Today is the 144th anniversary of the first ever tube station in London (the Tower Subway) — good enough reason for a quiz about the railways.

1 In Anglo-Indian parlance, what is ‘Railway meat?’

2 ‘Blowing off steam’, ‘fast tracking’ and ‘tunnel vision’ are just three of the many phrases in the English language originating from rail travel. Which three-word term in common parlance comes from the steep slope a train climbs?

3 Which author’s wife named Hadley, on her way to meet her husband in Switzerland in 1922, lost a suitcase containing all his writings in a railway carriage, while at the Gare de Lyon?

4 MS Dhoni, who briefly worked as a ticket inspector in the Indian Railways, is probably the last major cricketer to represent them. But which current IPL coach represented them in domestic competition for almost 20 years?

5 Many Indian railway stations are renowned for their special fare. If you would buy bhujia at Nagpur station, farsan at Indore and mihidana at Burdwan station, what would you be expected to pick up at Agra?

6 The Orient Express is easily the most famous train in Europe, with Agatha Christie’s whodunnit being one of the many stories based on its journeys. What were the two terminal stations when it first started as a regular route?

7 Which town of just 1,60,00-odd people is, after Lucknow, the second busiest railway station in UP?

8Ghost Train to the Eastern Star is a 2006 book in which the author retraces his steps from an iconic 1975 travelogue and discovers that although famous now, he was still not recognised in person. Identify the author and the original work.

9 Alfred Hitchcock based two of his finest films on train journeys. While one of them was obviously the classic Strangers on a Train , which was the other — one of his last films before leaving the UK for Hollywood?

10 Which entity, synonymous with railway travel in India, was co-founded by French author Emile Moreau, and since the 1950s has been run by the Banerjee family, with its headquarters at Allahabad?

Answers

1. Goat meat, as the railways could not afford to serve either pork or beef.

2. ‘Making the grade’

3. Ernest Hemingway. There has been plenty of speculation that this contributed to his lean, spare style in later years.

4. Sanjay Bangar, the coach of Kings XI Punjab.

5. The petha. Or ‘translucent soft candy from the ash gourd vegetable’, as the tourist books say.

6. Paris and Istanbul

7. Mughalsarai, used to be India’s busiest station and where the main Delhi-Kolkata line meets the ‘chord’ line.

8. Paul Theroux; The Great Railway Bazaar

9.The Lady Vanishes , lovely little gem

10. Wheeler Book Stores

Joy Bhattacharjyais a quiz master, Director - Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI

Follow Joy on Twitter >@joybhattacharj

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