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Railway General Knowledge.

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Gloster

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Were they through-piped for steam heating?
ventilated? I think steam heating referred to banana vans
Refrigerated?
None of these. The particular characteristic would have been visible from considerably further away than you would need to be to read the vehicle number. You might not notice it at first glance, but then think, “Hang on...”

One hundred of these wagons were built in 1957, but only saw a few years service in their intended traffic and then little, or probably no, further railway use.
 

Gloster

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Each wagon had three bogies?
No.

One hundred wagons were built in 1957 for traffic from Carlisle to two not-so-distant destinations. I am pretty well certain that no other vans with this characteristics were built for BR or, as far I know, for any other British company.
 

Gloster

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End doors, at one end only.

Traffic for Metal Box, I believe.

Regards

Ian
Correct. They looked similar to a normal vanfit and had a normal vanfit-style corrugated end at one end, but no side doors (which is what your eye might pass over without noticing at first, before you think, “Hang on, where are the doors?”) and two cupboard-type doors and a bottom-hinged flap at the other end. They were for the traffic of tin cans from Metal Box at Durranhill in Carlisle to Libby’s creamery at Milnthorpe, south of Kendal, and the Carnation factory at Maxwelltown outside Dumfries.

To you to open the door on the next question.
 

Calthrop

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The Midland section of the Midland & Great Nothern Joint started at Saxby Junction, but ended where?

Regards

Ian
Yarmouth Beach?

If I might beg to differ: Yarmouth Beach was the easternmost extremity of the literal Midland / Great Northern joint part of the system. System was purely Midland at its western end: from Saxby Junction to Little Bytham Junction -- end-on junction with joint trackage, a little way east of where the M&GN route crossed over the East Coast Main, close to the latter's station of Little Bytham.
 

Calthrop

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Thanks. Sticking with joint lines: there was in Great Britain, a joint railway system which made physical connection with no less than three other joint rail concerns; furthermore, this was the case both before, and after, Grouping. Please identify at least approximately, all the "joint" undertakings involved here, with their respective owning companies (for this last, pre-, or post-, Grouping will be acceptable).
 
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martinsh

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I think this has to be the Cheshire Lines Committee (Great Central, Great Northern and Midland), connected with Manchester South Junction and Altrincham (Great Central & LNW) and also Marple, Bollington & Macclesfield (Great Central & North Staffs). I have a feeling that the loop through Widnes had different ownership (GC & Midland ?).

Incidentally, how did the Great Northern access the CLC lines ? They were miles away from any of their other lines.
 

Calthrop

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You think rightly. I find self here with "egg on my face", a bit -- in setting the question, I had overlooked the Widnes Central loop -- truly, just GC and Midland; no GN element. I had been thinking, re the three connecting-with joint lines: MSJ&A and MBM, indeed; and Birkenhead Joint (GW / LNW), connecting from its Hooton -- Helsby line at Helsby Junction just west of Helsby station: with the CLC's section from Mouldsworth (which had passenger services briefly in the 1870s, but continued in use for freight for a great deal longer). So, unbeknownst to me till now, the CLC connected with four different "joint" outfits. You've rightfully named three: the floor's yours.

I learn (via Wiki) that the Great Northern's involvement came from its having, from the late 1850s on, been in a close alliance with the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway, later the Great Central; with which it made physical connection at points in Lincolnshire / Nottinghamshire. The CLC's system was mostly opened during the 1860s: the Cheshire Lines Committee proper came into being in 1867, with an equal number of directors from each of the three constituent companies.
 
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Calthrop

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Winchester, I believe -- the Great Western station in Winchester (Didcot, Newbury & Southampton line). Re-named in '49, to the similar but less odd-sounding Chesil.
 

Calthrop

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Thank you. It's been suggested that I suffer from an obsession with the Irish narrow gauge; wonder whether I can get away with a question about another island in our archipelago, on which 3ft. gauge has held sway?

Concerning the Manx Electric Railway: I'd reckon that everybody knows the chief points on it, as follows: Douglas (Derby Castle); Groudle Glen; Laxey; and Ramsey; and its connecting 3ft. 6in. gauge Snaefell Mountain Railway. Please name three other stopping-points on the Electric Railway's 3ft. gauge main line, which are in use at the present time.
 

Calthrop

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Fairy Cottage is one -- grand ! This question would appear to have proved more of a "stinker", than I'd imagined it would. I count eighteen more open and functioning halts (over and above my mentioned four "big" ones) on the MER; and there have been at least the same number of other ones, now closed. All this in just 17 route miles, would seem to indicate one of the most "halt-rich" lines on Earth !

Any more open halts on the route, from anyone?

@DerekC: I can most warmly recommend the IOM: have been there four times, boast boast -- never in the era of the steam system's Peel and Ramsey lines, alas. In some ways I prefer the Electric Railway, to the steam line as it is nowadays.
 

Calthrop

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Time to draw stumps with this one, I think. @DerekC: you got one of the halts concerned; so the floor's yours. (I'll spare people from a roll-call of the other eighteen !)

@DerekC -- with three legs and no tail, please proceed as suits you.
 

DerekC

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Apologies for not spotting that I had the floor here - so a 1950s spotter's question!

I used to be very fond of the Hill ex-GE N7 0-6-2 tanks which hauled me up and down the Lea Valley on many occasions and squashed my pennies at Cheshunt level crossing. I even got a cab ride once. I also liked the Gresley ex-GN N2s which took me to King's Cross from Cuffley or Crew's Hill although they didn't have the same elegance as an N7. I never saw any of the other Eastern Region 0-6-2Ts although some were still extant in my spotting days.

Who designed the following and for which railway?

N5
N10
N15

The first to get two of them gets the floor.
 

DerekC

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Time for a clue. The N5, N10 and N15 were all built by different LNER constituent companies - and different companies from those that built the N2 and N7- so there aren't that many to guess from!
 

xotGD

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My knowledge extends to saying that one of them must have been designed for the North Eastern.
 

Gloster

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All I can add is that I don’t think the GNSR had any 0-6-2, so it is presumably the GCR, NBR and NER, unless one is the type transferred from the Metropolitan.
 

DerekC

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Time to wrap this one up. Obviously 0-6-2T locomotives of the LNER constituent companies are a bit of a specialist interest! For the record the answers are:

N5 - 1891 design by Thomas Parker for the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. (Last one scrapped in 1960)
N10 - 1902 design by Wilson Worsdell of the North Eastern Railway. (Last one scrapped in 1962)
N15 - 1910 design by William Reid of the North British Railway. (Last one scrapped in 1962)

I really must go and see the surviving N7 on the North Norfolk Railway.

Open floor, I think.
 

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