LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Not for me. May we have another clue, or just the answer? Setting questions is difficult, often they are too hard or too easy.
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Railway General Knowledge.
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DerekC
Established Member
This one seems to have died. I suggest we declare open floor.
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Then an easy one from me:
In the following very easy sequence, what is "x"?
W
"x"
C
E
W
R
M
W
S
E
E
A
L
B
D
In the following very easy sequence, what is "x"?
W
"x"
C
E
W
R
M
W
S
E
E
A
L
B
D
DerekC
Established Member
"V" - for Vauxhall? (I think I am going from Waterloo to Dorking via Raynes Park and Epsom)
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Absolutely right.
V is indeed Vauxhall on a Dorking stopper.
I did only the first initial on stations with two word names because I thought it would be far too easy with the full initials.
Anyway... Derek, your turn at the departure board.
V is indeed Vauxhall on a Dorking stopper.
I did only the first initial on stations with two word names because I thought it would be far too easy with the full initials.
Anyway... Derek, your turn at the departure board.
DerekC
Established Member
Thanks @Peter Mugridge
What did Emil Kolben design that contributed to the development of industrial narrow gauge in North Wales?
What did Emil Kolben design that contributed to the development of industrial narrow gauge in North Wales?
LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Kolben is a bit like the German word for piston, could that be something to do with it? Or did he devise something to get the locomotives up the terraces at Dinorwic? Or to put narrow-gauge wagons sideways on 4' gauge wagons for the Penrhyn quarry?
DerekC
Established Member
All ingenious ideas but not the right answer, although you are focusing on the right industry. Emil Kolben was a Czech, if that helps. He was born in 1862 and died in the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in 1943. He should be much better remembered than he is.
LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Some sort of tool, device, process for winning and working slate?
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 Oct 2011
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Electrification driven by a water powered turbine which supplied light and power to underground workings
DerekC
Established Member
Now you are getting there - but I want something a bit more railway-related than that. And do you happen to know which workings?
Gloster
Established Member
Haulage of wagons up inclined planes?
LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Slate was mined underground at Blaenau, was it there? Dinorwic and Penrhyn/Bethesda were 'open cast' mainly I think. Did his inventions help power tools for cutting slate, and pumps to keep the workings dry?
341o2
Established Member
- Joined
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Pen-yr-Orsedd, I believe.
DerekC
Established Member
Not as far as I know. The inclines to the quarry/mine I am thinking of (like most in North Wales) were balanced/gravity worked - i.e. the loaded wagons coming down raised the empty ones going up.
Not at Blaenau, but not far away. The thing Mr Kolben designed was directly related to the railway aspect of the quarry/mine in question and is thought to have been the first in Wales.
Not in the Nantlle valley.
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LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Tan-y-grisiau, Croesor, Penmachno? Something to do with brakes?
Spamcan81
Member
Both the Croesor Quarry and Llechwedd quarry had electric locomotives so was it one of them?
DerekC
Established Member
That's right - Emil Kolben was an early electrical engineer who was born in Bohemia, studied in Prague, trained in the US with Thomas Edison and Nicolai Tesla and then returned to Europe, initially to work for Oerlikon in Switzerland and then in 1896 to set up his own company in Prague. By the early 1900s he was making the complete works - hydro-electric power stations with turbines and generators and electric locomotives with all the trimmings. The first Croesor locomotive (30hp, 220vDC OLE) was designed and built in his works in Prague in 1904 and it seems to have been the first electric loco in Wales. (My guess is that Kolben engineered the whole package including the power station). His company became part of CKD and manufactured the most successful tram in the world in terms of numbers made - also motorbikes, mining machinery and lots of other things. After a long history it was taken over by Slemens in 2002. A picture of the loco is below.
When I first heard about this it seemed so strange - that the Croesor Tramway, a line that was essentially horse worked in early 19th Century principles right up to WWII, possessed at the top of a precipitous incline a feeder using what must at the time have been one of the most modern installations in the world!
@341o2 was heading in the right direction but @Spamcan81 gets the slate dressing floor.
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DerekC
Established Member
Since the statutory 48 hours has passed, I think we can declare open floor!
Inversnecky
Member
Which TOPS class of locomotive had the most built in the UK? (Shouldn’t be too hard!)
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Ah, but world-wide; or more limited geographically, than that? Should world-wide, be appropriate: I'll go for the Russian class E (in Cyrillic, looks something like 3) 0-10-0: don't know the number, with any precision; but at all events, many thousands.
Inversnecky
Member
Sorry, have edited it to U.K.
LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Black 5?
Inversnecky
Member
Sorry, I was meaning TOPS class, but even so, fewer Black 5s were made than this.
Gloster
Established Member
Class 08?
Inversnecky
Member
Well done!
996 made, making it the most numerous of all British locomotive classes.
Class 08
The British Rail (BR) Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive. The pioneer locomotive, number 13000, was built in 1952 although it did not enter service until 1953. Production continued until 1962; 996 locomotives were produced, making it the most numerous of all British...
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Gloster
Established Member
Anne Holt’s detective/thriller novel 1222 starts with a railway accident. However, the title has a particular railway significance. What is it?
LSWR Cavalier
Established Member
Train left at 12:22? Or December 1922, just before the Grouping?
Gloster
Established Member
Sorry, neither is correct.