EddieB

Three days and no takers?

Might be worth looking up an old Atlas?

Robert Riddles?

P. Ransome Wallis

Correct. Am I making these too easy?

I'm sure you won't, Mike.

I studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, choosing to work in places of railway interest. I spent two years at Swindon, once meeting Churchward, but making the acquaintance of William Stanier whose introduction obtained many privileges for me on railways all over the world.

My first trip to Europe was a motor-cycle tour to Budapest in 1929 and from that time I visited at least one foreign country every year.

I served in the Royal Navy during the second World War. This gave further opportunities to travel and study railways overseas.

When my income dropped with the introduction of the NHS, I offset some of the shortfall by writing books and articles, mostly on railway subjects. In the early nineteen-sixties I foulnd myself approached by the BBC for a series a radio broadcasts.

Once, while photographing a steam-hauled special train carrying the President of France, I was mistaken for Richard Dimbleby by a horde of some 200-autograph hunting women.

Photography of locomotives and trains has always been a means to an end, to serve a more technical interest in the subjects. My first published photograph was in the Railway Magazine in January 1925.

My photographs now form part of the National Railway Museum collection.

Who am I?

Locomotive builders, or at least the private ones, tended to allocate works numbers to identify their products.

Which locomotive builder (who underwent some early changes of name and later relocated to the locomotive building "capital" of Great Britain), originally allocated letters to its products, deciding to switch to numbers after reaching "U"?

Archibald David Kennedy, 7th Marquess of Ailsa.

I think you've been reading the same latest issue of Railway Bylines as me this morning!

One of Matthew Stirling's designs for the Hull & Barnsley Railway?

The H&BR A class 0-8-0s or "Tinies" (LNER class Q10), whose boilers (rebuilt with domes) went on to give sterling (like the pun) service on the Q5 class.

Alfred de Glehn??

 

Paul

Phew, that didn't last long!

I did take out the word "compounding" as I thought that was just too easy.

Ok Paul, your turn.

Bridgnorth, then? I have to hold my hand up to Googling that and it still doesn't ring any bells now I've seen it. I'll have to check my photos from when we went.

Yes. (Had you said "Severn Valley Railway", that would have been sufficient.)

After several years on static display at Kidderminster (SVR) Station (adjacent to the museum), "Warwickshire" (MW 2047/1926, ex-Rugby Portland Cement Co. no. 4) has recently been taken to Bridgnorth for assessment pending possible overhaul.

Your turn.

This quiz concerns well-known people connected with railways - be they engineers, board members, notable staff members, politicians, artists, historians, authors or photographers, plus of course those drawn from the motley ranks of eccentrics that follow our hobby.

I'll stipulate two rules, that the subject of the question is not a member of the RMWeb Community and that they should be traceable via the internet (i.e. no obscure names plucked from company minutes)..

To start things off, here's the first one.

Although generally regarded as French, I was born in Sydenham of Baltic-German ancestry.

My most famous work was carried out in France, where I was responsible for a steam locomotive development that bears my name. Aside from numerous French locomotives, my system was also used in Germany and Belgium. Three locomotives of this type were purchased by a British railway for evaluation.

I adapted my surname to a French style when I settled in France.

Who am I?

Kidderminster Railway Museum? ( I don't remember seeing it).

Not quite.

I did say "general or specific" but your answer is just a little too wide of the mark.

Right then, where (generally or specifically) can you find the last steam locomotive built by Manning Wardle?

Assuming that the locos entered service in the same sequence that they were built and delivered....

The first batch were built at Vulcan Foundry (nice tie in!), with 5020 (BR 45020) being the first. Last batch were built at Horwich in 1951, with 44687 bringing up the rear.

Didn't Corporal Jones suggest something similar in the movie version of Dad's Army?

'Albion', built by Thwaites Bros of the Vulcan Foundry in Bradford in 1848. Had 'vibrating vane ' pistons, patented as the 'Cambrian' system..

Yes, well done. Thwaites & Carbutt as they were at that time, of the Vulcan Works in Bradford.

The locomotive had a transverse cylinder arrangement, located between the two pairs of driving wheels,with diametrically opposed cranks driving connecting rods to each of the four driving wheels giving an 0-2-2-2WT configuration. This so-called "Cambrian System" (which might have been found from the clue about the Burgess Shale) arose from a patent taken out by John Jones of Bristol, and was designed to fully balance out the reciprocating parts (in comparison to a conventional locomotive). According to Lowe (British Steam Locomotive Builders), EB Wilson & Co. had been approached, but declined to build the locomotive, leading to the first locomotive to be built by a company that otherwise turned out a variety of machinery.

It was delivered to the South Yorkshire Railway as their no. 5 "ALBION", becoming Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire no. 156 in 1864. It apears to have been withdrawn in 1870, but may have been rebuilt as a more conventional locomotive at some point in its life.

There is a detailed side elwevation drawing in Lowe, which would be a good starting point should anyone fancy building a model...

To you again, pH.

No takers so far?

Ok, the first pair of clues aren't specific in themselves but will help to validate answers obtained from the other pair. The third is quite specific and contains enough information to Google your way to the right answer.

Perhaps the final clue is more cryptic, but again it should generate a word which will lead to the identity of the locomotive.

At this stage, the only thing I'll add is that the loco was standard gauge.

I can add more clues, but don't want to give the game away without at least a serious attempt - and I trust that, once found, the "merits" of the locomotive will provide some interest, perhaps even amusement.

He had no ikea it was dangerous.

Are we talking the same location as the February picture? The one with the Midland style of fencing?

Mike, thanks for that, I wouldn't have found the additional detail.

This question concerns a very unusual and indeed unconventional locomotive.

1. It was built in Britain for a British railway company, which became part of a larger company to whose ownership the locomotive passed.

2. It carried a name.

3. The third clue is to the works where it was built. Only four locomotives have been identified as built there, the other three being more conventional - albeit with domeless boilers and haycock fireboxes. There are more familiar works and locomotive factories sharing the same name - but this one wasn't in Maribo, Wilkes-Barre or Szczecin (Stettin) - nor was it the bigger Brittish one that was until a year before the locomotive in question was built named for its founder (you'll also find a word pun there). However the builder is generally referred to by the company name taken from its partners.

4. The final clue is to be found by reference to the Burgess Shale and a patent.incorporated into the locomotive design.

Aside from his three patents on interlocking lever frames in the 1870s, there's nothing in the earlier output of Webb that seems relevant.

The differences in the GWR/Tyer no. 9 development were, as I see it, multiple "keys" instead of "tablets" (Tyer patent) or "staffs" (Webb) and more compact size.

Do you mean FW Webb and the LNWR having to pay royalties (£2 a go) to Tyer for infringement of patent?

I have a IQ of a 100. is that good

 

Terry

I just don't get it. The Government spends a fortune on education and still half of the population are below average!

If we're talking tokens (not tablets or staffs) then it was the Great Western Railway, patented by AT Blackall and CM Jacobs and first used on the Marlow branch.

Tyer & Co were given licence to manufacture and sell these instruments.

Now for the specific reason - hmm. Generally something to do with multiple tokens allowing trains to originate from each end of the section (without needing to return a staff) or for trains to run "out of sequence". Compared to the previous versions, the new machines were more compact and had less moving parts.

Well, as Meat Loaf sang "two out of three ain't bad"...

Try this test (I scored 122) >>

http://www.free-iqtest.net

Well I scored 140 on the test and I'm using IE8 and - don't laugh - Vista.

Just to rub it in, IE gave a connection failure when replying to the post.

Absolute [self-moderated] eyesore!

Who really wants to live or work in such a monstrosity - especially after 9/11? Fire drills, anyone?

I really cannot fathom the "wisdom" of those who grant planning permission for such out of place constructions. It totally dominates the London skyline - even before it has been finished. At a time when the commercial property market is struggling to sell space, along comes another ginormous architectural folly.

You might get the impression I don't like it.