Merseyside Challenge 07/03/20

[AntoniC]

As this is my area I participated along with Polarbear & JBuchannanGB.
As is usual we didnt have a plan , we were out to have fun !! (which we did !).

We went :
Lime St (Lower Level) > New Brighton
New Brighton > Birkenhead North
Birkenhead North > West Kirkby (to claim the bonus points)
West Kirkby to Lime St
Lime St to St Helens Junction (and back)
Lime St to Newton-Le Willows (and back)
Lime St to Liverpool South Parkway
South Parkway to Sandhills
Sandhills to Maghull North
Maghull North to Walton then walked to Rice Lane (to claim the bonus points)
Rice Lane to Kirby
and finally Kirby to Moorfields
Along the way we hooked up with Felix the Cat at one of our many Lime St stops !
We scored 57 points, which was great for a day out and not taking the challenge seriously !
It was then down to the Pizza Express for a lovely (and cheap !) 2 course meal.
It was nice to put faces to names (Hi Felix, Matthew S, Gray104) and overall it was a great day out !
(The reason why we didnt go to Ormskirk/Chester is I have a Merseyrail All Zones Trio and Maghull North/Hooton are the boundary stations and I am to tight to buy a saveaway !).
I really do recommend doing a challenge to meet other Forumites !

 

[Statto]

My trip was, i ended up on my own, but wasn't to bothered, had my headphones on.
10.05 Lime Street-Liverpool South Parkway
10.24 Liverpool South Parkway-Southport
12.34 Ormskirk-Kirkdale
12.59 Kirkdale-Liverpool Central via Kirkby
13.35 Liverpool Central-Birkenhead North via New Brighton
14.22 Birkenhead North-Hamilton Square via West Kirby
15.20 Hamilton Square-Hooton via Chester
16.19 Hooton-Moorfields via Ellesmere Port

I did 67 stations, including the 2 bonus stations so 77 points out of a total of 102[there's 92 stations in total in the saveaway area, i forgot to count Meols Cop, Rainford, Heswall, Upton & Hough Green, when adding the total amount of stations when i met up last night my excuse i was looking at the diagram in the timetables, rather than the actual map.], arrived at Moorfields at 17.20, made a 1 minute connection at Kirkdale, longest wait was 9 minutes at Hooton as the 16.19 was 2 late, 2 late was the most i was delayed by

I caught the Arriva 385 bus, at 11.38 Southport Morrisons to Ormskirk, had i not done this & caught the 11.28 from Southport instead, i'd have ended up at Ormskirk at 12.37
`
I didn't stay for the meal[already full after the full Breakfast i had before we started], caught the 17.36 from Moorfields & ended up in my local having a few beers by 18.10.

I didn't need to buy a saveaway as i have a Merseytravel issued ENCTS pass, so cost me nothing.

 

[Mag_seven]

Who won?

 

[Esker-pades]

The Winning Formula:

• Start 20 minutes late
• Have a train cancelled
• Miss another connection
• Give up
• Go to Southport

I'm being slightly flippant, but that was my day in Merseyside.

Coming from Edinburgh, I arrived in Lime Street at 10:19.

The first shift was to West Kirby (18), and then back to Conway Park. I did the run to Birkenhead Central for the points (23) and then went down to Chester (39). At that point, I was supposed to catch a train to Earlestown to pick up a stopping service back to Liverpool. Sadly, Northern had cancelled that move. I decided to pop back to Hooton to pick up Capenhurst (which my train to Chester had not stopped at). As I approached Hooton, the train I was supposed to get back to Chester passed me. I thus abandoned the challenge at 40 with a call to yorkie.

I made my way back to Lime Street to meet up with @AntoniC , @Polarbear , and @JBuchananGB . We caught an 802 to Newton-le-Willows, then caught a 331 back to Lime Street. There, we got a fast service to South Parkway and a stopping service from there on the Northern Line back to Liverpool. I decided to continue Southport, while they changed at Sandhills to explore the Ormskirk and Kirkby branches.

I arrived back at Sandhills with 76 points, and, with an hour to spare, caught the first train that presented itself. It was an Ormskirk service. I got it to Maghull North, went back to Walton, walked to Rice Lane for the bonus points, and caught a train back to Moorfields to meet with the group. I arrived at Moorfields at 17:28, 2 minutes before the deadline. I had 89 points.

I had a nice starter with the rest of the group, before I hurried off to go back to Edinburgh.

Spoiler: Day & Timings in Full

LIV - START / 10:23:23 (1)
LVC - 10:24:42 / 10:25:10 (2)
LVJ - 10:26:39 /C/ 10:30:28 (3)
BKQ - 10:33:20 / 10:33:42 (4)
CNP - 10:35:24 / 10:35:46 (5)
BKP - 10:37:42 / 10:38:06 (6)
BKN - 10:40:16 / 10:40:43 (7)
BID - 10:42:52 / 10:43:15 (8)
LSW - 10:45:08 / 10:45:34 (9)
MRT - 10:47:03 / 10:47:22 (10)
MEO - 10:50:07 / 10:50:31 (11)
MNR - 10:52:14 / 10:52:41 (12)
HYK - 10:54:16 / 10:54:47 (13)
WKI - 10:58:18 / 11:06:13 (18)
(Back to CNP)
Walk to BKC (23)
BKC - NA / 11:39:26 (24)
GNL - 11:40:58 / 11:41:29 (25)
RFY - 11:43:33 / 11:44:03 (26)
BEB - 11:46:08 / 11:46:40 (27)
PSL - 11:48:14 / 11:48:48 (28)
SPI - 11:50:11 / 11:50:51 (29)
BMR - 11:52:15 / 11:52:43 (30)
BOM - 11:54:03 / 11:55:20 (31)
ERA - 11:57:17 / 11:57:49 (32)
HOO - 11:59:22 / 12:00:15 (33)
BAC - 12:08:55 / 12:09:25 (34)
CTR - 12:12:48 /C/ 12:15:49 (39)
(BAC)
CPU - 12:25:03 / 12:25:25 (40)
(Onwards to LIV)
(Onwards to NLW)
NLW - 13:45:42 /C/ 13:52:57 (41)
ERL - 13:55:02 / 13:55:45 (42)
SHJ - 13:59:14 / 13:59:59 (43)
LEG - 14:01:54 / 14:02:43 (44)
RNH - 14:05:09 / 14:05:55 (45)
WHN - 14:08:12 / 14:08:44 (46)
HUY - 14:11:09 / 14:11:52 (47)
ROB - 14:13:24 / 14:14:48 (48)
BGE - 14:17:02 / 14:17:52 (49)
WAV - 14:19:59 / 14:20:50 (50)
EDG - 14:23:13 / 14:24:03 (51)
(LIV)
LPY - 14:45:11 /C/ 14:54:48 (52)
CSG - 14:56:28 / 14:57:06 (53)
AIG - 14:58:25 / 14:59:11 (54)
STM - 15:01:12 / 15:01:57 (55)
BRW - 15:04:04 / 15:04:43 (56)
(LVC)
MRF - 15:11:33 / 15:12:13 (57)
SDL - 15:15:02 / 15:15:42 (58)
BAH - 15:17:27 / 15:17:59 (59)
BOT - 15:19:38 / 15:20:08 (60)
BNW - 15:21:11 / 15:21:48 (61)
SFL - 15:23:30 / 15:24:02 (62)
WLO - 15:25:57 / 15:26:33 (63)
BLN - 15:28:25 / 15:28:56 (64)
HLR - 15:30:34 / 15:31:09 (65)
HTO - 15:33:51 / 15:34:16 (66)
FBY - 15:37:11 / 15:38:01 (67)
FRE - 15:39:40 / 15:40:16 (68)
ANS - 15:43:49 / 15:44:30 (69)
HIL - 15:46:49 / 15:47:21 (70)
BDL - 15:49:13 / 15:49:49 (71)
SOP - 15:53:24 /C/ 15:58:09 (76)
(Back to SDL)
KKD - 16:39:55 / 16:41:25 (77)
WAO - 16:43:26 / 16:43:50 (78)
OPK - 16:44:56 / 16:45:28 (79)
AIN - 16:47:06 / 16:47:34 (80)
ORN - 16:49:09 / 16:49:43 (81)
MAG - 16:52:08 / 16:52:49 (82)
MNS - 16:54:27 /C/ 16:58:07 (83)
(Back to WAO)
Walk to RIL (88)
RIL - NA / 17:18:34 (89)
(Onwards to MRF)

@yorkie would like me to point out that challenge days are mainly a fun day out. The group I met up with for a couple of hours in the middle had no plan and just went where their connections and desires took them. Given that I abandoned my attempt proper 2 hours in, and yet still won, you don't have to have a detailed plan. A previous challenge was won by @Mag_seven 's plan which was, as he said, compiled mainly by choosing the next train that went somewhere different. Come along and have fun.

 

[Statto]

I forgot about the walks, Conway Park-Birkenhead Central, & Walton-Rice Lane, but my connections were quite tight so wouldn't have gone through as many stations as i did go through had i did the walks, i'd have missed either Ellesmere Port or Chester.

For me was just a bit of fun & a day out, still quite pleased i went through 67 stations[before the bonus points were added for West Kirby & Southport] in the allotted time, i was saying when we first met up before the start, that Ellesmere Port rather than West Kirby should have been the other bonus point station, given the 30 minute frequency