supposed to be doing in the Norton Bridge area. I've always been lucky there, as whenever I've come off the Up Fast towards Birmingham my trains have always done it at the south end of Stafford station, which doesn't sound like it makes a big difference but it does!

Believe it or not, the Down Night Riviera does normally go a fair bit quicker than 20mph! Depends a lot on its path along to Reading (I last did it well before the works at Reading started) to be fair, but normally it just takes it easy along the Down Main, no need to race after all and it wouldn't be too welcome to be storming down the GWML at top speed when you're trying to get to sleep!

Colwich Junction, I was only recently reading a short article about an incident there in 1986. From what I remember of the layout in the track diagram, it was at the time much more of a swooping curve for a higher speed along it for Manchester-bound trains. When I did it going north on Retro Railtours' The Retro Shakespearean Tug last year, we got held on the Down awaiting something from the Crewe direction before crossing over briefly along the Up then swinging right. At least that's what my memory tells me, but if so I'm not surprised it's a 45mph limit on it. I can only assume the layout was changed a lot after the 1986 incident.

Oh, and it's more commonly referred to as CH or CR not CT for Chiltern. CT was and always will be Central Trains

All in all, a most enjoyable read and I'm glad you shared the epic tale! Congratulations again on surviving it, if that had been me I'd have probably ended the day on a coffee from Costa after having at least 6 before it

 

[rg177]

Crikey! A heck of a day but all for a great cause. However I think i'd have fallen asleep for most of it having been up since 0252 Like Techniquest said, a coffee or 10 may have been required...

Excellent writeup though, and great work on the sheer amount of planning for such a feat

 

[IanM]

That was a great read, and quite an epic trip. Well done, Sir!

 

[alexf380]

Well done. Very well done indeed. An impressive attempt there, and not one that will be beaten easily, it will certainly take some time and effort to do so. £1500 isalso not to be sniffed at, so congratulations on raising so much for a great cause!

 

[PeterY]

Thank you Martin for the detailed report, thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel exhausted just reading about your day, let alone doing it. I don't think I'd have the stamina or will power to try it. Great news that you raised so much for the NSPCC.

I usually do one charity event a year for the Children's Society, this year my daughter and I raised £325 but that was a leisurely walk in comparison of 12 miles around the Chilterns countryside, starting in Berkhamsted.

Next year, I intend to do an ALR and may follow part of your route on one of my mad dash days.

Again well done. Regards
Peter

 

[crispy1978]

Great write-up, and a fantastic effort for a brilliant charity.

 

[Kristofferson]

Wow, what a trip and a suitably epic writeup! Must have been fun (if not very tense at times)

Congrats again on raising money for a good cause Will browse through some of the old tweets now!

 

[Bodiddly]

Well done! Timings seemed to have worked out perfect for you. Great effort for your charity challenge.
it may be worth writing to each individual TOC (and the hotel chain) with a brief explanation of what you have done to see if they will send the cost of your tickets as a donation to your chosen charity.

 

[evotista]

Many thanks all for your kind words. The write up had to be epic to do it justice, and I wanted you all to appreciate the thinking that went into the planning never mind the doing. I only realised the other day that during the whole challenge I only had 2 coffees and 2 teas and 1 can of Red Bull!...amazing what nervous based adrenaline can do for you! The hardest part was the mental torture of always thinking what if.? for 24 hours, I'm glad that any future bash I do will not have so much riding on it.

Part of me now feels like another challenge .. and if I was feeling truly mad enough, maybe to take on the most miles in a week that was mentioned back up the thread!.... I'll have to content myself with some one day track bashes , North Wales I think will be next up for a visit....however if anyone else has some bright ideas for more challenges then please do post them up.