It’s that time of year again. Advent calendars are being opened, presents purchased and the tabloids are preparing their ‘outrage’ pieces about vital Christmas works. That means, of course, that is time for the London Reconnections Christmas Transport Quiz.
An annual tradition, the Christmas Quiz tests not only your transport knowledge but also your ability to think laterally. The questions are intended to vary between easy and difficult, but not impossible – or at least not impossible to have a plausible guess at (perhaps with a bit of creative searching). Don’t worry if you can’t get them all – most people won’t. The fun, however, is in the trying and the lesson from 2016 seemed to be not to be put off sending in your answers if you haven’t got everything – because it is quite likely others are in a similar position.
We try not to ask trick questions, but won’t hesitate to put you off the scent occasionally. On picture questions there may be a bit of a clue in the name of the image.
We aim to find some prizes to dish out to winners. As always though, the real prize is the opportunity to demonstrate your superiority over the LR Towers brain trust and your fellow readers. For this reason, please be aware that any answers (or clues we think are too obvious) will be deleted from the comments.
The closing time and date is 23:59 on New Year’s Eve. We aim to publish the answers at 00:01 on New Years Day. Sometime after that but, not too long we hope, we will publish the winners, identified by a suitable pseudonym agreeable to them, and an analysis of how people, in general, got on. This year we will try to avoid indulging in our own new year tradition of being slow to publish winners and sending prizes to the wrong people. No promises!
Each question or part of a question normally carries one mark. It is relatively obvious where this is the case. Please send your answers to [email protected] with the word “quiz” in the subject line. If you send multiple submissions then only the last one we receive from you will be considered. Please don’t send partials and then expect us to stitch them together. We have Christmas cake to eat.
Question 1
2017 saw Southwestern Railway take over South West Trains. Unfortunately, they produced their timetables in a bit of a hurry without proof-reading them.
As a simple starter question, what mistake is there on the front page of this timetable?
Question 2
This is in the style of the Missing Words Round in Have I got News for You?
The above could well have been a legitimate headline in October 2017 only some of it has been blanked out. What words could replace the blanked out part to make this an accurate news headline?
Question 3
What square is round and contains a park that contains no trees or grass?. If any traffic were to circumnavigate it then it would currently go around clockwise, but previously it would have gone around anti-clockwise and – if all goes to plan – in 2018 it will go around anti-clockwise again.
Question 4
Not a million miles away from question 3 name this street in which most letters have been replaced by dashes.
_ _ _ _ h h _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Question 5
And whilst we are on the subject of filling in the missing blanks, what is the surname of this railway family?. Amongst others, they produced two engineers, one who at one stage worked on the London Underground and the other was associated with the Southern Railway?
_ z _ _ _ _ _ _
Question 6
At the 1st December 2017, there was a station in London that has every single passenger train that stops at it being run by a particular Train Operating Company (TOC) yet neither this train operating company nor Network Rail manage the station. Which station is this?
Name any other station within the M25 for which this is now also true.
(For avoidance of doubt, London Underground is not a Train Operating Company)
Question 7
Vaguely connected to Question 6 in some way, we are looking for a station name of which it can be said:
if the ‘e’ were an ‘o’ then it would be the name of an engine.
As a bit of a clue, both the station and the engine are in some way related to films – just not in the same way.
Question 8
And with a very tenuous link to the loco in question 7 …
We have previously asked a question about official TfL roundels which are located many miles from London. One year we showed a picture of one we believed to be furthest from London. It had some vital information removed and we asked for you to identify the location.
This year we are asking you to locate the station at which we believe the highest official TfL roundel is located. If your answer is different to ours but is, in fact, higher then that will be a valid answer.
At which station is this?
Question 9
Identify what this list of sequences represents
1
1,2
1,2,3
1,2,3,4
1,2,3,4,5
1,3,4,5
2,3,4,5
What is expected to be the next sequence in the list according to current plans?
Question 10
This chap is about to leave Waterloo. But where is he going?
Question 11
Which station had, has or will have the following track layout?
Question 12
The one on Thameslink is elevated. The same one is on the Northern line but is closer to the Orient. The one on the DLR is an unusual shape. Name the station on the Piccadilly line that was once a green area associated with an elevated one.
Question 13
According to a source close to the TfL main offices, how many babies have been born on the Underground?
Question 14
On the subject of transport, Sutton is a liar (at least when it comes to heraldry). What’s the lie, and why did it happen?
Question 15
At stations it is common to have a display with the time of the next direct train for various destinations to be shown. At some DLR stations there is a live departure board showing destinations that can be reached with one change. What do all these destinations have in common?
Question 16
What does the wording (blanked out) describe this as?
Question 17
Which is the only Underground station on which you can reliably expect to see a man smoking?
Question 18
When Livingstone and Rhodes were at Edgware, Faraday and Newton were at Charing Cross. Brunel and Stephenson were at Morden, so who was on the Central line?
Question 19
Time for a bit of detective work: This painting is part of a pair. Which station is pictured? Where is this painting now, and where was its ‘sister’ famously located in the eighties?
Question 20
Finally, This is a sequence of questions which are in the style of the TV quiz show ‘Pointless’. To each question there is a fairly obvious answer. Needless to say, this is not the answer we want. We want a correct answer which is not the obvious one. The first question will probably make this clear to you.
Name:
a) A Tube line that connects Baker Street and Waterloo stations
b) An extension being built by TfL to the site of a former power station beginning with ‘B’
c) A London terminus named after the locality in which it is located, which itself was named after a local church which itself was named after a saint.
d) A railway line, not currently operational, that connects Whitechapel and Paddington
e) A former or existing station whose name contains or contained the following words: ‘Street’, ‘Cannon’
f) An Underground station named after a sporting venue where the FA Cup Final was played
g) The surname of a famous engineer who in the early 19th century dug a tunnel under the Thames at Rotherhithe
A very, merry Christmas to you all from everyone here at LR Towers! Don’t miss our important message about Christmas drinks!
John Bull, Editor
2017
LR is funded largely by its community. Like what we do? Then help us to do more!
Disappointingly easy this year. I seem to have got two. Including number 1…..
For the avoidance of doubt, on question 6 does “every single passenger train” include underground trains?
[It would do if there were any but there aren’t in the answer we are expecting. It is always possible that you have an alternative correct answer. PoP]
Pretty sure that Q9 is wrong, and the order should begin:
2
2,3
1,2,3
etc.
[Depending on what basis you choose to number them, you could come up with alternatives but we are working on the basis that the first one was 1. PoP]
LURVE the introductory picture-with-bubbles on the main page(!)
6 q’s answered or part-answered at first pass, but …
Q9 is definitely right, the next in the sequence is possibly debatable. (Self-deletes pun clue.)
[Which is why we say ‘expected’. In practice will probably allow both plausible possibilities. PoP]
Photo in Q16 shows my office! – Might be able to break my record of getting 3 right without having to use google!
On 20(g) are you sure you mean “early 19th century” and not early *20th*?
[Yes. PoP]
Well, from the initial read-through, I immediately worked out the answers to questions 1, 17, 20a and 20b with a fairly good idea about 11 as well. I also managed to work out the correct answer to 20f after initially going down the wrong track by thinking of a certain Overground station.
Now a couple of points I would like to raise:
First, as a pedant, I am obliged to point out that for Q2, the official name of that round in HIGNFY is the “Missing Words round”. [Changed. PoP]
Second, I can think of 2 not currently operational railways between Whitechapel and Paddington but I can’t work out which one you’re considering to be the obvious answer.
What Anon said about 20d – the ‘obvious’ answer will differ between readers – I’ve gone for one answer and explained my working.
Perhaps it will be better to submit two answers to each of the Q20 subquestions and let the judges work out which one is obvious?
There are more parallels between Q10 and Q19 than meet the eye.
And, if I’m not mistaken, a link between Q17 and Q19.
I have ( or will have ) submitted both answers to all of the variants of Q 20
As usual, it’s the cryptically-worded ones that are leaving me floundering – I should have wasted more time on Crossword Puzzles in my youth, obviously.
3, 4, 6b, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14 & possibly 18 to go. [ I ought to know “11” too ….. ]
( I think there may be more than one “correct” answer to no 18 …. )
In Q4 is the second word Street or Avenue or some such, or are both words names that come before the “Road” bit?
[If the answer does contain the word ‘street’ or ‘avenue’ or suchlike then it is included in the dashes given. To put it another way, the dashes depict the full name. PoP]
Q2 – Surely it is “to Watford via Croxley and Greenford, and renamed the ‘Crayonista_Line'”
Otherwise, I think I have 5 answers, but will need to check a map.
@Geoff – I believe the spacing is correct (other than the spaces between each letter!). Either that or I’m wrong and wasted quite a bit of time looking.
Having, I think, 10 answers, the quiz seems to be the usual fun mix. Ones that are easy off the bat, ones that aren’t hard if you know how to look, ones that need a bit of mulling over and digging but are obtainable with time and effort, and ones that are impossible if you don’t know it!
Apologies for being a grammar/typo pedant… but please please could you correct number 3?!?!
“in 2018 it will anti-clockwise again” … it “will be” or “will go”.
I know I shouldn’t bother pointing it out but have read two news articles and a blog previous to this all with egregious errors easily seen, and am at the end of my pedant-tether! 🙂
Cheers!
[Corrected and I have also subtly changed the wording as it could have been construed as misleading. PoP]
Counting all of question 20 as one question, I’ve got 11 answers so far. One of them I’m unsure of, question 17, as it seems too obvious/easy to me, so perhaps I’ve got that wrong.
Q6 “…there was a station … manage the station. ”
Is the mixture of tenses a clue or an oversight?
Ooh, did my prize from last year get sent to the wrong person?
OK, I now have answers for Q1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 11, 16 & 17 as well as obvious and less obvious answers to all parts of Q20.
In response to a couple of comments earlier regarding Q9, I also think that it is wrong (or at least inaccurate). For one thing, I think that the first 2 entries should be omitted (i.e. start from 1,2,3) since they don’t fit into the same scheme as the rest of them. Also, I’m fairly certain that there is an entry missing. I believe that the list should read:
1,2,3
1,2,3,4
1,2,3,4,5
1,3,4,5
1,2,3,4,5
2,3,4,5
Q9 is the sequence of answers I think I’ve got right (having had second thoughts about Q2 and Q1)
The phrase “to Hayes, Uckfield and Marseille” springs to mind! I wonder why 😉
I think I’ve got them all except No 14. I’m probably barking up completely the wrong tree, but I can find nothing dodgy about the only association I have found between Sutton, heraldry and transport. (If I’m on the right track, two other questions relate to the same mode of transport)
I believe that Q2 actually has two legitimate answers, both on the same theme.
I have got actual proof so far for 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 19 and all the 20s. and I think I have 12 and 15.
3, 14 and 18. are the hard ones!
So… will my seven station answer do for Q7 or does it have to be somewhere in London?
@Timbeau – I agree on Q14. I can’t see what the lie is. I can see what sloppy people who don’t double check might think it is, but I can’t see what the pedantic (even if it’s not PoP himself!) question setter would think it is.
For Q13, I have a figure from a couple of sources, but I have no idea whether it is the same figure that the mystery ‘source close to the TfL main offices’ gave? Are we, in fact, guessing some unknown person’s guess? ;P “How many babies were born on the Underground?” is, of course, a different question than “How many babies does mystery source say were born on the Underground?”. I’m going to assume, for the same reasons why Q14 is proving hard, that the answer was corroborated.
@SH(LR) – not for the W&C surely as it points the wrong way? What you describe is perfect for the Bakerloo extension/BML2 hybrid-scheme, but that’s not the W&C, which would use the Hall Farm Chord and the Strawberry Hill-Fulwell chord (both classic crayons promoted in days of yore by some of the most fervently anti-crayons people in LR comments) 😉
@SI
Q13 the “official sources” conflict with the claimed birthplace of a infamous American TV host (the eponymous Opera one).
@Si
I don’t know which question SH(LR) was alluding to – surely not Q2? – but it set a hare running for me which led to the answer to another question: might give too much away if I said which one though.
Re Timbeau,
I first though SH(LR) had given an answer away but then checked and he was referring to a different question in jest!
@Briantist My not-completely-rigorous but nontheless extensive search identified only one possible answer for Q4. But that did help narrow down the field of search for Q3.
I can think of seven possible answers for the second half of Q6, but none of them work for Q7, for which you need to look a little further afield. You need to keep going a lot further to find Q8!
Isn’t the first element of the clue for Q12 defined too narrowly?
@Timbeau, 10:23
Funnily enough, that worked the other way around for me. I was able to find a fairly conclusive answer to Q3 which helped me search for Q4’s answer.
My flippant comment was indeed in relation to the missing words round!
Q3 is making me hungry!
@Si: That hasn’t ever stopped anyone, now has it? It also has to use the Lee Spur, take up the Bromley North branch tunnelling under Bromley Town Centre and so on… My girlfriend has just thrown out the crayons!
I’ve just spotted a typo on Q13:
“According a source…” should be “According to a source…”
Q9. Wasn’t there a short period when 1,2,3,4,5 existed between 1,3,4,5 and 2,3,4,5 ?
@ Fandroid
Assuming I have the correct answer, then there was
Q4 is annoying me, maybe I have got Q3 wrong though!
I’ve got a vague idea about the answer for Q12 but I’m struggling to connect it to the whole of the question…
@Fandroid
I also pointed that out but in a more oblique way.
Timbeau 11:24,
First part of Q12 refers to the one in the question but there is more in the definition – the extra bit defies a convenient way of alluding to it.
On Sutton,
Initially, like some others, I thought the question setter (not me) had not appreciated a particular point which would have made the item completely legitimate. But, on reflection, I realise there is another reason why it is not and one that would have been difficult to overlook.
I really can’t say more without giving something away. I would love to allude to a similarity with the correct answer to a different question but revealing either the question or what I am alluding to would give too much away.
On the list of list of numbers,
Depending on your exact definition, you could argue that that the list is incorrect. But there is almost certainly some form of words which makes it correct. If you are at the point where you are wondering if 1,2,3,4,5 should be included twice (or similar) then, clearly, you have worked out what it is and a simple short sentence to describe the list of lists will be acceptable.
@Herned
My answer for Q4 isn’t ‘a million miles away’ from my answer for Q3. But they’re not particularly close to each other. Maybe I should think again
Timbeau 10:23,
Briantist has found a completely different valid answer to Question 7. It is not vaguely related to Question 6 but, otherwise, it fits the criterion so I am going to allow it.
I really didn’t think that would/could happen.
Meanwhile, on the question 7 front, all I can find is a pair which would make a perfectly good answer if the ‘e’ and ‘o’ were reversed in the question…
I’m just pondering the significance of the young lady’s speech bubble having been changed, with the bit about the answer to Q12 beginning with M (I think it said) having been removed. What are we to make of that?
Do like the “Idiots”, though.
As usual I’m getting even more confused by the comments, but I think (hope) I’ve got several answers that could be correct – but not Q12 yet!
I can’t tell on Q4 whether or not the two Hs are in different words. Please clarify.
[The street name consists of a 10 letter word followed by a six letter word. The first word of the street name has an ‘h’ in positions five and six. That is all we are telling you. PoP]
Ah! I had it as two five letter words followed by a six letter word….
In which case the second of your three words would have been in capitals.
Just to reiterate, I am describing the ‘words’ as they appear on the street sign.
At first, I thought that the street in Q4 was 3 words until it occurred to me that the second ‘h’ would have to be capitalised in that case.
I don’t think Pedantic is saying here that the street sign is neccessarily in mixed case (although of course it may be, but that would be unusual). Just that in a mixed case copy of the letters on the street sign, such as the one in the question, the letter after a ‘word’ boundary would be a capital.
@betterbee
I thoiught thgere was something odd about the picture – it’s been flipped. (Difficult to spot unless you’ve seen the original – the most obvious clues are that the gentleman’s waistcoat buttons up the wrong way, the girl is sewing left-handed and the buckler on the young officer’s sword belt is also on the wrong (right) side. (He is not wearing the sword itself)
This is the later, less racy, version of “First Class – The Meeting”: the earlier version had the young lady’s chaperone asleep at his post, and the young man in civvies (with the sword replaced by a fishing rod) and therefore (obviously!) less respectable to early Victorian eyes.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/91/72/48/9172485080c47e04526cef597e64fe4a.jpg
Being not from the UK & having been to London only three times in my life, I was surprised I could find 13 out of 20 answers. For 20d and 20g I didn’t find a second answer; in the case of 20d it feels to me like I am overlooking something extremely obvious. I have stared at maps of current & former railway networks without catching the answer.
I happen to understand the relations between 6, 7, and 8; though for 8 I have yet to find the precise location. For 11, I seemed to remember the answer but I’m not able to find any on-line evidence to prove my guess.
3 and 12 are especially bothering me. For 15 I have already accepted that I need to be in London in real life to find that answer, and that is probably not going to happen before the deadline.
Link in Q1 is broken 🙁 Looks like it’s been removed by SWR – any screenshots or local copies kicking around?
At least one of the answers in Q20 has been the subject of a question in a previous quiz.
There are hidden clues behind the picture questions which, for two of them, helped me to narrow down the possibilities to just one in each case.
Not having been on the DLR for some time, I have made a guess on Q15, which seems plausible. So, even if you are not in London, nil desperandum.
As for Q3, I could find just one thoroughfare in the whole of Greater L0ndon which fits Q4. That helpfully narrowed down the identity of the “plan” referred to in Q3.
Still not managed to get resolution on Q14 though
Q14 is indeed tricky and I think I’ve found half of it. I have an idea as to what the answer is to part two, but have not been able to confirm this…
I had to pull back from several dead ends…
AB,
It does indeed look like SWR have finally got around to removing the timetable which was superseded on 10th December. As a consequence I have now removed the link from question 1.
You don’t need the link. It was only there to show you that the front page screenshot provided was genuine and unadulterated by us.
@Briantist
Q13 refers to “an Underground station”. This doesn’t necessarily mean a station which was at that time served by UndergrounD trains.
@nameless
Q13 asks “how many babies have been [officially] born on the Underground” (upper case “U”) – not “at stations under ground” (lower case “u”).
I read that as meaning a baby born at (say) Chiswick Park would count, but not one born at City Thameslink.
Off the top of my memory, I think the source referred to in Question 13 actually stated ‘the Tube’ but I am a bit reluctant to use that term as purists argue that means the deep level tube lines..
I took it to mean today’s London Underground and predecessors.
@PoP
If your source is the same one that I’ve found, it doesn’t make a difference.
[Yes. All that matters is what the number is according to the source. PoP]
Just a reminder that comments (I am not addressing any particular ones) should not unduly limit the search space for correct answers. If a substantial proportion of people who had not previously been able to answer a particular question would be enabled to do so by your comment, then please do not make it.
Malcolm
Could someone write Q 15 in plain English, please?
I can’t start even trying to answer it, until I understand that actual question, unfortunately.
[No. The question is perfectly clear. Once you understand what it is about you have the answer. That’s the thing about cryptic questions. PoP]
Managed all but 3, can’t see that being good enough to win – hard to imagine a few years back I managed third!
@MARTIN I’m all excited about the new year, not because of the fireworks on the Thames but to discover the answer to question 18!
@Briantist
I hope you won’t be too disappointed – the answer to Q18 isn’t that exciting! Can’t wait to find out the answer to Q14 though!
Well, I certainly don’t stand a chance this year:
Still can’t get:
3
4
6b
7
? 9 ?
? 11 ?
15: And this question is plainly NOT “cryptic” – it simply does not make sense, at all…
Greg Tingey,
Well most people who have sent in answers have got question 15 correct. In fact, most failed to answer the question but correctly explained what the answer was about – and we will have to allow that.
So it makes sense to a lot of people.
PoP
Let’s imagine I’m at anywhere between Bank & Westferry, waitng for a train – they go to a variety of destinations & it may be necessary to change if I want to get to somewhere …..
Apart from calling all-stations Bank-Westferry, I can’t see anything significant.
Ditto Stratford – Poplar, or Stratford-in-the-hole – Canning Town. The same applies running the other way, starting from, say, Woolwich or Beckton or Lewisham
It still doesn’t make sense!
@GREG TINGEY: (*Assuming I’m right of course) I suggest you’re going to need some shinguards come the 1st.
Briantist
Quite possibly, but as should be obvious, the Q simply makes no sense to my usually very literal mind-set
Thanks again for an enjoyable diversion. Having got one of the high scores last year but with an empty letterbox, I can vouch for the mail having gone astray! 🙂 But it’s genuinely the taking part that counts.
It feels like this year’s quiz was a little easier than last year’s, there’s only one to which I have no idea of the answer and didn’t have time to do the fieldwork for it. (GregT, it was Q15.) Still worth a guess. January will reveal all. Good luck!
In Question 7, if the ‘e’ were an ‘o’ it would also be the name of a railway employee featuring in a different area of popular culture.
After struggling in past years, I’ve surprised myself this time by managing to get answers for all but 2 questions! (12 & 18) Although I suspect quite a few of my attempts are way off the mark.
And also with regard to Question 7, were the “e” to be an “o”, and were that to be accompanied by the name of a leading “railway town” in the UK, it would be a leading light in the world of psephology
Well, time’s up and I’m still stumped on 9 and 18. So the answers are going in anyway. Another year that I’m not going to win …
I have also had to submit my answers having been defeated by 2 questions (14 & 18 in my case). Still, with luck I could be one of the higher scorers and besides, it’s the taking part that counts!
I can’t be bothered anymore with 7 (even the additional hints didn’t help) after chasing wild geese for too long and merely made educated guesses on 11 and 15. I’m not sure about a couple of others, but I can’t be unhappy with 15-out-of-20, assuming I got the ones I’m fairly certain on.
@Greg 30/12
Hopefully everything has now become plane?