Great Western Coffee Shop

To solve this puzzle I am looking for nine of these, all with a railway connection.

Two are Irish, one is Cornish, one Breton, one French and one is Armenian. There are at least two of one and four of another, and one has been adopted by a western nation.

Who or what are they?

Place them in the correct order.

There are two "odd ones out". Which are they, and why? The reason is different for both.

No clues will be offered during Boxing Day! (Having said that, from what I have seen so far from the knowledge of forum members it may have been solved by breakfast tomorrow.....)

Stations between Plymouth (or it might be Exeter, in which case David and Thomas are the first two) and Penzance (and branches) named after saints. I can't quite get nine from St Budeaux to St Ives.

The "foreigners" are Blazey (Armenia), Germans (Auxerre, France), Budeaux and Austell (Brittany), Columb and Ia (St Ives) from Ireland.

St Keyne was a woman - one of the odd ones out?

Not totally sold on the saints ... trying to make Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blixen and Rudolph fit. Not doing hugely well, mind, even if there was a prince Rudolph of Armenia who was adopted by the USA.

Talking about Armenia ... did you know we have a short URL link to the forum with an Armenian URL - http://melksh.am/coffeeshop ...

Many thanks for posting the quiz eightonedee ... I look forward to learning what the real answer is during the day!

Haven't a clue, but I expect that one of the odd ones out is Taunton - or perhaps Doublebois, which probably counts as two on its own.

I'm looking at heritage engines but am resorting to search engines to get me started.

I've no idea if this is correct, but it's good to learn the name Blazey is Armenian. I'm familiar with the name from a different context (neither Cornwall nor Armenia) in which it always stuck out a little. Good to learn non-railway things here too.  :)

Your modesty does you credit :)

I still need to do some work on my "saints" theory. But certainly St Blazey is named after Blaise, who was Armenian.

However, the holes in my original thesis are that St Columba - after whom St Columb Road is named - isn't the better-known Irish Columba, and was a woman to boot - which torpedoes my earlier odd one out!

I'm baffled. the two Irish examples might lead us to think of sites where non-standard gauge is used (or was used) on major lines. Cornwall had the broad gauge, Breton & Armenia had metre gauge, and France probably had some as well (not sure where the gauge changes for Spain these days). Or perhaps something to do with no-standard track (e.g the strange three rail system in Ireland, and the vacuum system in Cornwall). Not sure if this leads anywhere so looking forward to the solution!

Notwithstanding the "no clues on Boxing Day" promise, as the thread seems to have run out of steam early this afternoon, some follow...

When I checked this morning and started to read Jontymort's first post, it looked like it had been solved in the first hour of Boxing Day! Yes - it's saints.

However, to finish the puzzle, someone needs to think about where you start, and how they fit into a single sequence (or order). You will have to change trains however. And I did not have the gender of any saint in mind for the odd ones out.

I am in work tomorrow (not on the train - line closed). When I get home I will check to see if it's been solved, or if more clues are needed.

In the meantime, Jontymort, award yourself an extra spoon of cranberry sauce on your cold turkey sandwich for getting the main theme and many of the answers!

It's not the turkey, it's the extra glass of something that is preventing due attention to a full solution...

Best wishes,

Jonathan

All these Saint stations are covered by the Ride Cornwall ranger

St Ives aka Saint Ia (Irish)
St Erth (Irish),
St Austell aka Saint Austol (Cornish)
St Blazey aka Saint Blaise (Armenian) - plus odd one out - closed station, now Par
St Columb Road aka St Columb Major/Minor aka St Columba the Virgin (Cornish)
St Keyne Wishing Well Halt
St Germans aka Saint Germanus (French)
St Budeaux Ferry Road/Victoria Road aka St Budoc (Breton) - plus odd one out - not in Cornwall but used to be

There are 2 St Ives in the UK
There are 4 places named St Columb something

Alternatively

St Ives aka Saint Ia (Irish) - 2 places called St Ives in UK
St Erth (Irish),
St Austell aka Saint Austol (Cornish)
St Blazey aka Saint Blaise (Armenian) - plus odd one out - closed station, now Par
St Germans aka Saint Germanus (French)
St Budeaux Ferry Road/Victoria Road aka Saint Budoc (Breton) - plus odd one out - only name with 2 stations
Exeter St Thomas
Exeter St Davids - there are 4 places named St David in the world, and was adopted by the Welsh

Wow! Well said that man!
My remnants of my brain cell has been well and truly picked by alcohol over the last week so anything remotely thinking leaves me blank I'm afraid.
Fortunately I inhabit the far west of Cornwall so all those mentioned are manna from heaven (apart from the Devon ones of course).

Back from work, and having digested my cold turkey dinner - Plymothian (in his second version) has almost cleaned up. So just to fill in the gaps-

The hypothetical journey started at St James Park - there being at least two St James (the Great and Less). It was also an odd one out (ex-LSWR/Southern, all the rest being GWR).

The "at least four" one was St Thomas (Doubting/Aquinas/Becket/More) - so Exeter St Thomas, and with that each station/saint has a clue attributed to it.

Apart from that - take a bow!

Excellent stuff, and thanks for setting it.

I have only once done the Exmouth branch. We were down for a wedding, and my wife couldn't understand that the main thing to photograph in Topsham was the signal box. Some people, eh?