Railway General Knowledge.

[Calthrop]

Glenmutchkin, theageofthetrain: intriguing ideas, both: but you're both way off the mark, I'm afraid; re "where" and "who".

 

[Calthrop]

Hint: a much-acclaimed early-1960s film deals with the episode concerned, of the bod's life; including the part thereof which was bad news for the railway.

 

[martinsh]

Lawrence of Arabia & the Hedjaz Railway ??

 

[Calthrop]

Correct. martinsh Pasha, the next military campaign is yours to initiate.

 

[martinsh]

My mind has gone blank - so Open Floor

 

[Calthrop]

No takers for nearly 36 hours – I’ll have another bash.

Which deeply-rural public line in Great Britain was first planned to be on an unusual narrow gauge; but was in the event opened in mid-to-late 19th century, as an independent standard-gauge line; saw lean years -- culminating in passenger service, then freight too, being withdrawn; was reopened a few years later, under operation by a larger company; taken into one of the Big Four companies at Grouping; passenger service withdrawn in 1931, and final abandonment came in the very early years of British Railways?

 

[martinsh]

I think this has to be the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light Railway ?

 

[theageofthetra]

I think this has to be the Cleobury Mortimer & Ditton Priors Light Railway ?

No idea if that is the right answer but thanks for introducing me to that fascinating line!- those odd panniers with outside cylinders and spark arrestors are just weird.

 

[Calthrop]

Not the delectable CM&DP; but with that, you're not -- geographically speaking -- the proverbial million miles "out".

 

[Calthrop]

Re the narrow gauge on which the line was not, in the end, built: it's a very rare one; but within the basically small geographical area in which the "question" line is located, two public lines have been built and opened on that gauge.

 

[martinsh]

This must be the Mawddwy Railway - I'm guessing originally proposed as 2ft 3in gauge ?

 

[Calthrop]

This must be the Mawddwy Railway - I'm guessing originally proposed as 2ft 3in gauge ?

Bull's-eye ! Your floor.

 

[martinsh]

Which is the largest pre-grouping company to have had all their lines closed to passengers. [but msome may still be open for freight]

NB joint lines (e.g. Somerset & Dorset) don't count

 

[theageofthetra]

Are we including pre-grouping companies in Ireland? If not how about the Isle of Wight Central Railway?

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Which is the largest pre-grouping company to have had all their lines closed to passengers. [but msome may still be open for freight]

NB joint lines (e.g. Somerset & Dorset) don't count

Would that be the Hull & Barnsley?

 

[martinsh]

Would that be the Hull & Barnsley?

Correct - that didn't last long !

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Sorry. I missed that reply. Will be out playing trains all day so Open Floor.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm short of inspiration at the moment; but so does everyone else seem to be! I can offer this one -- once again, rather borderline between “Railway General Knowledge”, and plain "General Knowledge".

What is the link between a long-running cartoon strip in Private Eye; and a GWR Somerset branch line which closed to passengers in the 1930s, and to freight in stages two to three decades later?

 

[theageofthetra]

The only one I can think of is Snipcock & Tweed- surely they weren't the names of stations on the line!

 

[Calthrop]

"If only"... but it's nothing to do with those shady characters.

 

[Calthrop]

Hint: the connection concerns the name of the branch's ultimate terminus. It is also the name of the very different kind of community where the cartoon strip's protagonists live.

 

[johnnychips]

There wasn't a branch to Islington, in Somerset was there? But this tiny settlement is just east of Wells cathedral and doesn't even get a Wikipedia entry. Just thinking of Jez and Quin in 'It's grim up North London' in Private Eye.

 

[Calthrop]

Islington, Somerset, has been hitherto unknown to me -- doesn't even appear in my road atlas -- and can be completely sure, I think, that it never had a branch or station. However; the crucial branch terminus is / was within ten or eleven miles of Wells. And, "grim up North" (without the London) could be a train of thought worth pursuing.

 

[Calthrop]

Further hint: the strip's heroes are exponents of a particular kind of folk-art.

 

[TheEdge]

Something to do with Young British Artists?

 

[DaleCooper]

Wasn't there a strip about clog dancers?

 

[bradford758]

Wasn't there a strip about clog dancers?

The Cloggies by Bill Tidy, early 70s - I had the books. Set in Lancashire, but can't remember the place.

 

[theageofthetra]

Further hint: the strip's heroes are exponents of a particular kind of folk-art.

Is it a current cartoon?

 

[Calthrop]

The Cloggies by Bill Tidy, early 70s - I had the books. Set in Lancashire, but can't remember the place.

I think it's time to put people out of their misery. The Cloggies dwell in the fictional Lancs. town of Blagdon. The one-time terminus (truncated therefrom 1950) of the GW's six-and-a-bit-mile subsidiary branch from Congresbury on the Cheddar Valley line, was the small village of Blagdon. (Who knows whether Tidy borrowed the village's name, or whether he dreamed up the name "Blagdon" independently?) Anyway -- huge contrast between tiny deeply-rural village in the south-west, and gritty industrial town up North.

bradford758, you got the name of the strip; so the floor's yours.

Is it a current cartoon?

I was a bit evil, in that it was quite a long time ago: ran in Private Eye 1967 -- 81, and then in The Listener 1985 -- 86.

 

[Calthrop]

No action for several days; reckoning thus, that it may be deemed "open floor". If I might venture on another --

What was the (short-lived) outstanding peculiarity of the very first rail link between France and Italy?