What is it 2

[John B]

Colombo,

I am glad you are getting "St. Simon", it is indeed a very fine A3. In my book it is shedded at Copley Hill 37B.

There is indeed nothing wrong whatever with the tree you are barking up, apart from the fact that it is unfortunately the wrong one

Now, whatever else I say could be construed as additional clues, is it OK to give additional clues

I shall assume that it is indeed so.

You have the "noggin" part right in clue 3. - now think of Yorkshire dialect for the other word, note that it is plural.

Symonds Yat is a limestone crag on the river Wye it is in an incredible position, I have rock climbed there many moons ago, there lies the haunt of Peregrine Falcons - an obfuscated clue.

[Colombo]

John,

O.K.

I am from York which is North Riding and I have a different dialect to East Riding people. I have found out that in your kneck of the woods, a "yat" is a gate, and incidentally a "slap hole" is a puddle.

So the answer to the last clue is probably Gateshead. I hope everybody is paying attention. Come on somebody, get the other two clues.

Colombo

[Colombo]

John,

Are we looking for 60116 Hal o' the Wynd?

Poem by William Soutar.

Hal o' the Wynd, he taen the field
Alang be the skinklin Tay:
And he hackit doun the men o' Chattan;
Or was it the men o' Kay?

Whan a' was owre he dichetd his blade
And steppit awa richt douce
To draik his drouth in the Skinner's Vennel
At clapperin Clemmy's house.

Hal o' the Wynd had monie a bairn;
And bairns' bairns galore
Wha wud speer about the bloody battle
And what it was fochten for.

"Guid-faith! My dawties, I never kent;
But yon was a dirlin day
Whan I hackit doun the men o' Chattan;
Or was it the men o' Kay?"

No, I thought not, but its a great poem

Colombo

[John B]

Colombo,

Gateshead is correct, I would have thought "Yat" was also common dialect in North Yorkshire too, these two ridings (East & North) had more philological similarities with each other than with West Yorkshire.

The engine in question was shedded at Gateshead (In the 1950 ABC) - that narrows it down a little

Hal O' the Wynd, it wasnae that engine mon. Aye! what a poem, reminiscent of Rabbie at his best!

The "idiot's hat" is a triply transposed clue, think of another word for an idiot and yet another for a hat, that will get you to the second transpositon, the third transposition should give you the engine type

Sorry, but this is rather a hard puzzle, it came to me in a flash, mostly I have to struggle for hours to create half decent clues without initially giving too much away.

I believe that with this post I am still, but only just, in the forum ranks of a Thompson L1, one of my favourite engines.

Good luck

[Colombo]

John,

I am disappointed about the second clue because I was about to ask if this was an allusion to Sparrow Hawk. You see an idiot, may be a twit and a twit could be a sparrow. The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland was a salesman with a price ticket in his hat and to sell is to hawk, so I thought that I had Sparrow Hawk. That would be 60018, which has a double 0 like a double barrel, a "1" to represent the definite object and an 8 which is like a pair of round wings.

At this point, if as you say, you are looking at a locomotive type from Gateshead, I cannot see any clue leading to an A1, A2, A3, A4 or named B1. If it is not a namer, I shall be completely flumoxed.

I do not have the 1950 Ian Allan Combined Volume, but I do have Paul Bolger's list for Gateshead MPD in 1950 and also the Locoshed Index for that year, which give identical lists of named locos, so I think I probably have the same list as yourself,

Colombo

[John B]

Colombo,

What excellent clue deciphering skills you have, I see you have not lost your touch. It is very hard to establish the correct answer when there are so many variables.

You have the right answer, it was indeed Sparrow Hawk 60018, though the way the answer was arrived at was slightly different to the way the clues were given.

1. A double barrelled round wing:

Sparrow Hawk = a double barreled name
Round wing = a true hawk or accipiter (as opposed to the longwings/falcons or falconiformes)


2. An idiot's hat = A fools cap = an A4 (paper sizes)

3. Yat's noggin = Gates + head = Gateshead

So there you have it.

This is JB listening out (In radio communication parlance, it's over to you)

Have we really got to seven pages with this??

[Colombo]

John,

I arrived at Sparrow Hawk by a completely different route!

Here is an easier one to give somebody else a chance.

1. Always Jarvik.
2. Gresley's, not Braun's.
3. The Keys to Heaven's Gate.

Colombo

[John B]

Here's an easy one to give other folks a second choice:

It's an ex LNER type of engine.

1. Adding all her numbers up it comes to seventeen

2. His son designed all the Hull and Barnsley locomotives

3. In 1950 she was shedded at 37b

Have fun, if you guess the locomotive correctly then you have to think of three clues to another LNER engine!

[John B]

Colombo,

As no one else seems to have tackled such excellent clues in your post I thought I might liven things up here again.

I believe I have it man, I shall be deliberately obtuse in my answer to see if anyone else would also like to jump in and name the engine.

Based in Eboracum, it was an excellent mixed traffic engine of SNG's design named after a local (Eboracum) pedagogical institute

[50A]

From a mixture of Columbo and John B's clues, I think I have the answer - what I don't have is a set of clues for a follow on.

[Colombo]

John,

Your reply, though suitably disguised, indicates that you have the answer.

I believe your clue is relating to a gentleman engineer with a Hibernian forename, and whose surname is as "strong as a pound" and who was worth his weight in silver. In other words, the designer of GNR No. 1.

50A,

Do you have the answers?

Colombo

[50A]

Hi Columbo.

The loco is V2 number 4818 BR 60847 St.Peter's School York AD627.

Jarvik - I presume to be the correct Norse spelling for the modern Yorvik - York of course, supported by Eboracum, the Roman name for York,from John's post. As a York resident I should be flogged if I got that wrong, (still less painful than being a Scotsman outside the city walls for thos who know the local laws).

The Keys to Heavens Gate - Heavens gate was looked after by St.Peter. The crossed keys being the school emblem. Also supported by John's "pedagogical institute " Pedagogy - prepatory training.

Clue 2 I could not get.

Andy


[/i]

[richard]

Gresley / von Braun - both designed machines known as "V2"s...


Richard

[Colombo]

Richard, 50A,

You are both absolutely correct. Now can you solve John B's clues?


Colombo

[John B]

Colombo,

I do indeed have the clues but as you have given one or two extra ones I thought I may leave it for a while and encourage others to answer.

50A - It's quite easy to give clues, I just open my ABC combined volume, (most locomotive books will do- or the LNER Encyclopedia locomotive pages ) select a named locomotive and then think of three clues that will partially hide it's identity.

The three main features for clues are: the locomotives number, name and shed number or in addition to, or in place of, any combination from any of the following: class designation, designer or wheel arrangement.

Good luck