Railway puzzles

[GuyBarry]

Hi -

There are a number of puzzles that may be of interest to railway enthusiasts on the Hidden Underground Wiki. Please enjoy them!

 

[backontrack]

I tried the short Borders one, although I wouldn't want to do any of the longer ones. I found every station. Here are my answers (highlight to see):

Craig spent a lot of time watching his sister Elsa in swimming galas. “Hi Elsa”, he said, as she emerged from the changing room. “Well done for winning the 200m breaststroke!”

Elsa had come first, owing to her arch-rival being disqualified for a false start. They headed out of the Leisure Centre, past the information desk.

"Banksy's new 'Dismaland' theme park opened last weekend" said Craig. "Fancy a visit sometime soon?"

"I'm afraid I've got to deal with some Japanese knotweed. Banksy will have to wait a little while. Besides which I don't like too much gore. Bridge too far for me, I'm afraid."

"OK," said Craig, "as you wish. Aw, fair enough - I never really wanted to go myself."

"Really?" said Elsa. "But you always like trying things which are new, Craig. Hallucinating about them, even. You do surprise me!"

"Well, I did try out that new tong range from the hardware shop the other day. Hardly very radical, though."

"Anyway, I'm hungry. Time for some grub. Run! Stan Edwards is joining us for lunch, remember. We'll be late if we don't put on some speed."

"Oh look, I've just seen the Duke of Edinburgh. Wave!"

R. Leyton, professional Duke of Edinburgh impersonator, waved back as they sped off to lunch...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
There's a mistake in the Isle of Wight one (Sandown is missing, even in the solution). I found all the others:

It was a beautiful lamb shank. Linette had cooked it to perfection, and the guests began to arrive. She'd provided some fine wines for them to slake their thirst with. Unknown to Linette and her husband Dee, though, a leak from upstairs was gradually abrading the dining room walls.

Linette was in the kitchen on the phone giving directions to a guest, completely unaware that the leak was growing. It was flowing across the dining room floor like a small brook.

"Junction five, turn left, then left again," she said. "We're the third house on the right."

"Thanks," said the guest, a Mrs Pryde. "St John's Road anywhere near you, is it?"

"Yes," Linette said, "just past the cemetery. Dee's plan, a decidedly clever one, is to... oh no! Gotta dash; we're in trouble! Dee!" she shouted, "there's a load of water on the dining room floor! Call the plumber, quick!"

"OK," said Dee.

"Sorry," continued Linette, "what did you want for dessert, Mrs Pryde? Pie?"

"R. Head, the plumber, will be round shortly," said Dee.

A disaster had been averted.

 

[GuyBarry]

Well done! We're looking for people to help us write more of them, so just send me a PM if you're interested.

["Sandown" missing]

Oops! Mistake in the editing - it was there in the original (they were written as a team effort). I'll add it in - should be:

"The vegetarians were provided with pizza covered in Parmesan. Down the table was where you could find most of the dishes."

Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[backontrack]

Well done! We're looking for people to help us write more of them, so just send me a PM if you're interested.

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really interested right now. Sorry.

But it is a fun and clever concept. It might even work as a quiz thread on this forum, but maybe it's a bit too substantial.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Well done! We're looking for people to help us write more of them, so just send me a PM if you're interested.

["Sandown" missing]

Oops! Mistake in the editing - it was there in the original (they were written as a team effort). I'll add it in - should be:

"The vegetarians were provided for with pizza covered in Parmesan. Down the table was where you could find most of the dishes."

Thanks for pointing it out.

Ah! I see. You're welcome.

A good idea for another of these ones would be to use only VTEC-served stations, or to only hide stations on one particular line. With the VTEC example, it might get tricky once you're using ones like Newtonmore, Stonehaven, Falkirk Grahamston etc. but it'd still be fun to do. You could try to find all the stations on the Tyne Valley Line, or the Wolds Line, or similar.

 

[GuyBarry]

Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really interested right now. Sorry.

But it is a fun and clever concept. It might even work as a quiz thread on this forum, but maybe it's a bit too substantial.

Yes, I've been trying to get the quiz team here interested for some time, but it's rather a slow process. The stories were all written on the Tube Challenge Forum - here's the latest one that we've started. There's a small band of enthusiasts there but we'd like to expand it if we can.

A good idea for another of these ones would be to use only VTEC-served stations, or to only hide stations on one particular line. With the VTEC example, it might get tricky once you're using ones like Newtonmore, Stonehaven, Falkirk Grahamston etc. but it'd still be fun to do. You could try to find all the stations on the Tyne Valley Line, or the Wolds Line, or similar.

Yes, that'd be good. From your response I'm getting the impression that the short ones that can be solved quickly may be more popular. We've tended to concentrate on the longer ones with involved plots and regular characters - probably more for our own amusement!

Any feedback is most welcome. I've a vague ambition to complete every station in Britain, but that's some way off yet. (Not far from finishing London now though!)

 

[backontrack]

Yes, I've been trying to get the quiz team here interested for some time, but it's rather a slow process. The stories were all written on the Tube Challenge Forum - here's the latest one that we've started. There's a small band of enthusiasts there but we'd like to expand it if we can.



Yes, that'd be good. From your response I'm getting the impression that the short ones that can be solved quickly may be more popular. We've tended to concentrate on the longer ones with involved plots and regular characters - probably more for our own amusement!

Any feedback is most welcome. I've a vague ambition to complete every station in Britain, but that's some way off yet. (Not far from finishing London now though!)

How about dividing a mainline into sections? You could start at London Paddington, and have a little story involving all stops to Reading. Then, you could do all stops between Reading and Westbury/Castle Cary, and then all stops from there to Newton Abbot/Plymouth and so on.

Any other views on this?

 

[GuyBarry]

With the VTEC example, it might get tricky once you're using ones like Newtonmore, Stonehaven, Falkirk Grahamston etc. but it'd still be fun to do.

Oh, we've done trickier ones than that. You should see what I came up with for West Hampstead Thameslink

How about dividing a mainline into sections? You could start at London Paddington, and have a little story involving all stops to Reading. Then, you could do all stops between Reading and Westbury/Castle Cary, and then all stops from there to Newton Abbot/Plymouth and so on.

Yes, that's a possibility - maybe some of the ones we're doing at the moment are too big. It's a balance between including enough stations to get a decent plot going, and creating a manageable puzzle. We're currently doing a joint DLR/Tramlink one (84 stations in total) and I'm already getting the feeling that we're going to run out of stations before the plot gets going.

Anyway, thanks for your comments!

 

[backontrack]

Oh, we've done trickier ones than that. You should see what I came up with for West Hampstead Thameslink



Yes, that's a possibility - maybe some of the ones we're doing at the moment are too big. It's a balance between including enough stations to get a decent plot going, and creating a manageable puzzle. We're currently doing a joint DLR/Tramlink one (84 stations in total) and I'm already getting the feeling that we're going to run out of stations before the plot gets going.

Anyway, thanks for your comments!

You're welcome.

Any comments from any other posters? I don't think it's the kind of thing that would work on the quiz forum, but it's still a fun concept (especially with the shorter ones).

 

[GuyBarry]

You're welcome.

Any comments from any other posters? I don't think it's the kind of thing that would work on the quiz forum, but it's still a fun concept (especially with the shorter ones).

We create them on the Tube Challenge Forum - we don't solve them there (normally). We write short instalments containing a few stations each, and then leave it for the next person to take over the story. That's what I was hoping to do on the quiz forum here, but I don't know how feasible it is - the quizmasters have said they're interested but haven't come to a definite decision yet. Do you think it'd be likely to succeed here?

 

[backontrack]

We create them on the Tube Challenge Forum - we don't solve them there (normally). We write short instalments containing a few stations each, and then leave it for the next person to take over the story. That's what I was hoping to do on the quiz forum here, but I don't know how feasible it is - the quizmasters have said they're interested but haven't come to a definite decision yet. Do you think it'd be likely to succeed here?

This post (^^^) seems a very good way of setting it out. I have already had a successful idea (Letter by Letter, link in my sig ↓↓↓) but that is a simpler and easier concept to use. It's been very successful.