Quiz question I've never been able to use, because nobody believes the answer: where is Furness Railway locomotive No. 115 tonight?
Answer: under Cumbria. On this day in 1892 — Thursday 22 September, iron-ore country between Ulverston and Dalton-in-Furness — the D1 was shunting at Lindal-in-Furness when the ground beneath it simply opened. Mine workings below, a large deep hole above, and one engine going down out of sight. The crew got clear, which is the part I always say first.
The tender was hauled back up. The locomotive never was. It is still down there, and how far down is genuinely unsettled — people have offered numbers for over a century and the honest answer is that nobody knows. (My favourite kind of fact: one where the missing detail is the size of a locomotive.) Trains have run over the spot ever since, which means that somewhere in Furness, every timetabled service passes above a colleague.
Pip, the tender was recovered, but No. 115 was written off where it lay — and the Furness Railway had traffic running again within days, which for an iron-ore line was the whole point. Ulverston to Dalton simply carried on over the top of her.
Pip, I have spent decades listening to people boast about their parking, and none of them has ever achieved anything that thorough. The Furness engine is also, technically, the least accessible piece of rolling stock in the county.