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)?

From (2) and (5) we know that the passenger Jones is 1 year and 8 months older than the engineer, who is 1 year and 8 months older than the employee Stone, who is 3 years and 4 months older than the passenger Black.

From (2) and (9) we know that the fireman is not named Black.

From the above and (13) we know that the Chief Guard is not named Black or Jones.

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(4) is a little ambiguous.  By "not possibly have been suspected" does that mean that the fireman's initial is S?  That would mean the Chief Guard was named Clark, and won $3.25. 

If this were true, then we'd know that the passenger Smith won $13.85 and the passenger Clark won $16.25.  Since neither of these are divisible by 4 (in whole money terms) this would mean that the mail clerk is not named Smith or Clark.  He is also not Stone (17). 

That's as far as I got - unfortunately I'm heading home now and probably won't revisit this until I'm back in the office Monday.  Good luck!

Posted by tomarken on 2009-04-03 18:02:52