Morning. It's eight minutes past five,
been up since 4:30
I'm at Watford Junction.
'cause there are some mornings when you
wake up and you think,
I wonder how long it would take me to get around all 112
London Overground stations.
So we're doing it
(upbeat music)
So my planned route for the day is to start at Watford,
come down into Euston, cross London
over to Battersea and Clapham
Knock out the Richmond and Shepherds Busg branches, go over
the top of the North London line
down the East London line and do Clapham
Crystal Palace and West Croydon
not forgetting New Cross on the way back up to Liverpool Street
where I've then got to do the three branches out to
Enfield, Cheshunt and Chingford then nip out east
to ride between Romford and Upminster to do Emerson Park and
then finish by riding the whole of the Gospel Oak to Barking line in one go
starting at barking and finishing at Upper Hollaway
The train
it is! H eading for Euston to tick off the
Watford branch
going to a very awkward station to get it out of the way early
Next station - Headstone Lane
Yeah it's Battersea Park, easily the Overground's most awkward
station due to its limited service
Alright, onto the Southern train.
That'll take me one stop to Battersea Park
And this overground train here is and i'm smiling, a little smug smile
because I'm just relieved and very happy to have made
it because it's the most awkward one to catch.
Can you see here between Wandsworth Road and Clapham Junction
it's not on the map.
If you also look on a standard tube map,
Battersea park is not shown because it gets limited service.
Yeah, so Battersea park is a valid
London overground station
It's just really awkwardly served
And that is why I started at
Watford Junction this morning at 5:13
(funky music)
So I've got a fifteen minute wait here at Wandsworth Road
I'm going to go to Clapham and then get a train to Richmond
and pick up the Richmond branch.
Richmond, eleven minutes past seven.
That gave me ten minutes to get some breakfast and a cup of tea
Over to platform 4
So we'll get this one and go up to Willesden Junction
and change there
And there's a tiny bit of light in the sky
the sun should be rising
hopefully in the next 20 to 30 minutes
(funky music)
Willesden Junction.
Oh there's a train leaving
(laughs) Where's that going?
Annoyingly. I think that was a Clapham train,
which means I'll have to wait for the next one
But whilst I wait, there's an amazing sunrise.
So it's not all bad
It's 8:05. The sun has risen
I'm at Imperial Wharf i'm reversing
it's weird, 'cause you have to exit the gate line here
tap out and then re tap in to change platforms as a separate
gate line for each platform. Going to head back
north through Willesden Junction again on train
towards Stratford
(upbeat music)
'cause I was at Wandsworth Road this morning.
What I'm going to do is come down through Peckham and Denmark Hill
And if I get out at Wandsworth Road, that's no good
If I go to Clapham that would get me a train to West Croydon
but what's probably quicker is that I get out of town,
Clapham High Street dash across to
Clapham North underground,
go a couple of stops down to Balham pick up national rail
there and come down into West Croydon from Balham
That will probably be
I hope will be quicker than going to going back to Clapham
So it's 10:40
made it to West Croydon
(laughs) I'm really tired
And I'm starting to think, what am I doing?
So it's six hours, and I just counted
at Crystal Palace it's 61 stations
So I'm averaging about ten stations an hour
So at 112 stations
that's going to take 11 hours
(smooth music)
Hello
It's a familiar face
Oh yeah. I bought you some orange line treats
mini cheddars
Yeah so these
oh to match orange juice. Oranges, yeah
and some Reece's
Which is cause it's orange.
I'm at Liverpool street. I want
I need to do the Enfield town. The Chingfield, Chingfield?
yeah, that's right Geoff
I'm so tired, don't ever do this on the 05:13
(upbeat music)
313 Bus from Chingford to Southbury
Don't ever do this. This is exhausting
So the voice has gone, my voice has really gone
Made it to Southbury
It's just got one o'clock that means been going for ...
... eight hours?
Eight hours
I thought I was going to finish this a 9. I'm not,
it's going to be at least ten and it might even be eleven
Go up to Cheshunt and back
jump over to the Enfield Town branch
Knock out the two by Hackney
get over to Emerson park and then come back and finish on
the Gospel Oak barking line
It might even be twelve hours
Yeah (laughs)
This is not a fast time
(upbeat music)
1:27 made it to Chesthunt. Cheshunt?
Cheshunt. is the 13:31 back out again
Okay, to the bus stop
My bus app says I'm at Crown Road and there's a 121
in one minute that the train leaves from
Enfield Town, in nine minutes
(upbeat music)
London Fields
followed by Cambridge Heath
then changing from Hackney downs to Hackney Central by
walking along, relatively new interchange corridor
Then this train to take me to Stratford where I then get
onto a purple train, which was really busy until everybody
almost everybody got out at Ilford
But that brings me here to Romford where I change onto this
overground train so that I can go and tick off
Emerson Park Thanks!
And so at Upminster
We just get the tube down to Barking and onto the Gospel Oak
and barking line for the last train
The last train (laughs)
And I'll finish at Upper Holloway
it's now 4:45 it's been an exceedingly long day
it's been over 11 hours and I'm at
Upper Holloway, London Overground station
which is the last of all 112 overground stations
However, a twist in the tale
somehow I missed the fact that all day the Gospel Oak to Barking line
has been out of action
A freight train derailed at 6am this morning
And upon getting to barking earlier from Upminster
there were no trains, nothing at all
Apparently something was running between South Tottenham and
Gospel Oak earlier I asked
but I've got here via DLR and a bus from Caledonian road and Barnsbury
And so I think my tally is 102 out of 112
I looked though on journey planner
what should have happened is that when I got to barking
I should have been in time to get the 15:48
and that would have got me here at 16:11
Which means if I started at 5:13 this morning
I think that's my total time would have been 11 hours and
four minutes, which still isn't even very good
I think on the leaderboard where only like seven people have
been recorded, I come eighth
So I didn't even get like nine or tem hours
I was just over eleven hours
So just over eleven hours and failed to complete by missing out
these stations because the Gospel Oak to Barking line isn't running
I'm just going to have to laugh about it because otherwise
I'll just cry
I cannot tell you how tired I am and how exhausted I am and
how I've got to the end and foiled at the end Sometimes ...
that's just what happens.
I got nothing