Firstly, Happy New Year from everyone associated with the Moseley Railway Trust. Cue Drum roll. The moment you have all been waiting for - the quiz answers....
1:- An Post delivers this (Hunslet). An Post is the Irish equivalent of the Royal Mail. So, it's the Irish Mail (geddit?), which lives at the West Lancs Light Railway.
2:- Initially named for the railway promoter's daughter; had a famously short and precipitous operating life (?). I must apologise for a slight error here. The answer is LADAS, Snowdon Mountain Railway No.1. LADAS stood for Laura Alice Duff Assheton-Smith, who was the WIFE - not Daughter - of the key landowner. This loco famously plunged off the side of Snowdon on the opening day of the railway, which caused the railway's Press Agent to comment "Thank God Facebook and Twitter haven't been invented yet...".
3:- Author who owned a narrow boat called Crecy (Barclay, sort-of). Tom Rolt of the Tallylyn Railway. Not much Barclay left in this one.
4:- Robin Hood’s girlfriend (Hunslet). Dead easy, Maid Marion of the Bala Lake Railway.
5:- A nymph of Greek mythology and a character from The Faerie Queene (Hunslet). This seems to have been surprisingly tricky - the answer is Britomart of the Ffestiniog.
6:- French General, most known for regrouping the retreating allied armies to defeat the Germans at the strategically decisive First Battle of the Marne in 1914 (Kerr Stuart). The answer is Joffre, based at the West Lancs. KS3014 at Apedale is known as the Joffre, but doesn't actually carry the name.
7:- Name shared by a Kerr Stuart Wren and a Bagnall saddle tank. This is Pixie - carried by Leighton Buzzard's Wren and Bagnall 2090, late of Cadeby.
8:- Basil’s wife (Hunslet). Sybil, now at the West Lancs.
9:- Part of an Abbey or Cathedral (Hunslet). Cloister, now living at the Purbeck Mining Museum near Swanage.
10:- Prime Minister twice over, died in 1865 (?). Palmerston, of the Ffestiniog Railway. When he died in 1865, he was succeeded by John Russell - but not the same man for whom the Welsh Highland 262 is named.
11:- Only Manchester-born Welshman to have been Prime Minister (?). David Lloyd George, Ffestiniog Railway.
12:- Yet another Prime Minister twice-over (Yorkshire Engine). Winston Churchill, of the RH and DR.
13:- Creation of J.M.Barrie (Kerr, Stuart). Peter Pan, Graham Morris' much-travelled Wren which lives at Leighton Buzzard.
14:- Friend of the above (Bagnall). Wendy - lives at Burlesden Brickworks. Tinkerbell was an iconic miniature loco, and also part of the Peter Pan universe.
15:- Pussy Cat in the Archers (Hunslet). Lilian (as called by Matt), based at Launceston.
16:- First Letter of the Greek alphabet (Bagnall). Alpha, based at Sittingbourne.
17:- Appropriately named Bagnall Fireless which worked with the above ....why is it appropriate? Easy one - Unique, the only Fireless on the Bowaters narrow gauge system.
18:- Built at BAE Warton (amongst other places) (Paxman). Typhoon, RH and DR.
19:- A street in south Leeds (Hunslet). Jack Lane, Statfold. The address of the old Hunslet Engine Company.
20:- Titular character of an 1869 book set in Devon (Kerr Stuart). Lorna Doone, under restoration at Amerton.
21:- Not a Scottish Horse – it’s a? (?) Surprisingly tricky this one. Welsh Pony, Ffestiniog.
22:- 1938 film starring the 40th President (Kerr Stuart). Sergeant Murphy, Teife Valley.
23:- Happened on August 11, 1999 especially in Cornwall (Not Steam – now!). The Eclipse - Bagnall/Llechwedd.
24:- One of the six in the North (Peckett). Again, many seemed to find this tough. The answer is Tyrone - one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The loco lives at Giant's Causeway.
25:- Song by Barry Ryan, covered by The Damned (O and K). Elouise, based at Old Kiln.
Tie Breaker:- My but we had some laughs with this one. The question was - What connects a small town near Huddersfield with the Tannhäuser Gate (where c-beams glitter in the dark)?
The answer has nothing to do with railways! The Tannhauser Gate is a reference to the famous Tears in the Rain speech in the film Blade Runner by Ridley Scott. The speech is delivered by a psychotic android named Roy Batty.
Nora Batty was a psychotic housewife in Last of the Summer Wine, filmed in Holmfirth - near Huddersfield.
Some of you went a little far with the answers, but the idea of Blade Runner set in Yorkshire caused some mirth (the Tyrell Corporation, relocated in a former woollen mill near Cleckheaton....).
Anyway, now the big moment. The first person to submit a 100% accurate set of answers was - Tim!!! Your prize is to see a photo of yourself in a tin hat on the InterWeb.
