Railway General Knowledge.

[DerekC]

Pike's Peak Railway? (I recall the name but not much else so it's a shot in the dark!)

 

[Calthrop]

That's it ! Full name, the Broadmoor [unfortunate connotations for Britishers !] Pike's Peak Cog Railway -- standard-gauge rack line, Manitou Springs to the Peak's summit at 14,110 feet above sea level. Has long been worked, essentially, by rack diesel railcars: the change from steam to diesel traction began in the late 1930s.

Yore floor, pardner.

 

[DerekC]

OK. There are two Connaught Tunnels. Which railways built them?

 

[Calthrop]

I'd vaguely heard the name of one -- knew nothing re the other. Ended up Googling, and so disqualifying self -- had the right continent for the one I had (peripherally) heard of; but that was all.

 

[DerekC]

OK. One should be easy. Think Crossrail and re-use of old tunnels. There was a TV programme focused on this specific tunnel not long ago.

 

[DerekC]

Ok - time for clues. The first Connaught Tunnel is under water but was built by cut and cover. The second is about 13 times longer than the first and goes under Sir Donald.

 

[Marton]

East London and Canada

 

[DerekC]

East London and Canada

Good for general location. The original question was which railways built the two tunnels. Would you like to have a guess?

 

[341o2]

Would the London one be the East London railway Shoreditch - New Cross?

 

[DerekC]

Would the London one be the East London railway Shoreditch - New Cross?

A bit further east - and not under the Thames.

 

[DerekC]

This question obviously didn't capture interest so I will give the answer and declare open floor:

Connaught Tunnel (UK) - 600m long - under the entrance to the Albert Dock in East London. Built by the Great Eastern Railway in 1878. Closed in 2006. Now reconstructed and ready for use as part of the Crossrail branch to Abbey Wood.

Connaught Tunnel (Canada) - 8082m long - under Rogers Pass through the Selkirk Mountains. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1914-16. Still in use on one of the CPR's key East-West freight routes. (It is now single track, but duplicated by the Mount Macdonald Tunnel).

Open Floor

 

[Calthrop]

I was interested, all right -- just, it caused me to Google prematurely and thus blow myself all over the map.

An affectionate kind-of-parody of a question about a year ago -- that one, concerning the Great Orme.

What rail-type tourist attraction long ago, had as its main competition for passengers: toboggans sliding downhill?

 

[EbbwJunction1]

I'm guessing that it's a Cliff Railway of some kind, so let's start with the Great Orme Tramway.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm guessing that it's a Cliff Railway of some kind, so let's start with the Great Orme Tramway.

No -- the Great Orme line featured in the question posed last year, which inspired my question now.

A rail line of an adapted-for-steeply-climbing kind, is involved.

 

[krus_aragon]

No -- the Great Orme line featured in the question posed last year, which inspired my question now.

A rail line of an adapted-for-steeply-climbing kind, is involved.

That would suggest a rack railway to me, but I've never heard of toboggans competing with the Snowdon Mountain Railway!

The only other rack railway that springs to mind is the Culdee Fell Railway, but that's a bit too fictional. If we're looking outside the UK, then I'm at a loss.

 

[Calthrop]

@krus_aragon: line concerned, rack; and, indeed, outside the British Isles.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Madeira?


EDIT To be more precise a line up the mountain from Funchal to Monte whose name I cannot recall. The toboganists are still in business.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

Is the Isle of Man outside the British isles for the purposes of this question? If so, is the Snaefell Mountain Railway?

 

[Calthrop]

Man no, Madeira yes: winner's laurels to @Glenmutchkin . Line was the Caminho do Ferro do Monte: metre-gauge steam rack railway, 1893 -- 1943. The toboggan "gig" was indeed going long before the railway's inception, and continues to flourish long after its closure.

@Glenmutchkin, your precipitous descent into the city.

 

[Glenmutchkin]

Back on duty in the Signalbox in five so Open House.

 

[341o2]

What was the Holman train?

 

[DerekC]

The only Holman I can recall was Colonel Holman F Stephens of light railway fame. Is he relevant?

 

[341o2]

No, this was in the USA

 

[DerekC]

I recall there being a huge experimental steam-turbine-electric train built in the 1940s by (maybe) the Pennsylvania Railroad. Would that be it?

 

[341o2]

no, 19th centuary and it was a scam.

Edit - Right continent though

 

[341o2]

Investment scam for which a prototype locomotive was built
Then another company appeared 10 years later with the same idea

 

[341o2]

The Holman train (or locomotive) was a scam investment "opportunity" in the USA, this prototype was built and claimed it could travel faster than a conventional locomotive. A few trial runs were made, on plain straight track, of course, as this contraption would probably derail at the first curve it encountered

There also was something similar, the Fontaine locomotives, where the driving wheels were on top of the boiler, examples were put into service, but, not surprisingly, proved to be inferior to compatible locomotives. Again, the claim was made that the Fontaine could travel faster (and was not a scam)



http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/holman/holman.htm

Image from Google, open floor declared

 

[krus_aragon]

Ah. I've come across that "idea" before (transferring motive power to multiple wheels to reduce wheelslip at the rail interface), but didn't know/remember that it was associated with the the name Holman.

Here's another question in the meantime, on a favourite subject of mine, the Britannia Tubular Bridge (see avatar <-):

When interviewed by a Commons Select Committee in 1845 about his plans to build a railway bridge across the Menai Straits, what reason did Robert Stephenson give for using two tubes?

 

[341o2]

was one to be used by foot/horsedrawn traffic?

 

[krus_aragon]

was one to be used by foot/horsedrawn traffic?

No.

For the sake of clarity, the bridge was built with two tubes (as was the Conwy bridge), one for each running line. I'm looking for the reason that Stephenson decided it was necessary.