Proud, fervent speech praising the railway? (11)
I believe the answer is:
protuberant
'proud' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'fervent speech praising the railway?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'speech' could be 'rant' (rant is a kind of speech) and 'rant' is found within the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is located in the answer.
'railway?' could be 'r' (eg in Great Western Railway) and 'r' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for protuberant that I've seen before include "Bulging" , "Sticking out" , "Outstanding" , "Proud" .)