Advent Quiz - 24 places for 24th December

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I'm hoping to get out and about in 2022 and perhaps make it to some of these places.   Can you identify them, and chose your top 10 to visit?

I am letting you come back and change your vote if you wish to do so after some of the more mysterious answers have been revealed.  (one solution each until lunch time please!)

1. Penrhyndeudraeth - Ellendune

"By the 1970s the factory in [redacted] supplied 90% of the explosives for the British coal industry in the form of nitroglycerine-based explosive products. The prolonged miners' strike of 1984 and the competition from foreign coal imports resulted in wholesale pit closures which, in turn, reduced the demand for mining explosives to the point where production was no longer economic and the site was finally closed in 1995 and cleared in 1997, bringing nearly 130 years of explosives production at the site to an end."

2. Paddington - brooklea


3. Pwllheli - stuving


4. Pembroke Dock - Hafren


5. Portland, Maine - brooklet


6. Poole - brooklea


7. Portree - PhilWakely


8. Portishead - johnneyw

"The track is regularly cleared to a 10 metre width to access the infrastructure along the line.

"GRIP^▸ (Guide to Railway Investment Projects - Network Rail's process for project management of schemes through development and implementation) 3 was completed in March 2017. The report revealed an astonishing increase in cost, up to £170 million, which triggered a review of the entire project. This resulted in a simplified proposal, delivering one train per hour at a cost of £116.4 million, for which funding is fully in place and secure. The project is proceeding on that basis, but upgrading to two trains per hour can still be being carried out in the future.

"The DCO^▸ (Development Consent Order, or Driver Controlled Operation (that is, operation and dispatch of the train solely by the driver even with another member of staff on board), depending on context) was submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in December 2019 and completed the examination stage in April 2021. Technical work continues with Network Rail and further expenditure of up to £6.1 million in 2020 and 2021 will cover legal, land, environmental and technical rail work to address questions and work required during the Planning Inspectorate's six stage DCO process.

"£7 million of highways and civil engineering work will also be procured during 2020/21, so that this work is ready to proceed as and when the DCO process is completed. This is also needed for the Full Business Case approval, which will follow as soon as the DCO is approved."

9. Porlock Weir - bradshaw


10. Plockton - staving


11. Pilning - lympstone_commuter


12. Portway Parkway - Red Squirrel


13. Paris - eightonedee


14. Portsoy - TonyK


15. Penryn - Sulis John

"When constructing the loop a novel approach was adopted which avoided the building of a footbridge and works to the disused platform. The formerly disused northern end of the platform has been reinstated, and is now called Platform 2, and an extension has been built onto the southern end which is now called Platform 1. The middle section of the platform is now used to pass between the two. The extension and reinstatement creates a single platform of 238 metres (781 ft) in length; the southern end of the loop joins the main branch at the northern end of Platform 1. New modern shelters have been built on each platform, and the brick shelter from 1998 still exists."

16. Patney and Chirton - RA


17. Pyongyang - PhilWakely

At 6am every day, a rendition of "Where Are You, Dear General?" is played over a speaker system at the station. Some think the song may be intended as a morning alarm call for local residents.

The station presently has three floors above ground level as well as a basement. The ground level houses a ticket desk exclusively for government employees. At the first floor there is a waiting room, toilets, a ticket desk and access to the trains. At the second floor there are offices for the staff and at the third the office of the station master. There are five platforms, with number 1 being the most spacious.

18. Phuket - staving

There is currently no rail line to [redacted]. Trains run to [redacted] 230 km away.

Songthaews are a common mode of transport on [redacted]. [redacted]'s songthaews are larger than those found in other areas of [country]. Songthaews are the cheapest mode of transportation from town to town. They travel between the town and beaches. There are also conventional bus services and motorbike taxis

19.Penn Station, New York - stuving


20.Porthcawl - RichT54

The closure came in 1963 despite the fact that the branch was still well-used, and the move was very unpopular with local businesses and residents alike. Poor ticket sales from [redacted] station itself were used to justify the closure, but the fact that most travelers bought their tickets to, rather than from [redacted] (the ticket sale therefore recorded elsewhere) was ignored.

21. Peterborough - ellendune


22. Pleasure Beach, Blackpool - OxonHutch


23. Plym Bridge - PhilWakely


24. Pole (the north one) Oxonhutch
A place in London, perhaps, or place 2660 miles north thereof?


And how about some festive railway music ...

[johnneyw]

8 sounds rather like Portishead.

[PrestburyRoad]

12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

[grahame]

12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

Very close but (unless I have been fed a mislabelled image) not quite bullseye. Yes, Avonmouth Bridge

[Reginald25]

23 Buckfast?

[CyclingSid]

Has 7 just applied for city status?

[brooklea]

6. Poole

[PhilWakely]

23. Plym Bridge platform on thr Plym Valley Railway.

[Sulis John]

15 sounds like Penryn

[PrestburyRoad]

Quote from: PrestburyRoad on Today at 04:13:38 am
12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

Very close but (unless I have been fed a mislabelled image) not quite bullseye. Yes, Avonmouth Bridge

I will defer to my learned colleague's sources; I have travelled over the bridge but not stood in a place with that view.  What I can say is that the view is facing downstream because the shipping-height pylon is behind the motorway bridge.

[ellendune]

1 sounds like Penrhyndeudraeth

[JayMac]

1. Gwaith Powdwr, near Penguindandruff (I think that's how you spell it ) in North Wales.

[grahame]

Quote from: PrestburyRoad on Today at 04:13:38 am
12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

Very close but (unless I have been fed a mislabelled image) not quite bullseye. Yes, Avonmouth Bridge

I will defer to my learned colleague's sources; I have travelled over the bridge but not stood in a place with that view.  What I can say is that the view is facing downstream because the shipping-height pylon is behind the motorway bridge.

Embarrassed - I failed to check permission to use the picture from our friends at FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site) (webmaster is here, so I can probably get "retrospective") ... they site it as being site of new Portway Parkway station so it is indeed looking downstream to the Avonmouth Bridge, but on the opposite bank of the river to the Portishead line.

Has 7 just applied for city status?

Err ... I don't know. I doubt it!

1. Gwaith Powdwr, near Penguindandruff (I think that's how you spell it ) in North Wales.

That's the spelling in Inuktun


23 is indeed Plym Bridge rather than Buckfastleigh

Coming along, folks!

[Red Squirrel]

12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

Very close but (unless I have been fed a mislabelled image) not quite bullseye. Yes, Avonmouth Bridge

Indeed; wrong side of the river. This will be Portway Park and Ride.

The shipping-height pylon is one of a pair; this image shows the northern one. And I’m sure FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site) won’t mind..!

[grahame]

12 is the Avonmouth Bridge where the M5 crosses the Bristol Avon, with the Portishead branch in the foreground.

Very close but (unless I have been fed a mislabelled image) not quite bullseye. Yes, Avonmouth Bridge

Indeed; wrong side of the river. This will be Portway Park and Ride.

Thank you, Red Squirrel - your picture I think?   Thank you if I can use it - apologies and I will take it down if I can't.  From the excellent FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site) site at https://fosbr.org.uk/timelines/portway-station/