Q 01/05

Which animal beat Peter Cooper's steam locomotive Tom Thumb in a famous race near Baltimore in 1830?

A) Mule

B) Horse

C) Donkey

D) Bullock

Answer · why

B) Horse

The horse won only because a belt slipped off Tom Thumb's blower and the fire lost its draught. Until then the tiny engine had pulled easily ahead.

Q 02/05

Which film series cast the Great Western locomotive Olton Hall, repainted crimson, as its school train?

A) Harry Potter

B) The Chronicles of Narnia

C) St Trinian's

D) Nanny McPhee

Answer · why

A) Harry Potter

Harry Potter's Hogwarts Express was played by a Hall-class engine renamed Hogwarts Castle. Its crimson paint broke with tradition: Great Western engin...

Q 03/05

What do steam locomotives drop onto the rails ahead of their wheels to stop them slipping on wet track?

A) Gravel

B) Sawdust

C) Sand

D) Salt

Answer · why

C) Sand

Sand gives steel wheels a grip on steel rails. American engines carried it in a dome on top of the boiler, where the rising heat kept it dry enough to...

Q 04/05

Which film producer ran a rideable miniature steam railroad around his Los Angeles backyard from 1950?

A) Howard Hughes

B) Cecil B. DeMille

C) Jack Warner

D) Walt Disney

Answer · why

D) Walt Disney

Walt Disney named his one-eighth-scale engine Lilly Belle after his wife. Guests rode behind it, and the backyard line inspired the railroad at his fi...

Q 05/05

Which streamlined British locomotive set the steam speed record of 126 mph on a downhill run in 1938?

A) Bittern

B) Golden Eagle

C) Mallard

D) Kingfisher

Answer · why

C) Mallard

Mallard was only four months old when it flew down Stoke Bank on what was officially a brake test. The effort overheated a bearing, and it went straig...