Train Spotting Is Interesting, Really Multiple Choice Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. With which locomotive was the train driver Casey Jones closely associated?

Answer: The Cannonball Express

Casey Jones was born on March 14, 1863 and died on April 30, 1930 when the train he was driving, the Cannonball Express, collided with a stationery freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. His exploits were immortalised in song "The Ballad of Casey Jones" and in movies and TV shows.

2. "Listen to the jingle, the rumble and the roar As she glides along the woodland O'er the hills and by the shore Hear the rush of the mighty engine, hear the lonesome hobos call He's riding through the jungle on the Wabash Cannonball..." These are lyrics from a song known to many. Who was at the controls of the Wabash Cannonball?

Answer: Daddy Claxton

"Now here's to Daddy Claxton, may his name forever stand
And always be remembered in the courts of all the land
His earthly race is over and as the curtain falls,
We'll carry him back to Dixie on the Wabash Cannonball".

These lyrics are those used by Roy Acuff, but the song was covered by many singers. It was about a fictional train and dates back to the 1880s.

3. In the latter part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st, the wizard adventures of a young schoolboy and his friends enthralled many in print and on the big screen. Which hero at times travelled on the Hogwarts Express?

Answer: Harry Potter

The Hogwarts Express was the train that carried pupils to and from Platform 9� at King's Cross Station in London and the magic school at Hogwarts. It was the mode of transport for the boy wizard Harry Potter and his friends. Harry Potter was the creation of J. K. Rowling and first appeared in books, before being made into a series of blockbuster movies.

4. In 1965, Frank Sinatra led the movie cast in the tale of a bunch of WW2 prisoners of war who hijacked a train to escape from enemy-held Italy to the freedom of Switzerland. What was the name of the movie?

Answer: Von Ryan's Express

Sinatra played Colonel Joseph L. Ryan, a US Air Force pilot who hardly endeared himself to the stiff upper lip British in an Italian POW camp. When the Italians gave up on the war, the Germans loaded the prisoners onto a train to take them to more secure territory, Ryan was dubbed "Von Ryan" for his ruthlessness, but he led the takeover of the train and the escape.

The movie was based on a novel by David Westheimer.

5. "This train is bound for glory, this train. This train is bound for glory, this train. This train is bound for glory, Don't carry nothing but the righteous and the holy. This train is bound for glory, this train". These were lyrics by one of the most influential singers and songwriters of the early part of the 20th Century. Which dust-bowl refugee also called his autobiography "Bound For Glory"?

Answer: Woody Guthrie

It would be difficult to underestimate the influence that Woody Guthrie had on the generations of singers that followed him. Born in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 14, 1912, Guthrie died in New York City on October 3, 1967. In between he travelled the length and breadth of the USA, writing and singing about the lives of the ordinary Americans.

As Tom Paxton said of him in song "you made those folks your whole life and you made your life a song". Guthrie was strong on union rights and stood foursquare behind the working man and woman.

The body of songs that Guthrie wrote and adapted influenced many others, including Paxton, Pete Seeger, Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

6. In the early 1970s, singer and songwriter Steve Goodman took a trip that was to inspire one of the most famous train songs of the time. Which southbound odyssey was the source?

Answer: City of New Orleans

"Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done".

Goodman performed regularly in the coffee houses and folk clubs of New York's Greenwich Village and recorded his first album in 1971. In that same year he met Arlo Guthrie, by then a mainstay of the folk music scene, and persuaded him to listen to "City of New Orleans". Guthrie was so impressed that he recorded it (with some minor changes) and made it a hit.

[see the quiz "City of New Orleans: Story of a Song" also on this site]

7. In 1946, an Anglican clergyman began to write stories based the rather cute 'Thomas The Tank Engine' and his happy friends. Years later, when the tales transferred to television they were narrated by a former member of The Beatles. Which one?

Answer: Ringo Starr

The tales were created by Rev W. Awdry and his son Christopher. In 1984, the first TV series appeared in the UK, with the Fab Four's drummer telling the stories. The show also transferred to US television, where Alec Baldwin was among those to lend their voices.

8. In a 1946 movie, Allan Lane and Roy Acuff took a Night Train journey. Where in south-central USA was their destination?

Answer: Memphis, Tennessee

Roy Acuff, the 'King of Country Music', was born on September 15, 1903 and died on November 23, 1992. He helped move country music from the barn dances to the concert halls and was a regular at the Grand Ole Opry. He played a singing sheriff in "Night Train To Memphis" who was trying to resolve a dispute between a railway company and a hillbilly family, even though his brother (played by Lane) had taken the side of the family.

9. "Pardon me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo? (Yes Yes) Track 29! Boy you can give me a shine (Can you afford to board, the Chattanooga Choo Choo?) I've got my fare And just a trifle to spare..." This was a song popularised by Glenn Miller. It told of a railway journey, but where did that journey start?

Answer: New York City

"You leave the Pennsylvania station 'bout a quarter to four
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore..."

Miller debuted the song in the 1941 movie "Sun Valley Serenade". This was the story of a big band that adopted a refugee member from Ellis Island as a publicity stunt. Of course the band leader, played by John Payne, fell for the refugee, Sonja Henie.

10. The 1996, British film "Trainspotting" was the first ever Oscar-nominated movie to feature the intricacies and dramas that centre on the hobby of spotting railway engines and trains.

Answer: False

The movie "Trainspotting" had nothing whatever to do with the hobby and contained no reference to it at all; in fact, it was all about drugs. This was the story of a group of heroin addicts and their lives in Edinburgh. Trivia note, although set in Scotland's capital, the movie was largely filmed in Glasgow.

John Hodge received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The movie was based on Irvine Walsh's novel of the same name, in which the hobby was mentioned. Danny Boyle, later to receive a Best Director Oscar for "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), directed the movie.

Source: Author darksplash

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Pagiedamon before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Train Spotting Is Interesting, Really Quiz

Train spotting: the term conjures images of men in anoraks hanging around railway stations obsessed with seeing as many different locomotives as possible. This quiz has nothing to do with that. But it does feature train references.

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