D6130
Established Member
Wharves?
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Railway General Knowledge.
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Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Berths?
...a term still in railway use today!!
...a term still in railway use today!!
Oh ok. I’d forgotten about this one and now I’m panicking thinking of a question.
A bit of a cop out, but open floor please!
D6130
Established Member
I'll jump in if I may:
In which year - within the last fifty years - were there three major rail accidents in France which prompted a wide-ranging review of rail safety in that country?
In which year - within the last fifty years - were there three major rail accidents in France which prompted a wide-ranging review of rail safety in that country?
Gloster
Veteran Member
1984?
D6130
Established Member
Close....but not quite close enough!
Gloster
Veteran Member
1985?
D6130
Established Member
That's the one:
St Pierre-de-Vouvray (level crossing collision causing derailment)
Argenton-sur-Creuse (derailment caused by over speeding)
and - three days later - Flaujac (head-on collision on single line between Paris-Rodez overnight sleeper and local DMU)
....all resulting in multiple fatalities.
Your turn to hold an accident enquiry.
Gloster
Veteran Member
When passenger services were withdrawn from the former Midland & Great Northern Joint lines in early 1959 one section remained open. Which? (N.b. I am not including the former Norfolk & Suffolk Joint.)
Peterthegreat
Established Member
Cromer to Sheringham and Melton Constable.
Last edited:
martinsh
Established Member
Cromer to Norwich via Melton Constable
Gloster
Veteran Member
That is now the correct answer. I won’t insist on including the from from Newstead Lane Junction to Cromer. Sheringham-Melton Constable closed in December 1964 and the station at Sheringham was moved east in January 1967.
To you to set the next question.
Not questions-taking-part here -- just a bit of pedantry (I'm a little obsessed with the M & GN) -- in fact, passenger services Sheringham -- M.C. were withdrawn w.e.f. April 6th 1964; the end of freight workings, and thus complete closure, was -- as above -- in last days of December that year.
Gloster
Veteran Member
Traffic to Lenwade via the 1960 curve at Themelthorpe lasted until 1983.
I was aged ten at the time of the 1959 M & GN "holocaust" -- we lived toward the western end of the system: I missed out on travelling on the great majority of the system east of King's Lynn. I can boast -- with a pretty small modicum of pride -- of having "bagged" the short middle section of the Norwich branch, Themelthorpe to Lenwade, on a railtour some time in the 1970s: sadly, this took place after the Lenwade -- Norwich City stretch had been abandoned.
Peterthegreat
Established Member
Thank you for your memories of the M & GN.
Time for the next question.
What is the world's second oldest surviving steam locomotive?
Time for the next question.
What is the world's second oldest surviving steam locomotive?
Gloster
Veteran Member
The Rocket?
Peterthegreat
Established Member
Not The Rocket?
Peterthegreat
Established Member
Not locomotion either.
Gloster
Veteran Member
Is it an American one called Charleston’s Friend (or something similar)?
Peterthegreat
Established Member
No. It was built in Britain.
I’m pretty sure Puffing Billy exists and is probably the oldest surviving loco. I bet it’s some kind of obscure colliery locomotive from the north east or somewhere similar. No idea what that would be called though!
Peterthegreat
Established Member
Puffing Billy is indeed the oldest surviving steam locomotive.
The second oldest was built a year or so later by the same manufacturer.
Peterthegreat
Established Member
My answer was "blind guessing, not knowledge": had long ago come across the name, and it had stuck in my mind, as pleasingly bonkers. Thank you, anyway (you may come to regret the invitation 
).
There is a large country whose main public rail system has always been on the 3ft. 6in. gauge; but which long had (none, I think, now surviving) lesser lines of the essentially 600mm / 2ft. gauge "family": this used largely for agricultural light railways -- but also, over a number of decades, for (non-electric) urban tram routes in the country's capital.
Please name the country concerned.
).There is a large country whose main public rail system has always been on the 3ft. 6in. gauge; but which long had (none, I think, now surviving) lesser lines of the essentially 600mm / 2ft. gauge "family": this used largely for agricultural light railways -- but also, over a number of decades, for (non-electric) urban tram routes in the country's capital.
Please name the country concerned.
D6130
Established Member
South Africa?
Not my answer-country -- but might have nevertheless qualified; had it not been for S.A.'s long-standing weirdness of having a multiplicity of capital cities: none of which have had, to the best of my knowledge, 2ft. gauge passenger steam-tram services. Answer-country has and has had, just the one capital, "no messing": but you've picked the right continent.