Railway General Knowledge.

[AlterEgo]

I'm afraid we were after the elevation of the station, not the land next to it... A railway embankment doesn't have contour marks.

SAD is 154m above sea level.

I ran this quiz some years ago when I worked for a TOC social media outfit and the answer was gleaned from copies of the original technical drawings from our facilities team.

So there you have it.

 

[martinsh]

Really ? That would make the station about 15m above street level !!

 

[backontrack]

Open floor? Then I'll take it.

Give the next two terms of the sequence: P, H, C, K, S

 

[Springs Branch]

..... Give the next two terms of the sequence: P, H, C, K, S

I think it's time for a clue for this one.

 

[DaleCooper]

Open floor? Then I'll take it.

Give the next two terms of the sequence: P, H, C, K, S

Are they GWR classes - Prince, Hall, Castle, King, Star - the final two possibly being Queen and Manor?

 

[TheEdge]

Seeing as our question setter hasn't appeared back for 4 days can we declare an open floor?
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Right, question was set on the 15th, it's now the 21st and we have had no reply. I have contacted social services and am taking this quiz into care. And setting a new question.

Which company has been the longest serving train operstor on the UK rail network?

 

[DasLunatic]

I believe that would be South West Trains. They were given their franchise in February 1996 and are still incumbent.

 

[t_star2001uk]

****************

 

[krus_aragon]

Which company has been the longest serving train operstor on the UK rail network?

As we're talking in the past tense, I'll put forward the Great Western Railway Company, operating trains for 109 years from 1838 until 1947.
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Alternatively, depending on your definition of the "UK rail network", how about the Ffestiniog Railway, operating trains from 1836 to 1946, and 1955 to date, for a total of 177 years of trains under the same company.

 

[TheEdge]

As we're talking in the past tense, I'll put forward the Great Western Railway Company, operating trains for 109 years from 1838 until 1947.
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Alternatively, depending on your definition of the "UK rail network", how about the Ffestiniog Railway, operating trains from 1836 to 1946, and 1955 to date, for a total of 177 years of trains under the same company.

I used the past tense to suggest not to think about newer companies and the answer I was after was indeed the GWR (the proper one! ).

Operated trains from 1838 to 1946 but existed as a company from 1835 until 1949. Your floor.

 

[krus_aragon]

I thought I might be giving an unexpected or obtuse answer. I'm surprised that it's the one you had in mind!

Next question: I'm stood at a railway station and hear “Y trên nesaf i gyrraedd platfform pump fydd y ...” (The next train to arrive at platform five will be the ...) before the noise of a passing train drowns out the sound of the announcrment. Where am I?

 

[DasLunatic]

You'd be at Cardiff Queen Street. You'd be waiting for the 1908 to Treherbert as an ECS working passes through P3.

 

[krus_aragon]

You'd be at Cardiff Queen Street. You'd be waiting for the 1908 to Treherbert as an ECS working passes through P3.

Cardiff Queen Street is correct. I hadn't gone a far as considering a particular service. (I haven't actually been to Cardiff since P5 opened.)

My prompt for this question was the fact that there is only one Platform 5 in all of Wales. The only other station to have at least five platforms, Cardiff Central, has 0,1,2,3,4,6,7, skipping 5. Pure trivia.

Your floor.

 

[DasLunatic]

Attached is an image showing a railway map with current and historic stations.

Name at least twelve of the stations which are now closed.

 

[Calthrop]

Approximate geographical order:

Wickham Bishops; Langford; Maldon East & Heybridge; Maldon West; Inworth; Tiptree; Tolleshunt d'Arcy; Tollesbury; Tollesbury Pier; Brightlingsea; White Colne; Earls Colne; Ardleigh.

 

[DasLunatic]

Those are correct. You could also have had Bradfield, Parkeston Quay West and Harwich.

 

[Calthrop]

Taking my floor: context of the UK's "old" counties before this scene started to be messed-about-with in the 1970s -- which was the first county of the UK to lose, due to abandonments, all of its public railways?

 

[AlterEgo]

Taking my floor: context of the UK's "old" counties before this scene started to be messed-about-with in the 1970s -- which was the first county of the UK to lose, due to abandonments, all of its public railways?

Fermanagh?

 

[BurtonM]

Rutland?

 

[Calthrop]

Fermanagh?

Fermanagh is correct -- basically as from autumn 1957: the Clones - Cavan line, a couple of short bits of which ran through pockets of Fermanagh, lasted for freight till 1959: F. however, still UK's first railway-less county. Your floor.

 

[AlterEgo]

Fermanagh is correct -- basically as from autumn 1957: the Clones - Cavan line, a couple of short bits of which ran through pockets of Fermanagh, lasted for freight till 1959: F. however, still UK's first railway-less county. Your floor.

It was a guess! Ker-ching.

Open floor, as I've no imagination today.

 

[Calthrop]

24 hours-plus, gone by: OK if I set another one?

Out of the several big quasi-private railway companies which ran in France, up to the 1938 nationalisation and formation of SNCF: two amalgamated with each other, a few years prior to nationalisation. Which two?

 

[theageofthetra]

There were a couple of other mergers I believe but I presume you are after Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi?

 

[Calthrop]

There were a couple of other mergers I believe but I presume you are after Chemins de fer de Paris à Orléans et du Midi?

That is in my understanding the big one, in 1934 (the two companies were geographically complementary, and worked closely together even before official amalgamation). Your floor.

 

[theageofthetra]

Keeping the French theme. The French were never shy in trying out innovative & all too often bonkers locomotive designs in the effort to improve efficiency. One particular steam locomotive design had on it battery, electric, diesel-electric, gas turbine, steam turbine and a conventional reciprocating four cylinder compound steam engine-oh and it was also a cab-forward!. Most of these forms of traction were simply to get the contraption started.

What was this design and which pre-SNCF French railway used it?

 

[t_star2001uk]

Was it the Heilmann locomtive operated by Chemins de fer de l'Ouest...

open floor if correct

 

[theageofthetra]

Not that one- that was relatively conventional compared to this.

 

[Cowley]

Is it the Velox Boiler locomotive of 1937? I couldn't even begin to describe how it worked but was complex and able to raise steam very quickly. Open floor if correct.

 

[theageofthetra]

Correct. Its main redeeming feature was it could be started very quickly- the other systems were all needed, roughly in the order I gave, to get it all working. Link attached which begins to explain it in all its lunacy! Quite a good looking loco though and very advanced for the time.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/velox/velox.htm

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Correct. Its main redeeming feature was it could be started very quickly- the other systems were all needed, roughly in the order I gave, to get it all working. Link attached which begins to explain it in all its lunacy! Quite a good looking loco though and very advanced for the time.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/velox/velox.htm

That looks remarkable - what happened to it?