Time for the Valley Lines reports to start flooding in!
As you may be aware, there were serious delays through the core of the Valley Lines network towards the end of the afternoon, which were caused by a points failure somewhere between Central and Queen Street which resulted in most traffic running south from Queen Street using Platform 3 (thereby causing disruption to the otherwise independent Bay line). This was a bitterly disappointing finale to what was otherwise a very enjoyable Challenge - the forum's first in Wales.
bb21, gnolife and yorkie were largely unaffected, as their plan saw them returning from Maesteg at the end. This, coupled with the delays and a couple of other things saw them home with what was probably the biggest winning margin in the forum's history - ~
15 points! This of course means that bb21 and gnolife, who were working together for the third time, maintained their 100% record in RailUK Challenges - but it wasn't as straightforward as it sounds. Indeed, had everything worked out exactly as everyone had planned, what was probably the biggest win in the forum's history would actually have been the narrowest victory in the forum's history, at just three minutes - and with a different outcome! (I shall go into detail about that later.)
Ultimately the delays were so bad that we had to bend the rules for disqualification. The usual 30 minute timings applied, but instead of disqualification being applied at that point a new method of further penalty points was applied. This means that the winning margin wasn't the only record set today, as two teams were deducted a
double-figure number of points...
I shall post my team's report tomorrow. For now guys, feel free to comment as you please! I can however confirm that at least one attendee is a happy man tonight after a certain result at Twickenham (no prizes for guessing who).
See you all in London on the 11th of April! And speaking of which, some important developments will be posted soon.
Oh, and for everyone that knew of the problem, which was everyone - my foot is not any better. I shall go into detail about that tomorrow as well.
My day started at 0715, ready for the bus at 0801. I was feeling confident about how the day would progress and felt better than I had done for a long time, including Manchester (when I had to walk the University driveway). This time of course I was on the first bus of the day from the campus and easily changed on to the X39 bus to Bristol. And at Temple Meads I had plenty of time to buy my ticket, get a bite to eat and make my way up to Platform 5 for the 0854 to Cardiff.
I was the first to arrive in Cardiff. It wasn't long before
lewisrday arrived on the scene though, for he was travelling on the 0947 HST bound for Swansea (via a "cheeky" CrossCountry First Class journey from Southampton to Reading), and before long the group numbered five as
gnolife,
JoeGJ1984 and
telstarbox all arrived on the same 0957 service from Manchester. The five us all went off to purchase our Valley Lines Day Explorer tickets, except gnolife who had already so, and then it was on to Cardiff Bay for what we hoped would be a lovely sojourn on the Bubble.
It wasn't to be. 153303 turned up in its place.
We were all disappointed, but continued down to the Bay anyway. A quick photo shoot and a look around outside came and went and before long we were back at Queen Street, and then on to Central ready for the agreed 1030 rendezvous. And at Central we soon ran into
Ascot, leaving just the staff members who were coming along for the day -
bb21 and
yorkie, both of whom were joining up with gnolife. We also learned that
Greenback would be coming along. In time, they also arrived - and after a bit of an argument of whether the Challenge rule of synchronising watches should have taken place ('twas nice to be able to overrule the Moderators
), and also a quick chat with
Flamingo who had arrived at Central on duty, on my suggestion we all headed up to Platforms 6 and 7 to await our first Valley Lines services. Little did I know that in doing so I had made it possible for two teams to travel on the 1101 to Bargoed - a mistake that, had everything run smoothly for all teams, would have cost my team the victory! (The multiple-member teams both expected scores of 51, with my team's time a grand total of three minutes faster - but in allowing bb21 and co. to use the 1101 to Bargoed they would have acquired Gilfach Fargoed which would have made all the difference.) For the record, this was done because I had iniitially planned to use the 1101 to Penarth, but given I had been planning this it was only fair for everyone to have the advantage. It was present in the main thread for long enough!
1100 came - and bb21, gnolife and yorkie all jumped straight on to the 1101 Pacer to bargoed. Joe then attempted to join them, but the door quite literally closed in his face. Not sure what he made of that...! Of it went, leaving my team, Greenback (who was joining us for the first while) and Lewis, who had made a mistake a not joining the others on their way up to Rhymney via change at Bargoed. Instead, my team - the only one not starting on the Rhymney line - opted for the City Line to Radyr.
On to Radyr and a slightly early arrival which made an optimistic -1 connection easy. We went down to Llandaf, ready for the trek to Coryton (it is much shorter from Llandaf and cost us only a couple of minutes) - when trouble hit home. The danger with this walk was always going to be whether my ankles would stand up to it, because they have become extremely weak over the last three or four years - and, of course, they didn't. It was easier to run than walk! The others, including Greenback, went off ahead, and I tried a stop-start strategy to keep up.
It wasn't enough. The other guys made it to Coryton two minutes too late - and our plan was in tatters. Time for Plan B, which involved reversing our Valley circular route, and a nasty +1 at Queen Street. OK, so it was only cross-platform - but a +1 is still a +1. And when you have a slow conductor who causes you to lose two seconds on the journey from Coryton, you won't make it. So it was on to Plan C. (For the record, Valley experts will know that as a result of missing the 1145 from Coryton we ended up on the same Pacer we were on to Radyr...)
We decided to head up to Bargoed, where we would catch the bus to Merthyr. The xx16 journeys from Central end at Rhymney, giving a leisurely +16 change to the bus there. Ours was about the same - at Bargoed. D'oh. Greenback left us here, in search of a pub where he watch the Six Nations match between England and Wales at Twickenham, leaving the team on an adventure all round the houses in Rhymney and via the Merthyr ASDA store (which became a running joke through the day for all) and the hospital on to the bus station, where we faced a +3 connection. Not going to happen. Instead, it was into the Tourist Information Centre (in Merthyr?) and Wetherspoon's (meaning Greenback should have stayed with us a bit longer), and via a burger van for me in time for the 1508 back south. (Note that this was the only walk of the day of more than five minutes that my left foot stood up to!)
On to the 143 down south, with us expecting to change at Barry Docks and to return to Cardiff. Doing so would have resutled in a total loss of 10 points, which wouldn't have been a total disaster, so we were happy and fairly confident of attaining 2nd. Down we went, with Ascot remarking at the size of Pontypridd station (the previous limit of my experience on the western Valley lines), and through Radyr and Llandaf once more - when suddenly, we stopped. And waited. And waited some more. And in time, the driver got out! Something was seriously wrong!
We soon found that there had been a points failure between Queen Street and Central. Lovely. We slowly plodded on, and after about half-an-hour finally reached Queen Street where we bailed out and agreed to go down to the Bay for one last point and walk from there. As it turned out, the Bay line as suspended (which we didn't know at the time). Some amusement from watching the points spirng back-and-forth later we agreed to just walk back to Central in an effort to avoid any time penalties.
We returned to Central at 16:57 - and no-one was there! It took almost 15 minutes to walk that, not helped by foot playing up owards the end (again), but we were on-time - and no-one else was.
SickyNicky came along at almost precisely 17:00, as he was joining us for the meal - but no challengers. However, before too long bb21 and co. turned up, incurring a two-point penalty, but everyone knew they had won - they had just returned from Maesteg and thus avoided most of the trouble.
And so we waited for Lewis and Joe.
And waited.
And waited some more.
We eventually gave up and headed straight to Filini's restaurant. They eventually arrived, where the official announcement of the victory was made, but I guess bb21 and co. won't be too pleased with the nature of their victory - even if in practice they would have won without the delays.
A bit of restaurant and bar jumping later, and it was eventually time to say goodbye. I had the embarrassment of having to use the lifts at the Central to avoid injuring my foot any more - by this time I was dragging my left foot through the streets of Cardiff as though it was on a skateboard - and off I went on the 12:00, leaving bb21 and yorkie to join their bus for Newport.
All in all, a good day - but a day littered with trouble. Still, a fun thing to do, and nice to finally have a de facto home Challenge for this end of my life!
See you all in London on the 11th of April!