Railway General Knowledge.

[krus_aragon]

Where the station buildings sold off for private use?

No. At least not in the year specified.

Next station:
St Rollox goods (1898)

 

[Cowley]

Did the original passenger stations become goods only with the buildings being incorporated into goods depots?

 

[krus_aragon]

Did the original passenger stations become goods only with the buildings being incorporated into goods depots?

No, but there was another transformation. And the transformation wasn't desirable.

Next station:
Landore (1874)

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

Did they all get burnt down or destroyed somehow?

 

[krus_aragon]

Did they all get burnt down or destroyed somehow?

Bingo!
These are all stations which burned down, generally burned to the ground due to their wooden construction.

(hese are all events I found mentioned in the Welsh-medium newspaper archive of the NLW. It's interesting to note that so many of the stations reported were outside Wales: many weekly regional papers of the time ran stories from each others' columns.

Your razed floor...

 

[Calthrop]

A week has gone by: might declaring "open floor" be reckoned appropriate? (I've got a question, if so...)

 

[krus_aragon]

I believe an open floor is most appropriate. What have you got for us?

 

[Calthrop]

My thanks !

In the early / mid-1920s, Captain John Howey and his fellow-wealthy-enthusiast Count Louis Zborowski investigated assorted possible venues in England, for realising their dream of a 15in. gauge railway of respectable magnitude -- whether "from scratch", or adapting an existing line -- before Howey finally conceived of and created the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.

What was the other coastal location for a brand-new 15in. gauge line of fairish length; which was considered but rejected, before the RH&D was settled on?

 

[Calthrop]

Hint: this line, if it had come to be, would have approached close to (without any actual association with) a renownedly quaint and charming standard-gauge light railway which remained privately owned after the Grouping.

 

[theageofthetra]

Hint: this line, if it had come to be, would have approached close to (without any actual association with) a renownedly quaint and charming standard-gauge light railway which remained privately owned after the Grouping.

Rye & Camber tramway? . Oh scrap that it was narrow gauge.

Thinking about it I thought Howey looked at extending the Ravenglass & Eskdale but that of course was also narrow gauge.

The only other one could be the Selsey Tramway- but the plan there was to take it over completely.

 

[Calthrop]

Please note, in original question: "brand-new 15in, gauge line": as opposed to the considered-but-not-done latchings-on-to the R & E, and the Selsey aka West Sussex. And -- the standard-gauge light railway mentioned (another of Colonel Stephens's), was not directly involved in any plan of Howey's -- my mention of it, just as a geographical "pointer". Further hint: big-companies-wise, the answer's venue was in Great Western territory.

 

[Cowley]

I’ve read One Mans Railway but I can’t find it in the house at the moment, so as a guess then - Was it somewhere around Western Super Mare?

 

[Calthrop]

Right -- I believe the scheme didn't get far enough advanced for a fully-precise route to be laid out: but line would have served the Brean Sands area on the Bristol Channel coast: in between (in general terms) Weston-Super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea. Making connection with the GWR main line was seen, at Brent Knoll station.

Mr. Cowley, the role of miniature-railway inaugurator in virgin territory, goes to you.

 

[Cowley]

Right -- I believe the scheme didn't get far enough advanced for a fully-precise route to be laid out: but line would have served the Brean Sands area on the Bristol Channel coast: in between (in general terms) Weston-Super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea. Making connection with the GWR main line was seen, at Brent Knoll station.

Mr. Cowley, the role of miniature-railway inaugurator in virgin territory, goes to you.

Thanks. I’m rather busy this afternoon so I’d better say open floor.

 

[Welshman]

Two weeks have gone by, so try this:-

What is the Stockport-family connection between a railway hero and a television hospital administrator?

 

[Calthrop]

Two weeks have gone by, so try this:-

What is the Stockport-family connection between a railway hero and a television hospital administrator?

Sudden possible idea (grandson got by Googling -- I don't watch telly): actor John Axon (1960 - 2008), grandson of loco driver John Axon, died heroically in accident on 9 / 2 / 1957 ?

 

[Welshman]

Sudden possible idea (grandson got by Googling -- I don't watch telly): actor John Axon (1960 - 2008), grandson of loco driver John Axon, died heroically in accident on 9 / 2 / 1957 ?

Correct - the grandson played Nigel Harper in the series The Royal.
Well done

 

[Calthrop]

Correct - the grandson played Nigel Harper in the series The Royal.
Well done

Thanks -- my floor, then, I figure.

Once upon a time (well within living memory) there was a despotically-ruled country with an antiquated rail system which gave much pleasure to railway-enthusiast visitors from abroad. There was then a favourite "meme" among -- oppressed-and-suppressed -- political opponents of the regime, to the effect that leaders of the religion overwhelmingly adhered to by the inhabitants, which leaders were high in the councils of the state; were at pains to use their influence, to keep the country's railways archaic and inefficient -- in pursuance of their aim that the country should continue to be benighted and backward.

Which country was this, and in which era?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It wasn't Albania towards the end of the 20th Century was it..?

 

[Calthrop]

It wasn't Albania towards the end of the 20th Century was it..?

Interesting thought, but no -- Albania's railways were, I believe, overwhelmingly diesel from their (late) inception...

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Iran?

 

[Calthrop]

Not Iran. East isn't the direction to go...

 

[theageofthetra]

Haiti?

 

[Calthrop]

Haiti?

No. Not a wildly-exotic location; in fact, relatively near home from our point of view.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

What about Cuba, then?

 

[nicolaboo]

Argentina 1960s?

 

[theageofthetra]

Romania?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Zimbabwe?

 

[Calthrop]

"None of the above". Literally, closer to home than any of them.

 

[krus_aragon]

Franco's Spain?