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Cowley

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English Electric made some very large locomotives for export & for home but what was the smallest they constructed?

Correct they did. Other than engineering models I don't believe they made anything smaller. Your floor

Seem to be on roll today, I only knew that because I looked EE up for my question yesterday.

A fairly easy one. A childrens drama series was filmed for the BBC at a certain well known preserved railway and shown in 1980. It featured three generations of the same family, the last episodes being set in World War 2.

What was the series called?
Which railway did it feature?
 

Calthrop

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A fairly easy one. A childrens drama series was filmed for the BBC at a certain well known preserved railway and shown in 1980. It featured three generations of the same family, the last episodes being set in World War 2.

What was the series called?
Which railway did it feature?

"God's Wonderful Railway"; filmed on the Severn Valley Railway?
 

Cowley

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That's the one Mr Calthrop. I was only young when it was first shown (7ish) but I thought it was excellent. As I remember it the young lad had a very dangerous looking tin plate model railway that I think short circuited and caught fire.
The clapper board is yours.
 

Calthrop

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Thanks, Mr. Cowley !

There's a continental European country which long had many privately-owned standard gauge local railways (but little narrow gauge). At the time of its "rail peak", the total kilometrage of private lines was in fact slightly greater, than total ditto of the country's state rail system. This state of affairs went on pretty much permanently: most of the private lines closed down in the third quarter of the 20th century, but some are still in action, and independent, today.

Which country is this?
 

Cowley

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I'll try for Finland, I haven't really got a clue but I'm imagining lots of private forestry railways :)
 

martinsh

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Easy one this ...

Which pre-grouping railway became part of one of the "big four", but was physically isolated from all other lines run by that company ?

[ i.e. through trains had to rely on running powers over one of the other big four companies lines ]
 

Calthrop

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Which pre-grouping railway became part of one of the "big four", but was physically isolated from all other lines run by that company ?

[ i.e. through trains had to rely on running powers over one of the other big four companies lines ]

The Great North of Scotland? "Grouped" into the LNER, but separated by LMS-ex-Caledonian trackage, from the rest of the LNER's (ex-North British) holdings in Scotland.
 

Calthrop

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I fancy this one as being pretty fiendish; but maybe the geniuses here, wiill prove that not to be the case.

What have the following in common?

Tkvibuli; Reichenbach; Porthmadog
 

EbbwJunction1

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Have they all featured as the locations of the final episodes in detective novels or television series?

I don't know about the first one, but Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty "died" at Reichenbach Falls. I haven't seen it, but does Portmadog feature in the BB crime series "Hinterland"?


I think that I'm barking up the wrong tree here, so delete this guess - unless, of course, it's right! I can't think of anything at the moment.
 
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Calthrop

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Two of the three were connected with mining; the third, I don't think so. The linking factor is not in any way mining-related.
 

theageofthetra

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There's a funicular at Reichenbach and the British were involved in developing railways in the Caucusus- did the same contractor build them?
 

Calthrop

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It's not Reichenbach in Switzerland, but a place of the same name in another country.

A pointer: the linking factor is a particular type of steam locomotive.
 

RJ21

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Porthmadog suggests a Double Fairlie link, is that it or is the answer something more precise?
 

Calthrop

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Porthmadog suggests a Double Fairlie link, is that it or is the answer something more precise?

It is indeed about double Fairlies. I do reckon it pretty much of a sod of a question -- if you can provide something just a bit more precise on the relevance here of the loco type; and identify the correct Reichenbach; I'll say, the floor's yours.
 

Calthrop

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I don’t see how I could well provide a further hint, without “telling all”; so I’ll do that thing.

The towns listed are the last venues in their respective countries, where double Fairlies are / have been, in active service. Porthmadog and the Ffestiniog Railway, we are well acquainted with. Tkvibuli in Georgia with its coal mines, terminus of the branch from Rioni, was the last double-Fairlie location – 5ft gauge 0-6-6-0Ts, once common on railways in the Caucasus – in Russia / the USSR (they ran on this line, up to the mid-1930s). Reichenbach (south-east of Gera) was the last such location in Germany; involving what was originally the Saxon State Railways’ short metre-gauge roadside line from there to Oberheinsdorf. This section was served by three double-Fairlie 0-4-4-0Ts, with motion “skirt”-protected and initially with boiler enclosed, steam-tram-fashion; which basic state of affairs continued until the then East German railways abandoned the line in 1963. One of these machines is preserved at Oberheinsdorf.

RJ21: with it being you who raised the double-Fairlie connection, the floor is yours.
 

EbbwJunction1

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As RJ121 hasn't set a question for two days, can I take over, please?

If so, this is a description of what and where?

"Sited on the eastern borders of the town, the xxx xxx at xxx were opened by the xxx xxx in 1901. Principally known locally as 'The Sheds', the buildings at xxx xxx were sufficiently completed for an inspection by the directors on 20 July 1900, although it was not until December 1901 that they were finally in operation. Built in two widely separated sections, at the east end of the site being that for the locomotive shops and the west end for carnage and wagon."

For a bonus point, who opened them?

I must admit, I thought that this wouldn't last very long, so here's a clue: "The location is in South Wales, near a castle." Any thoughts, folks?
 
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Cowley

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How about Carmarthen shed? Wasn't there a Carmarthen and Cardigan railway that was probably taken over by the GWR?
I know Carmarthen has a castle at least :)
 

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