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Great Railway Quiz by Christopher Hughes Hard Cover 1984 132 Pages
The Great Railway Quiz by Christopher Hughes Hard Cover 1984 132 Pages
Since winning the BBCtv Mastermind competition in 1983, I have frequently been asked how I, a former grammar school drop-out, ex-British Railways fireman and London Transport train driver, have managed to amass sufficient knowledge over the years to be able to beat some of the finest brains in the land at what is, after all, the most heavily intellectual of all British quiz shows. I wish I knew the answer to that one .. .
As many readers will remember, the main specialist subject which I took on Mastermind was 'British Steam Locomotives from 1900 to 1968' which at once captured the attention of the vast army of railway enthusiasts, most of whom, I'm sure, could have answered the questions at least as well as I did. However, the skill-and I believe it can fairly be described as a skill-with Mastermind is to be able to clear your mind of all distractions, listen carefully to Magnus Magnusson's questions, and not allow yourself to be intimidated by the paraphernalia of television.
I first became interested in railways in about 1949 or '50 when I was a toddler living in Welwyn Garden City, within sound-if not sight-of the East Coast main line. I passed through all the usual phases of trainspotting with the inevitable dog-eared Ian Allan ABCs until, at the age of about ten, having by then moved to Waltham Cross on the erstwhile Great Eastern Railway, I discovered in the public library at Cheshunt a copy of Hamilton-Ellis's Some Classic Locomotives which opened my eyes to the fact that there was a lot more to the study of locomotives than dashing home from school every day to see which locomotive was hauling the F enman through Waltham Cross that afternoon. At school I was a totally mediocre performer, eventually deciding at the age of fifteen that the academic life held no attractions for me whatsoever and, after various vicissitudes, joined British Railways as an engine cleaner at the old Motive Power Depot at Hornsey, where I was soon promoted to the grade of fireman, just in time to catch the last few months of steam working on the southern end of the East Coast main line. In fact this was represented by a rather sad procession of decrepit 9Fs, Bls and such like, but to a sixteen-year-old fireman it was the stuff of life itself. It was during this period that my railway education was completed, mostly by the kindness of the drivers with whom I worked, particularly the late Stan Jeffries to whom I shall always be grateful for his crystal clear explanations of the finer technical points of the steam locomotive.
Increasing dissatisfaction with the way that British Rail was going in the late 'sixties, and feeling no particular loyalty to a railway changed out of all recognition in a few short years, led me to transfer in 1970 to London Transport, where I worked my way up from guard to driver on the Piccadilly Line.
Never having had any pretensions towards authorship, I was surprised and gratified to be approached by David & Charles with a view to compiling a quiz book on railways, which I have finally-after several false starts and several gallons of midnight oil-completed. The questions have been designed to stretch the memory and the reference library as much as possible, so have a go at some of these and remember, as Magnus Magnusson says before every round of Mastermind, 'It's only a game'. . .
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