Railway quiz-April 2019

Note that there is an underlying theme in most of the questions. If you understand this theme it will help.

1. What do these stations have in common? For the bottom one, go by the sign you can see rather than the station name. Click to enlarge.

A: They are zonal headquarters but not divisional headquarters. The HQ of SER is near Howrah but there is no Howrah division of SER. In fact SER is a guest of ER at Howrah. (However, there is an Howrah division of ER). Similarly for Hajipur, Gorakhpur and Maligaon (in Guwahati city).

2. What connects the first 4 stations here? And what connected the 5th (bottom right) to the first 4 later?

Exif_JPEG_420

A: SC, BZA, SUR and UBL were the original constituents of SCR when it was formed in 1966. SC and SUR were earlier in CR, while BZA and UBL were in SR. After a few years SUR was moved back to CR and GTL was moved from SR to SCR.

3. What unusual feature does this station have (considering the above theme):

A: Nagpur is in CR and the SECR joins there. There is a Nagpur division both in CR and SECR. Like SER in Howrah, SECR does not own the Nagpur station.

4. What unusual features do these stations have (again, considering the above theme plus something else):

A: Chakradharpur, Danapur, Nanded and Izatnagar are divisional headquarters which are not junctions. Note: Izat is correct, not Izzat although even local people get this wrong.

5. The same theme, but somewhat different. What connects these stations? Think of pre-independence days.

A: Baroda, Gwalior, Trichnopoly and Jodhpur were zonal headquarters in the past but not now: for the Gaekwad of Baroda’s State Railway, Scindia State Railway, South Indian Railway and Jodhpur State Railway. Other examples include Bikaner, Mysore, Jaipur and several others.

Note: the best attempt was by Santosh Kulkarni, also known as Sant Kulk.

 

Rail Quiz No 5

The earlier quizzes can be found in the archives of this blog.

Like the earlier ones, the questions relate to a set of station signs. Copyrights for the pictures rest with the original photographers.

A) What do these stations have in common?

If you have got the answer to A), that will help you to get the answers to the subsequent questions:

B1):

 

B2):

What do the stations in B1) and B2) have in common with those in A) ?

What is the difference between the stations in set B1) and B2) ?

This is somewhat more complicated as some changes to stations in B1) and B2) occurred over 60 years ago.

THE ANSWERS: Darjeeling, Matheran and Sheopur Kalan are (the only) terminuses of branch lines on 2’0″ gauge. Amta and Bilara WERE terminuses of branch lines of 2″0″ gauge and are now BG terminuses. Shivpuri, Bhind and Kishanganj WERE terminuses of branch lines of 2″0″ gauge and are now BG wayside stations.

The first (mostly) correct answers were from Anuj Budhkar and Samit Roychoudhury.

Afterthought: In the picture of Sheopur Kalan you can see what may the last goods wagons on the 2’0″ gauge on IR. There may be some on the Darjeeling line but they are not in regular use either.

The infamous station of Seroni Road (why?) also lies on the line to Sheopur Kalan.