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Longest, shortest ... narrowest, widest ... cheapest most expensive.  Here are seven sets of extremes I have found - but I'm not really sure of any of them. What are the extremes I have chosen, and can you come up with examples that are even more extreme?

1. Caledonian 123 and Evening Star

2. CononBridge and Gloucester

3. Dalwhinnie and Berney Arms

4. Adrian Backshall and Jonathon Jones-Pratt

5. Sishen mine to Saldanha Bay and Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town

6. Royden Park and Felixstowe Docks

7. Dartmouth and Leeds

2. Shortest and longest platforms?

A few facts from my Guiness Book of Railway Facts and Feats!

Torpantu tunnel - was highest tunnel in UK, now Shitlock Hill on the S&C
Cowburn tunnel - deepest tunnel
London and Greenwich Railway viaduct  - longest viaduct in UK, worlds longest brick arch viaduct 878 arches
Carlisle Citadel, station used by most pregrouping companies

1 is the number of driving wheels on a steam engine running in the UK (ignoring articulated locos). 123 has just 2. Evening Star has 10. It could also be the same just for preserved steam locomotives.

Alternatively 1. could relate to the number of locomotives in a class produced; there was only a single Caledonian 123 while the 251 BR 9F machines might be the largest number of loco's in a single class.

5. Longest versus shortest journey for a single unit train. Highest voltage electric railway 50kV (Saldanha) versus lowest - Parry People Mover's batteries. Shortest versus longest train.

That is what I had as my answer - or "most coupled wheels" if you don't want to put in the exception for Garretts.  But there were many other singles, and other 10 coupled locos such as the Great Eastern Decapod, and the Lickey Banker. Glad you added "UK" as I think there was a 12 coupled locomotive (class?) on the Union Pacific.


There were 422 Jinty Tanks according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LMS_Fowler_Class_3F ; the 9F was the most numerous BR standard, but had I been looking for this I would have compared the Duke of Gloucester rather than 123.  An excellent thought though - and I suspect there are many other extremes between loco pairs.

That's what I was thinking of.  Past contenders for longest have been Manchester Victoria / Exchange, and Colchester; examples tend to have some sort of mid-platform break - others please help / fill me in.      Similary for shortest, I wonder how long the staff platform for Wimbledon EMU depot is / was ....

I hadn't spotted that extreme voltage ... and I don't think electricity is used at any point in the traction chain on the Parry People Mover.  "Longest" v "Shortest", yes, was what I had - but not for the journey; there are longer journeys but you may be right for a train that does not divide or join along the way.  Are carriages taken off / added on along the way on trains like the Ghan?

If you are talking about 'standard length', then, 'Yes', coaches are taken off / added on the Ghan and Indian Pacific trains. The length on a particular day is determined by the number of bookings. I have been fortunate enough to have travelled on both the Ghan and Indian Pacific trains on two occasions. On one of those occasions, both trains comprised just a dozen coaches, whilst the other occasion saw both trains with in excess of 30 coaches.

Obviously, on any one particular outing, no coaches are added / taken off during the journey.

6. I think must be the gauge of outdoor tracks - from the smallest of the multi-gauge model railway at Royden Park at 2¹/₂ inches to the cranes at Felixstowe container port with 35 m.

Yes, that is what I had in mind.  As I (skim)read it, Royden Park is, incredibly, used to pull passengers - though from a balance view point, surely, they would have to be on somewhat broader gauge wagons?

I was thinking longest/shortest, but when I looked up a picture of Conon Bridge, it looked longer than Dilton Marsh's to me.

Google Earth does show Dilton Marsh as 15 m both, but is out of date - they were extended to 25 m since May 2018. Mind you, the TPR dated July 2020 hasn't caught up with that yet. Conon Bridge was built to 15 m nominal, but so was Beauly and perhaps others. Maybe Graham has been out with his tape measure to check them as built.

They are fixed formation block trains of 342 wagons carrying 100t iron ore each powered by five electric locomotives distributed within the train with the slave locos acting under radio control from the lead loco. Length = 3780 metres (12400 ft) - Weight = 41400 tonnes. Not bad for a 3'6" gauge railway

My reckoning was that we were looking at the shortest and longest trains anywhere.


Wasn't obvious to me ... from what I knew, there might have been short journey options with the train dropping off excess carriages ... full train from Adelaide to Alice Springs, and a shorter service onward to Darwin.   Not a new idea - I understand than London to Penzance trains sometimes drop off a few carriages at Plymouth.

3 Dalwhinnie Highest above sea level Berney Arms lowest

Yes ... that was my 'plan'.  Though should someone tell me of a fenland station below sea level, it would replace Berney Arms.

What about Essex Road, or one of its neighbours? I reckon (without good data) it's about 10 m BSL.

Corrour I allways thought was the highest above sea level.

Dalwhinnie is 1174 feet above sea level, whilst Corrour is 1,340 - some 166 feet higher.

Thankyou Phil.

However, Drumochter Summit, close to Dalwhinnie is higher at 1,484 feet.

Quite so but does not have a station as I recall.

Shippea Hill station, despite its name, appears to be exactly at sea level.

No 7 - is it most and fewest platforms for stations outside London (17 at Leeds, none at Dartmouth)?

It is ...

Just one question left:

But Leeds ties with Edinburgh Waverley, if you don't allow split platforms. If you do allow them, because used operationally or if officially numbered as such, EDI would win.

And if you say "England", Leeds ....

Just shows how difficult (or interesting) these questions can be. We'll probably have a report of a station with a negative number of platforms next and find that Dartmouth is questionable too  ;D

Yes, especially since Leeds label their platforms in quarters (a,b,c&d), and even in the TPR some more platforms (ones I wasn't counting since they have no mid-point crossover) are given listed lengths for their halves (ab & cd).

No. 4 - Head ponchos at the shortest and longest operational private standard gauge tracks in the UK. .... unless you know otherwise!