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Cowley

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There are nine, but as I can’t be bothered to think up another question I won’t name them.
I know but I wanted it to be fairly easy to guess so that I’m not checking the phone at work every five minutes tomorrow.
Give it a go @Gloster as you can always go open floor...

(Extra points for all 9)
 

Gloster

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Up the creek
I know but I wanted it to be fairly easy to guess so that I’m not checking the phone at work every five minutes tomorrow.
Give it a go @Gloster as you can always go open floor...

(Extra points for all 9)
Penzance, St Erth, Roskear Junction, Truro, Par, Lostwithiel, Liskeard, St Blazey, Goonbarrow Junction.
 

Nick_C

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The British Isles consists of a rather large number of islands. Excluding Great Britain and Ireland, there were (if I've got my figures right), 11 of them that had, or have, railways. Which 11?
 

SteveM70

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Sheppey
Wight
Hayling
Portland

I think there was one on Skye - from memory narrow gauge
 

LSWR Cavalier

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Isle of Wight
Canvey Island
Ynys Mon
Isle of Thanet
Walney Island
Orkney, Mainland
Hayling Island
Portsea Island
Barry Island
Isle of Man

Isle of Ely?
 

Nick_C

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Just realised I mistyped the question from my notes, and missed a bit - it should have said "self-contained railways" - i.e. not connected to the mainland.

On that basis, I'll hand the baton to @LSWR Cavalier, for getting the most based on the question as asked. Mea culpa...

The list I had was:

Wight
Mull
Unst
Skye
Bute
Sanday
Skye
Alderney
Guernsey
Jersey
Man
 

LSWR Cavalier

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@Peter Mugridge
Correct, I watched a film of the gravity train run in 2013, 60 trucks, brakemen on board
It slowed to walking pace on the curves below Tan-y-Bwlch and stopped at last on the flat cob, so a locomotive had to push it into Harbour Station. No horses involved apparently

You may take the reins
 

LSWR Cavalier

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@DerekC
Sixty feet according to the text on the video. Maybe it was a bit less, who knows? What a contrast to modern trains that are always the same length

The gravity trains were a lot heavier going down of course, the horses relaxed and fed in their own vehicles before dragging the longer trains back up
 

DerekC

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Good one! I should have got that. The technique may have been obsolescent in 1863 but according to JIC Boyd, the Ffestiniog went on running down slate trains by gravity until 1940! The top shunter based at Blaenau would give them a push to get them rolling, then it was downhill all the way to the cob, as you say. Better stop now or this will turn into a gravity trains thread. Now there's an idea!!
 

Peter Mugridge

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There are several instances in the UK where it is possible, if you ignore prefixes and suffixes, to buy a ticket between two stations of the same name.

Name any three of these.
 

Calthrop

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Moreton (Dorset) / Moreton (Merseyside)

Hope (Flintshire) / Hope (Derbyshire)

and Whitchurch just has to feature: Whitchurch (Hampshire) / Whitchurch (Shropshire)
 

Peter Mugridge

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Yes, that was easy. Others include the likes of Gillingham, Waterloo, Ashford and Charing Cross.

Next slide question please.
 

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