Railway General Knowledge.

[D6130]

Glasgow & South Western railway Whitelegg 4-6-4 tank locos?

 

[Calthrop]

Nope -- something much weirder.

 

[D6130]

Bullied's Leader class bogie steam locomotives for the Southern Railway (actually delivered after nationalisation in 1948)?

 

[Calthrop]

Visually, perhaps not colossally different from the "Leaders": what I'm looking for, though -- were British-built, but for a customer a very long way from Britain.

 

[Gloster]

Could it have been the locos built for an incline in New Zealand (Rimutaku or something like that)?

 

[Calthrop]

Afraid not. Nearer to Britain than N.Z. -- which is of course about as far away as you can get -- but still mighty distant from Britain. (The customer was narrow-gauge; though not the same gauge as New Zealand.)

 

[Calthrop]

It doesn't look as though we're in business here... I'd hoped that maybe Durrant's "pregnant hippo" crack had attained greater fame -- and with it, maybe greater fame for that which had given rise to it -- than seems likely to have been the case. One last shot at a hint: the locos concerned were, as said, British-built, by a specialist British firm; but for a (public) railway in what would now be called a "Third World" country -- not British territory, or with particular links to Britain. They functioned well enough; but were, for basically incidental reasons, short-lived.

 

[DerekC]

@Calthrop, I hope you won't mind me cheating a bit - sorry, a lot! I couldn't find anything about this on a conventional Google search so I tried the new AI powered Bing search, which produced the answer below. Is it anywhere near?

 

[Calthrop]

@DerekC -- concerning expectant artiodactylans, the plot thickens and gets stranger... The locos likened by Durrant to pregnant hippos: were not Garratts; were built and entered service in the mid-1930s; and were not for South Africa -- indeed, were for another far continent which is not Africa ! I'm wondering now, whether the hippopotamic comparison was not a product of Mr. Durrant's native wit; but (he was exceedingly well-up-on South African steam) he borrowed an expression which the South Africans had coined, re their 1921 acquisition ... ? As those folks might put it -- ag, man, this is bleddy odd ...

 

[341o2]

Would the continent be South America and the locos Kitson Meyers?

 

[Calthrop]

Would the continent be South America and the locos Kitson Meyers?

South America, yes; the locos were articulated, but of an extremely unusual, virtually unique kind -- not Kitson-Meyers. (The country concerned, made some use of a variety of different sorts of articulated steam; including K-M's.)

 

[341o2]

Would that be the Chilean Transandine which uniquely amongst the high altitude Andean railways, had rack and pinion (and a variety of locomotives to work it)?

 

[Calthrop]

Would that be the Chilean Transandine which uniquely amongst the high altitude Andean railways, had rack and pinion (and a variety of locomotives to work it)?

Again, I fear not. Possible hint -- the "hippo" element happens to be especially appropriate to the country concerned (re an oddity of recent times -- many decades after the relevant locos ceased to be).

 

[341o2]

Can only guess the country is Brazil, due to the large rail network and a large river, maybe the Maderia - Mamore line, which ran from nowhere to nowhere and was nicknamed the Mad Mary. No idea as to the locomotives.
Certainly, South America did seem to attract locomotives which looked fine on paper, but were useless in service, due to poor standards of maintenance and the demands placed on them. One such class, designed by an "expert" on mountain railroading had to have bigger boilers fitted before the class was in any way useful

 

[DaleCooper]

Again, I fear not. Possible hint -- the "hippo" element happens to be especially appropriate to the country concerned (re an oddity of recent times -- many decades after the relevant locos ceased to be).

Is it Colombia, where Pablo Escobar kept hippos?

 

[Calthrop]

Can only guess the country is Brazil, due to the large rail network and a large river, maybe the Maderia - Mamore line, which ran from nowhere to nowhere and was nicknamed the Mad Mary. No idea as to the locomotives.

Not Brazil, I'm afraid.

Is it Colombia, where Pablo Escobar kept hippos?

Yes: indeed Colombia; and reference indeed to Escobar's hippos -- some of same, now living ferally on the Magdalena River (I gather that the locals like them, finding them lovably floppy; and oppose official initiatives re killing them off).

Now -- can anyone identify the small class of locos concerned; which ran rather briefly on a (public) railway in Colombia, many decades ago as of now?

 

[Calthrop]

I suspect we're at the end of the road. The machines concerned, were a class of three geared locos built by Sentinel of Shrewsbury, specialists in that steam-loco variant; supplied to the Ferrocarril Nordeste of Colombia, then metre-gauge. They were articulated geared 0-6-6-0T's, with a compound steam engine supplying steam per high-pressure water-tube boiler. They had exterior curved casing of quasi-streamlined type -- hence the "pregnant hippo" crack. They entered service in 1934 -- reckoned to have performed well enough, until they were set aside during World War II, when necessary specialised spare parts became unavailable (it would seem that Colombian artisanal ability didn't stretch to devising and making "emergency" kit to keep the locos running). It appears that they didn't work again; and, not very long after WWII, the railway concerned was converted to the Colombian "standard" 3 ft. gauge.

Thanks to all posters; and honourable mention to @DerekC for finding "pregnant hippo" reference as per above; and to @DaleCooper for getting Colombia. Question, though, concerned basically these specific Sentinel articulateds; not given by any participant. So I feel it looks like open floor, for whoever sets the next one.

Certainly, South America did seem to attract locomotives which looked fine on paper, but were useless in service, due to poor standards of maintenance and the demands placed on them. One such
class, designed by an "expert" on mountain railroading had to have bigger boilers fitted before the class was in any way useful

That certainly was a tendency as regards this part of the world. A thing which happened a good deal in Colombia: with both articulated, and conventional, steam types. As above; the Sentinels would appear to have run satisfactorily, until "sunk" after only a few years, essentially by a bit of historical / political bad luck.

 

[341o2]

May I take the floor

Staying with South America, and the Chilean Transandine, there was an articulated locomotive used during construction of the line of a type not normally associated with South America, and high altitude railways, but was successful both on this line and elsewhere. What design was it?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

May I take the floor

Staying with South America, and the Chilean Transandine, there was an articulated locomotive used during construction of the line of a type not normally associated with South America, and high altitude railways, but was successful both on this line and elsewhere. What design was it?

Would that be the Shay type?

 

[341o2]

Indeed it would. While it was very slow, it proved invaluable for construction work. For example, it managed the rack sections using adhesion alone, and had a suction pump to refill its tender from adjacent rivers.
The only other Shay I know of on the high altitude Andean lines worked the La Paz - Beni railway, which ended up as a marshalling yard in La Paz.

Your floor

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Ha! That was simply the only other type of articulated locomotive that I could think of!

For the next question, we will leave the distant foreign climes behind and return to more familiar territory:

What was the largest station to close as a result of the Beeching reforms although ironically it was one which he had proposed to keep open and instead close another station nearby - and how many platforms did it have?

 

[Gloster]

Glasgow Buchanan St? I will guess eleven?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

There was one that was bigger than that...

 

[RDP]

Glasgow St. Enoch (12 platforms)?

 

[alistairlees]

Blackpool Central (14)

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Blackpool Central (14)

That's the one...

Beeching intended to close North but retain Central. The local council had other ideas because it wanted to redevelop the site of Central; thus the more useful and viable station was the one to be lost.

Please (re)shape the next question.

 

[alistairlees]

Unfortunately I won’t have time today. Open floor please.

 

[D6130]

Which Scottish station has a relief sculpture - carved in a granite boulder at one end of the platform - of a railway company shareholder who saved the construction of the line by giving a large proportion of his private wealth to prevent the bankruptcy of the company?

 

[Calthrop]

A total guess -- Golspie? -- the "fairy godfather" being the Duke of Sutherland.

 

[D6130]

A total guess -- Golspie? -- the "fairy godfather" being the Duke of Sutherland.

It isnae that one laddie!