Railway Quiz

[pH]

Kenneth Cantlie?

[Guest Belgian]

Kenneth Cantlie?

Nope, at least, not the guy I'm after. There's a sort of clue in one of my recent postings on RMweb . . .

 

JE

[pH]

William Adams

[EddieB]

William Adams.

 

Fooled a little as his father was resident engineer as the East and West India Docks Company - I thought the reference was to parts of the subcontinent.

[EddieB]

Pipped on the line! I should have avoided adding some extra detail!

 

 

[Guest Belgian]

William Adams

Correct - did you look at my recent postings first???

 

JE

 

Pipped on the line! I should have avoided adding some extra detail!

Sorry Eddie, you were so close!

 

JE

[pH]

Correct - did you look at my recent postings first???

 

JE

Yes, I have to say I did.

 

Next: which knight held very high operating positions in US, UK and Canadian railways? (By 'operating', I mean not just board appointments.)

[EddieB]

Sir Henry Thornton?

[pH]

Sir Henry Thornton?

Correct. (That didn't last long!)

[EddieB]

There was I promising a break from all things Great Eastern, and others come up with questions with a Great Eastern connection. Well, I have some some further Great Eastern questions lined up, but this isn't one of them.

 

While on the subject of people, this engineer and inventor didn't follow his father into the oil seed business, but was apprenticed to one of the oldest locomotive builders. He moved on to manage the drawing office of another locomotive builder, during which time he was chief draughtsman on a very successful and elegant design named for a popular Swedish contemporary figure. After so many achievements in early life, he probably is most famous for a patent taken out when he was 45. First tried out by Webb, it became widely adopted by the LNWR.

 

He has a modern namesake who is Features Editor on a railway title (which reminds me that my subscription needs renewal).

[The Stationmaster]

David Joy - who went on to devise a valvegear which bears his name (the Swedish lady was, of course, Jenny Lind).

[EddieB]

David Joy - who went on to devise a valvegear which bears his name (the Swedish lady was, of course, Jenny Lind).

 

Too easy!

 

To you, Mike.

[The Stationmaster]

Nice to have the occasional easy one Eddie - thank you. This might be a little more difficult, or perhaps not :-

 

This engineer was notable for a number of innovations which he bought to his Company's locomotives and loco engineering practice when he took over in the early years of the 20th century, including exchanges of engines with other Companies. One of those exchanges will help you towards the place where he spent his last months although the name of the engine involved isn't much of a clue. So a multiple answer - who was he, where was he buried (it was far from the home turf of the Company he worked form), and what was the name and number of the engine which had got on the route towards the place of his burial?

[Guest Belgian]

C J Bowen-Cooke, buried at St Just in Roseland, Cornwall. His LNWR Locomotive 1471 "Worcestershire" ran on the GWR in 1910 and was used on the Cornish Riviera Express and the Torquay Diner, although I don't know how far it worked into Cornwall, or if it was taken off at Plymouth.

 

JE

[The Stationmaster]

C J Bowen-Cooke, buried at St Just in Roseland, Cornwall. His LNWR Locomotive 1471 "Worcestershire" ran on the GWR in 1910 and was used on the Cornish Riviera Express and the Torquay Diner, although I don't know how far it worked into Cornwall, or if it was taken off at Plymouth.

 

JE

 

Correct - according to Tuplin it came off at Exeter. Perhaps I should also have asked its home shed (Camden)? Anyway back to you Jeremy.

[Guest Belgian]

Perhaps it's time to back away from the LNWR this time! (And the GER is out too, so there's the first pair of clues!)

 

The first part of the answer to this question is the name of an item of railway equipment. It took the form of a squashed cross with attachments and was used by one railway company and by another over which it had some control, due to its part ownership. This item became quite well associated with the second company and is often referred to as that company's characteristic item and its use at one well-known location has often been photographed or commented upon by the chroniclers of its history.

 

The second part is to describe how it was used, and, if possible, to nominate this well-known location.

 

It's not a tablet.

 

JE

[EddieB]

Well done Jeremy - I was thinking of Bowen-Cooke, but couldn't follow up the loco connection.

[The Stationmaster]

Perhaps it's time to back away from the LNWR this time! (And the GER is out too, so there's the first pair of clues!)

 

The first part of the answer to this question is the name of an item of railway equipment. It took the form of a squashed cross with attachments and was used by one railway company and by another over which it had some control, due to its part ownership. This item became quite well associated with the second company and is often referred to as that company's characteristic item and its use at one well-known location has often been photographed or commented upon by the chroniclers of its history.

 

The second part is to describe how it was used, and, if possible, to nominate this well-known location.

 

It's not a tablet.

 

JE

 

You aren't by any chance referring to a certain pattern of signal arm are you Jeremy? I presume you aren't (because it was used by at least 4 Companies) but just wanted to make sure.

[Guest Belgian]

You aren't by any chance referring to a certain pattern of signal arm are you Jeremy? I presume you aren't (because it was used by at least 4 Companies) but just wanted to make sure.

errrr . . . I haven't said that only these companies used it!

[The Stationmaster]

errrr . . . I haven't said that only these companies used it!

 

Ah - so it seems we are talking about what was commonly referred to a a 'bow-tie signal' the arm of which did indeed have the shape of a squashed cross and i presume from the question that we are talking about its use on the LSWR and S&DJtR? ON the Southern it was officially referred to as a 'wrong road signal' and it showed a full red light in the 'on' position and a green or purple light (deopending whether it was ex LSW or SECR) light in the 'off' position and it was used to signal movements onto the wrong road (i.e against the normal direction of traffic. The S&DJtR Appendix doesn't even mention it but the well know example at Midford was used as some sort of backing signal also. In Scotland, for example, the Highland - in particular - seems to have used the arm as a common subsidiary with various different meanings including some which latterly (1930s) became Shunt Ahead Signal and gained a small cutout 'S' on the face of the arm.

[Guest Belgian]

Ah - so it seems we are talking about what was commonly referred to a a 'bow-tie signal' the arm of which did indeed have the shape of a squashed cross and i presume from the question that we are talking about its use on the LSWR and S&DJtR? ON the Southern it was officially referred to as a 'wrong road signal' and it showed a full red light in the 'on' position and a green or purple light (deopending whether it was ex LSW or SECR) light in the 'off' position and it was used to signal movements onto the wrong road (i.e against the normal direction of traffic. The S&DJtR Appendix doesn't even mention it but the well know example at Midford was used as some sort of backing signal also. In Scotland, for example, the Highland - in particular - seems to have used the arm as a common subsidiary with various different meanings including some which latterly (1930s) became Shunt Ahead Signal and gained a small cutout 'S' on the face of the arm.

Correct in all details! (They were also known as "skeleton" or "scissors" arms). The Great Northern used them as "calling on" signals and the GER as "draw ahead" signals. The GWR also had a "backing signal" but used a different pattern of arm, being oddly slotted. As far as I can tell this was the only official use of the term "backing signal" although I know that the S&D used the term. However, the Midford ones were really "wrong road" signals as the LSWR/SR was responsible for S&D signalling. I suppose "wrong road" was an inappropriate term for a signal on a single line, although it was to allow freights heading to Bath which had stalled to back down and reverse onto the up road on the south end of the viaduct, so it could be described as "wrong road"!

 

JE

[The Stationmaster]

Right - let's stay with signals for a while. Paddington is, I think, probably quite well known as the site of the first US style three position semaphore to appear in this country but where in the London area were there rather larger scale installations of 3 position semaphores and which Company was most commonly involved in terms of the ownership of lines so signalled? (for the purposes of this question the 'London Area' is anywhere within, say, 8 miles of one of the mainline termini)

[John B]

Was it on the GWR-owned / operated Ealing & Shepherds Bush railway?

[The Stationmaster]

Was it on the GWR-owned / operated Ealing & Shepherds Bush railway?

 

That was one of them - so not a complete answer alas.

[Guest Belgian]

They were also used at Ripple Lane in the hump yard from 1961 and, but nowhere near London, at Althorpe (at least) in Lincolnshire on the GCR.

 

JE