Let both dings and dongs sound merrily from somewhere up above – for Christmas is here once again and, with a regularity that certain rail franchises can only envy, that means it is time for the Christmas quiz.
Prepared by the finest transport minds with login access to this website (so basically Mwmbwls and I) the questions below are designed to tax your knowledge (or more likely your google-fu) to its limit.
As always, there will be prizes, although we’re still finalising precisely what those are. So far, the first prize pot includes a copy of “Beneath the Wires of London” Charlie Wyatt’s excellent book on driving and conducting on trolleybuses. It also includes the traditional random offering from my own bookcase – this year that’s Bright Underground Spaces, an excellent book on the stations of Charles Holden. The pot also includes a selection of postcards featuring the designs of the new Crossrail Central Section stations.
The second prize pot currently features a rather nice little booklet on Aldwych in the blitz that the London Transport Museum produced earlier this year and a copy of “How to Build a Railway” – a short account of the construction of several scottish railways.
Finally, everyone who enters the quiz this year will be entered into a prize draw for this rather wonderful InterCity APT t-shirt in the size of their choice.
If we manage to beg, borrow or steal more prizes from any of London’s various large transport companies and bodies, we will of course add them to the prize pots (and hopefully find something to offer as a third prize as well).
How to Enter
As always, to enter send your answers to [email protected] with the word “quiz” in the subject line somewhere. You are, of course, welcome to post your guesses as comments on the post, but that won’t be considered a valid entry and – as many entrants found to their cost last year – it is always worth remembering that just because someone in the comments sounds confident about their answers, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are correct!
And Now the Questions!
Q1: Near which station in late November 1895 was a body found by a plate-layer? Tickets were found in his pocket but not for the train.
Q2: Who is this boring fellow? For a bonus point, what is so special about this particular representation of him?
Q3: What was this building originally?
Q4: Here’s a big puzzle. Where in the North by North East do you find North by North West?
Q5: Which London stook, and where, has lost its grain but gained more acreage for railway reasons this year?
Q6: Cuneo’s famous painting of Waterloo, shown here arriving at its new home in York at the NRM earlier this year, features cameos by which two sixties/seventies politicians?
Q7: Above which underground station do you find this sculpture?
Q8: For which streets does X now mark the spot for a Barnes dance?
Q9: Which line begins at Hammersmith Bridge and terminates at Hobbs End?
Q10: This man is regarded by many as the father of the railway age. Who is he?
Q11: If plans had come to pass there would have been two major stations in London named after Belgian battlefields. One was built, one wasn’t – which stations?
Q12: Which two words have been edited off of the emblem below?
Q13: This model was produced during the construction (and shows a cross-section) of which line?
Q14: What links this Commonwealth War Grave and Memorial in Belgium with the London Underground?
Q15: The building below is one of the few remaining signs of one of London’s strangest railway companies – what was that company?
Good luck everyone, and a very merry Christmas!
John Bull et al.
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