Railway General Knowledge.

[Marton]

Pioneer level crossing barriers, as opposed to gates?

Correct.

Your floor

 

[Calthrop]

A blind guess on my part -- so, open floor, please.

 

[Marton]

It was the prototype boom installed in 1952

There is a picture here. https://www.google.com/search?q=war...oECBEQAg&biw=414&bih=722#imgrc=4zB2bvyMH-53PM

 

[DerekC]

OK - since it's open floor:

What number is (or rather was) Friday Night?

 

[DerekC]

Time for a hint - it's a GWR question.

 

[341o2]

Is this a play on words "Knight"?

 

[DerekC]

Is this a play on words "Knight"?

You are getting there - keep going!

 

[DerekC]

Time for another hint - Follow the Star.

 

[341o2]

4014 Knight of the Bath?

 

[Y Ddraig Coch]

I can't think and don't know of a train that links this. But could it be to do with either the battle of the boyne and the Gregorian calendar been formed there and "twelfth" sticking still. So may be number 12 ?

 

[DerekC]

Nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar, I am afraid, but..

4014 Knight of the Bath?

… is right on the button! ("Friday Night" was apparently 4014's nickname)

Your open road out of the shed!

 

[341o2]

What does a major UK rail disaster and a Cornish thatched cottage adjacent to a railway line have in common

 

[DerekC]

Is this a person who was involved in both? Wild guess - Charles Dickens (although I don't recall him having anything to do with Cornwall)

 

[341o2]

Both were locomotives

 

[341o2]

the rail disaster was in southern England too

 

[341o2]

The answer is Spitfire

No. 34066 was the locomotive involved in the Lewisham disaster of 1957, when the driver overran signals and collided with the Charing X to Hayes EMU, the accident demolished the Nunhead flyover and a third train fell onto the wreckage of the first two.

The other Spitfire was on the Redruth & Chasewater railway, when the line changed from horse to steam traction, the line's two four coupled locomotives had to work hard, scattering ash and cinders. as a result, a thatched cottage was in danger of being set alight, the railway was persuaded to demolish it and rebuild it at a safe distance from the line. Hence the name of the third locomotive.

I could have reworded the question as Spitfire was involved in the only fatal accident on the R&C. A couple of wagons would be left by a works which had no siding, on return, they would be propelled back to Devoran. The road had been relaid, but the level crossing flangeways were not cleared, with the result that the wagons derailed and the brakeman received injuries which were fatal. However, many minor lines never had a single fatlity or serious injury - the only one I can think of involving gross negligence was that on the Campbeltown and Machrihanish.

I'm declaring open floor

 

[Calthrop]

I'll do a "gauge-y" one: a theme of which I'm fond.

Which British public narrow-gauge line was on an (unusual) gauge which was almost-but-not-exactly half the British / European / North American standard gauge?

 

[341o2]

Glyn Valley tramway

 

[Calthrop]

A most rapid response -- and, absolutely right -- 2 ft. 4-and-a-half in.

Your floor.

 

[341o2]

What railway feat has China recently taken from Peru?

 

[Calthrop]

With effect from 2006: highest point on Earth reached by a rail route. On China's new main line to Lhasa -- 5068 m. above sea level; surpassing the Central Railway of Peru's former 4829 m. record.

 

[341o2]

You are right, maybe I should have made the question a bit more difficult by naming the four highest locations reached by rail past and present

La Cima, Central Railway of Peru 15,806ft
Puno Alto on the Collahuasi branch Antifogasta - La Paz railway 15,835 (closed)
Volcan Mine branch Central Railway of Peru 15,848 (closed)
Qinghai to Tibet 16,627

Your floor

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks.

A current thread in the "Railway History & Nostalgia" forum, on the subject of 3 ft. gauge in Britain, took an unexpected side-turning into the subject of naval warfare in the World War I era. It was recounted in the course thereof, that many British warships at that date used for fuel as standard practice, both coal and oil, complementing each other -- the oil largely to give an extra boost when needed: including starting-off combustion, where oil was sprayed onto a bed of hot coal.

There was a particular country which, for the last few decades of its employing steam on rail; had, in essentials, the above-described practice as standard on its steam loco fleet. Which was the country?

 

[Marton]

Poland?

 

[Calthrop]

Not Poland; but that general part of the world.

 

[Calthrop]

Hint: the country concerned, is itself a significant producer of petroleum.

 

[krus_aragon]

Hint: the country concerned, is itself a significant producer of petroleum.

I suppose that makes sense, given the question.

Romania?

 

[341o2]

Russia?

 

[Calthrop]

I suppose that makes sense, given the question.

Romania?

Romania it is.

https://www.advanced-steam.org/forums/topic/combined-coal-and-oil-burners-3/

Podea a voi, Domnule k.aragon

 

[krus_aragon]

Next question:

In Great Britain's post-privatisation era, which company has operated passenger services for the longest period?