Railway General Knowledge.

[Gloster]

I can’t really give much more of clue than to say that the broad-gauge occasionally operated in places not traditionally regarded as GWR.

 

[341o2]

Crediton?

 

[Gloster]

Crediton?

Correct. Very early on the Exeter-Barnstaple line was broad gauge and even after the LSWR took over GWR trains continued to run to Crediton. The box may have signalled broad gauge trains as it was opened in 1875 (Historic England says 1862, but this is dubious.)

To you to signal the next question.

 

[341o2]

in the throes of moving, open floor please

 

[DerekC]

He was a resident engineer under Thomas Telford and participated in the construction of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal and the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal, then became a a contractor to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway under George Stephenson. He went on to build large sections of the Grand Junction Railway, the North Union Railway, the Midland Counties Railway and the Eastern Union Railway. He also worked extensively in France. The total value of his contracts was about £17M - around £1.6Bn in today's money - pretty modest for 850 miles of railway! He died in 1851 at the age of 57, but his brother carried on the business.

Who was he?

 

[Calthrop]

A guess -- Thomas Brassey? -- mainly because of the "French connection".

 

[DerekC]

Not Thomas Brassey. This guy worked with and was a partner of Brassey. Brassey went on to do more, mainly because he lived longer, but it has been argued that the subject was even more important in the early days when the first links in the network were starting to form.

 

[Whistler40145]

I'll try James Watt

 

[DerekC]

Not James Watt. Watt invented and developed the idea of high pressure steam engines, rather than the "atmospheric" engines which had been used for mine pumping and winding in the mid 18th Century. Although his work formed the foundation on which locomotive development would build, he died in 1819, when even the Stockton and Darlington was just an idea.

The guy I am after was a civil engineer and contractor. Until 1832 he worked for the client side on canal construction, but spotted an opportunity to make more money as a contractor on railway construction. His first railway contract was for the tunnels on the approaches to Liverpool Lime Street from Edge Hill, which he completed on time despite considerable uncertainty as to the intended final line and level of the tunnel and having to sink an additional shaft at Chatham Street.

 

[DerekC]

I think this one is going to die for lack of interest. The person in question was William Mackenzie.

Open floor.

 

[Calthrop]

I'm fascinated by rail gauges -- perhaps to the point of tedium for fellow-Railway General Knowledge participants... anyhow: there's a continental European country which underwent a "Battle of the Gauges" notably similar in outline -- though different in sundry details -- to ours in Britain between "4-8-and-a-half" and "7ft.-and-a-quarter-inch". Which country? and what were the gauges concerned?

 

[Gloster]

There was a disagreement in Norway between standard and 1067 mm (3’ 6”) propponents, but this was more of a skirmish than a battle.

 

[Calthrop]

There was a disagreement in Norway between standard and 1067 mm (3’ 6”) propponents, but this was more of a skirmish than a battle.

That's the country, and the gauges, all right; my understanding of the matter, however, has been that it was for a while -- late 19th century -- indeed a fierce struggle, with passionate protagonists of the 1067mm gauge (on which in the main -- not 100% the case -- Norway's railways were initially built), and of the "four-eight-and-a-half" (1435 mm). I might have this wrong -- perhaps been over-dramatising it in my mind, for its fun-content? A definite difference from how things went in Britain: was the very long time the state railways took, after the decision in favour of standard gauge, to convert or close what there was on 1067mm. In a sense, the 1067mm there has never totally died: the state railways' last line on that gauge -- Grovane to Byglandsfjord, in the far south of the country -- closed as late as 1962; a short section of it was preserved, and is running thus today.

Your turn to build a railway on your preferred gauge -- giving two fingers to the fools in the opposing camp.

 

[Gloster]

Which major pre-grouping railway had eight chief locomotive engineers in sixty years?

 

[xotGD]

North Eastern

 

[D6130]

Great Eastern?

 

[Gloster]

North Eastern

Sorry, wrong.

Great Eastern?

Correct. To you to sketch out the next question.

 

[D6130]

Thanks. Next question:

What was special/unusual about one of the BR-designed non-corridor compartment coaches used in the Havant - Hayling Island branch until its closure in 1963 - and thereafter for a further few years on the Clapham Junction - Kensington Olympia Post Office workers' services?

 

[Gloster]

It had a fibreglass body and an illogical number.

 

[D6130]

It had a fibreglass body and an illogical number.

Correct! As a matter of interest, can you remember the number? Your turn to ride the Kenny Belle.

 

[Gloster]

Correct! As a matter of interest, can you remember the number? Your turn to ride the Kenny Belle.

S1001S, I think.

Of all the types of BR Mark I or II hauled passenger-carrying corridor coaches, which was the only one that did not have its toilet at the end of the vehicle? (By end I mean either the very end or adjacent to the end vestibule.)

 

[D6130]

S1001S, I think.

Close! S1000S, to be precise....built on the underframe of one of the Mark 1 TSOs destroyed in the Lewisham disaster in 1957 (either S4377 or S4378 - depending on which source you believe).

To answer your question, is it the BSO?

 

[Gloster]

To answer your question, is it the BSO?

No, sorry.

 

[xotGD]

Depends what you mean by "corridor". Within the coach or gangwayed . If the former:

Mk 1 non-gangwayed Lavatory Composite

For example, E43003 at the KWVR.

 

[Gloster]

Depends what you mean by "corridor". Within the coach or gangwayed . If the former:

Mk 1 non-gangwayed Lavatory Composite

For example, E43003 at the KWVR.

Yes, to clarify, ‘with end gangways’. This was included to exclude the batches of Mark 1 suburbans with internal gangways.

 

[Gloster]

Two of this type (alternating weekly) used to travel as part of the Night Ferry in England while another was kept at Carstairs.

 

[D6130]

Two of this type (alternating weekly) used to travel as part of the Night Ferry in England while another was kept at Carstairs.

I thought that they were Mark 1 corridor BCKs?

 

[Gloster]

I thought that they were Mark 1 corridor BCKs?

Correct. The BCK had a toilet adjacent to the middle vestibule.

Your turn.

 

[Ashley Hill]

@D6130 Your turn to challenge our brains!

 

[D6130]

@D6130 Your turn to challenge our brains!

Thanks for the aide memoir....often required when you reach my age!

Next (very easy) question:

At which UK station - other than former North Eastern Railway stations - would you find a large wall-mounted map of the former railway company's network made of ceramic tiles?