British Railways Quiz for Experts | Trains

Answer: Nottingham

It isn't really possible to get every city on the main routes. Despite the Inter-City maps showing Nottingham in between Kettering and Alfreton and Mansfield Parkway in fact the train has to leave the line half way on a suburban line going due east and if you want to go to Nottingham you go there specially.

It's not on the way through on the route between London and Sheffield in reality. Brighton is the end of the line rather than a branch (due to reaching the sea!).

Answer: Gloucester

Gloucester has trains going either to Wales or Bristol. It used to have a station on each line, one called Eastgate. When it closed in 1975 all the trains on the Bristol line now have to take a little branch to the existing station and then reverse back to their own line. British efficiency at its typical best.

Answer: Carstairs and Lockerbie

In 1960 a bunch of stations closed in the Scottish border lines, leaving a 38 mile space between these two stations. Plymouth and Totnes was a fair shlep but not that far, and has now been given a station at Ivybridge to break the gap in two.

Answer: Liverpool

All three have a Victoria station. Liverpool Victoria is an insurance company but not a station.

Answer: Acton

Acton now has seven. Acton Town, Central, Main Line, North Acton, South Acton, East Acton and West Acton. There was an eighth, Acton Green, but as it was in Chiswick it was renamed Chiswick Park. Anyone finding Acton Bridge will find it's in a totally different place. Watford, Finchley and Exeter have a bunch of stations each but not seven.

Answer: Arisaig

Arisaig is only a matter of yards west of Mallaig which is two stops to the north. The west of Scotland overhangs both extremes of England and Wales, the other two being their furthest west.

Answer: Waterloo

Made famous by Abba (OK, not really), London's Waterloo station has the most.

Answer: Berney Arms

In the middle of the Norfolk Broads, Berney Arms is (as it probably sounds) a public house popular with tourists, and though the railway line passes next to it there's no actual road. Not having been there I can only assume the other customers have to walk there.

Answer: Ryde Pier Head

Ryde Pier Head meets the boat from Portsmouth Harbour a few miles to the north on mainland Britain. Your first meeting with the Isle of Wight when using that ferry drops you off almost a mile from dry land, and you take an old London Underground train along the pier to Ryde Esplanade and beyond, or get off at Pier Head and walk the short distance to the town along the pier. Snaresbrook is an interesting station which itself is built on a bridge, but the entrance is on land which leads to a staircase to the station proper, so technically though it's built above ground it's still connected by its bridgework. Pier Head is on a metal platform surrounded by nothing but sea besides the pier access.

Answer: East Croydon

Uckfield once took you all the way south to Brighton directly, around 16 miles as the crow flies. Since the line was curtailed at Uckfield in 1969 you must now travel the length of the branch back to the main Brighton line which splits at East Croydon. That means you travel 35 miles north and then another 41 miles to Brighton, making a total of 76 miles to take a 16 mile journey.

This is not unusual in Britain, and people still actually take this trip as the alternatives may be no better as many buses only run occasionally.