Ten players from a bridge tournament find themselves in the same train, five being passengers and five being railway employees.

The passengers are called Smith, Jones, Clark, Stone, and Black, while the five railways employees - an engineer, a fireman, a guard, a chief guard, and a mail clerk - bear the same five names in some order. It is further known that:

1. The passenger Smith won $10.60 more than the chief guard did.

2. There is a difference in age between the passenger Black and the engineer, of 5 years to the day.

3. The passenger Clark is not related to the guardīs namesake, even by marriage.

4. Last week, the fireman was punished for failure to report to work. While the newspaper article about this identified the offender only as a railway employee and by his last initial, the chief guard could not possibly have been suspected.

5. The passenger Black is precisely as old as the engineer was when the passenger Jones was as old as the railway employee Stone was when the engineer was as old as the railway employee Stone now is. Moreover, the passenger Black is precisely as old as the railway employee Stone was when the passenger Jones was as old as the engineer was when the passenger Jones was as old as the engineer now is.

6. One of the passengers is the son of one of the railway employees. The mail clerk is married to the mother of the passenger in question.

7. The engineer is a neighbour of the firemanīs namesake.

8. The guard and his maternal grandfather celebrate their birthdays on the same day.

9. The fireman differs in age by less than 2 ― years both from his namesake and from the engineer.

10. The chief guardīs youngest grandson is married to the mother of the engineerīs namesake.

11. The passengers Jones and Stone live in Bridgeport.

12. The mail clerk had winnings exactly one quarter of his namesakeīs winnings, and the chief guard had winnings exactly one fifth of his namesakeīs winnings.

13. The chief guardīs namesake celebrates his birthday one week before the railway employee Stone.

14. The guard is married to a daughter of the passenger Smith.

15. The railway employee Stoneīs motherīs father was born on the same day as the passenger Clark.

16. One of the passengers is the father of one of the railway employees.

17. The engineer differs less in age from the mail clerk than from any of the eight other persons.

18. The railway employee Stone won $2.80 more than the railway employee Smith did; the railway employee Clark won $3.25.

19. The railway employee Smith lives in Stamford.

20. Two of the railways employees won $6.60 each.


What are the names and the winnings of the railway employees (engineer, fireman, and so forth)?

Not yet having unscrambled every clue from those interlaced with the red herrings, I believe I have determined the winnings of the railway employees.

Working solely with the clues 1, 12, 18 and 20, I've reached the following information for the railways employees: 

STONE won $7.10
SMITH won $4.30 and is the mail clerk
CLARK won $3.25
JONES won $6.60 *
BLACK won $6.60 *

* Either JONES or BLACK would need be the chief guard.

The only other logical possibility is SMITH is the chief guard and STONE is the mail clerk. This will result as the following:

STONE won $5.45 and is the mail clerk
SMITH won $4.30 and is the chief guard
CLARK won $2.65
JONES won $6.60
BLACK won $6.60

Edited on April 5, 2009, 11:42 pm

Posted by Dej Mar on 2009-04-03 03:39:08