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A 'National Rail Network Challenge'?

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the sniper

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I'm sure most people will know of the 'Tube Challenge', but I was wondering how long it'd take to do an equivalent challenge on the national network? Has anyone ever bothered to roughly work out how quickly it could be done? Please don't say I'm going to have to waste a couple of weeks working it out myself, as I may tragically feel compelled to do so! :lol:
 
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EM2

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When I looked into it, the best I could work out was about six weeks. Bear in mind, there are some stations that only get one train a week...
 

ChrisTheRef

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We considered something similar as a forum meet about 18 months ago (search for it in the archives!) but it was only visiting Network Rail managed stations I think.
I'd love to have a go at what you're suggesting, but probably in 6 sessions of 1 week each. Couldn't do 6 weeks non stop!
 

LNW-GW Joint

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When I looked into it, the best I could work out was about six weeks. Bear in mind, there are some stations that only get one train a week...

Well I've just completed all the passenger lines in the NRTT (and quite a few now closed or freight only), plus all of the local tram/train systems and TfL, but it did take 50 years!

I did half the network randomly (work, leisure etc) until about 3 years ago I decided to blitz the rest before it was too late.
This took 60 day trips (from Chester) plus three 2-3 day overnighters with local railrovers (Cornwall/Devon, Norflolk and the Far North lines).
I travelled roughly weekly during the "light" season (spring/autumn mainly, avoiding school hols).

It also cost nearly £3000...
But well worth it.

The hardest line to reach from here was that through Melksham (Saturday afternoon only), followed by Gainsborough Central (ditto) and Knottingley-Goole (peak SX only).
The once-a-day lines to Fishguard and Heysham also needed careful scheduling.
I resorted to buses sometimes to skip from one line to another (Merthyr-Ebbw Vale, Milford Haven-Pemboke Dock, Whitby-Scarborough, Wemyss Bay-Largs/Gourock, High Barnet-Cockfosters, Oban-Inverness).
Transportdirect was very good for planning these.

My only big mistake was to miss a connection in Glasgow Central which meant I had to do another trip to reach Largs (but I fitted in a trip on the PS Waverley on the same day to make up!).
 

rail-britain

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From memory a charity did this last summer, five people out of the six managed to complete it and it took them three weeks
However, they only had to use services that passed through each station and did not necessarily stop at the station, which saved them some waiting time and issues with the stations which only have one train per day
 

the sniper

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Thanks for the answers guys and I'll have a look for that thread. :)

From memory a charity did this last summer, five people out of the six managed to complete it and it took them three weeks
However, they only had to use services that passed through each station and did not necessarily stop at the station, which saved them some waiting time and issues with the stations which only have one train per day

Very interesting. I think counting passing through a station rather than stopping at each one is fair enough, it'd make it a lot more doable/bearable. I think the Tube challenge only stipulates that you have to pass through a station anyway?
 

rail-britain

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I think the Tube challenge only stipulates that you have to pass through a station anyway?
The majority of Tube services call at all stations en-route
Compare that to something like the Kings Cross - Edinburgh, which calls at York and Newcastle only, yet you could include any station along the route?

However the charity had arranged for various photoshoots en-route which would have wasted some time (unless time was required for connections anyway)
Also, they did not use the sleepers and stayed in hotels overnight, typically from 21:00 to 08:00 each day as they were aiming for a maximum of 16 hours travelling each day (so as not to breach any EU rules on breaks), and then to top it off they did not travel on any Sunday
 
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