Stations unsure of their name

[Elecman]

Lostock very occasionally becomes Lostock Parkway.

As opposed to Lostock Hall or Lostock Gralam

 

[xotGD]

Darlington Bank Top

To differentiate from Darlington North Road.

And is it Kings Cross or King's Cross?

 

[aliceh]

Pokesdown had the signs and announcements changed a few years ago to "Pokesdown for Boscombe", but it's still steadfastly just "Pokesdown" according to National Rail

 

[DarloRich]

Darlington Bank Top/ Darlington

( i don't think it has been known, officially, as Bank Top since about the 1930's!)

 

[LRV3004]

Cross Gates/Crossgates, at least back in the 90s.

Does it still have both versions of the station sign on the platforms?

 

[notlob.divad]

Rainford or Rainford Junction? It was always Rainford Junction when I was growing up, despite the actual junction being removed well before I was born. However recently it seems to have become known simply as Rainford. However the strangest thing is that on some maps the settlement around the station is still refered to as Rainford Junction and there is a good 1/2 mile of open countryside between the station and the actual village of Rainford.

 

[LSWR Cavalier]

Gesundbrunnen ("Spring of health") in Berlin really should be Nordkreuz, there are stations called Ostkreuz, Westkreuz, Suedkreuz. But there was opposition to renaming Gb, so it just has "Nordkreuz" in small letters on the signboards. I bet most Berliners would understand if one asked how to get to Nordkreuz.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Cark - is it "and Cartmel" or not?

(Interestingly the road signs for the village throw in another curveball - they say "Cark In Cartmel"!)

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Lostock very occasionally becomes Lostock Parkway.

I remember an Oxford station announcer in Thames Trains days announcing that the next Bicester Town train would stop at "Islip International Parkway"...

 

[nw1]

Han(d)borough?

I think this came up some years ago, but I forget the explanation now - sorry!

In 1984 it was definitely Han*d*borough. A look at old timetables from 1965, 1973 and 1981 also reveals that spelling.

Sometime in the 80s, it changed name from Handborough to Hanborough and has remained that way since. Perhaps around the time it started receiving regular services, rather than peak-only.

It looks like the actual village may have changed name at some point (though I'm not sure when), as a 1945-55 map reveals that it was spelt 'Handborough'. So it looks like for some reason the village changed its name at some point in the 20th century, and the station then followed sometime later.

 

[scragend]

Cross Gates/Crossgates, at least back in the 90s.

On this theme, Hag Fold station became "Hagfold" on the platform signs for a while. Conversely Westhoughton used to have one or two platform signs which said "West Houghton".

The car park at Daisy Hill station has a sign which refers to "P + (NR arrows) Daisyhill".

Northern and its predecessors seem to struggle with spaces between words! (Although the Daisy Hill one may be a TfGM sign)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Lostock very occasionally becomes Lostock Parkway.

It was called the latter originally until InterCity got a bit of a dominance over the term, I believe.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Han(d)borough?

I think this came up some years ago, but I forget the explanation now - sorry!

In 1984 it was definitely Han*d*borough. A look at old timetables from 1965, 1973 and 1981 also reveals that spelling.

Sometime in the 80s, it changed name from Handborough to Hanborough and has remained that way since. Perhaps around the time it started receiving regular services, rather than peak-only.

It looks like the actual village may have changed name at some point (though I'm not sure when), as a 1945-55 map reveals that it was spelt 'Handborough'. So it looks like for some reason the village changed its name at some point in the 20th century, and the station then followed sometime later.

Many villages simply didn't have an official spelling. The railway chose one and usually others fell into line. Handborough was one exception - the railway-chosen spelling didn't stick, and the villagers/local authorities dropped the D. (Strictly speaking there's no single village called Hanborough, but one called Long Hanborough and another called Church Hanborough, though they're run by a single Hanborough Parish Council.)

Eventually the railway fell into line (in the 90s, I think). Mostly, at any rate... the three-letter code is still HND.

Whittlesey (town)/Whittlesea (station) is one example where the railway and town still differ. And although it doesn't have a station any more, Bletchingdon, not too far from Hanborough, still preserves the difference: the village is '-don', but the aggregates company based at the station yard is still "Smiths of Bletchington".

 

[Bletchleyite]

Valley / Y Fali / Dyffryn

Not quite sure what is on the name boards at the moment, it seems to change periodically.

 

[Bald Rick]

St Albans City now seems to use that name, however in the 1990s was very much simply “St Albans”. Personally I think the full name is preferable as it differentiates it from the Abbey station, however does anyone know when / why the shift seems to have occurred? Slightly academic locally of course as everyone just says “city station”!

‘Formally’, the change happened around 2014. That’s when the announcements changed. Possibly when GTR took over? However the station code is SAC, so in one respect it has always been.

However, it is very rare for it to be described as ‘City’ station locally. I can’t think of a time when I have heard it called as such. There’s two stations: the station (which everyone uses) and the Abbey station (which very few people from St Albans do). Anyone referring to ‘City’ station is usually referring to City Thameslink.

Bedford - CRS Code is BFM

BDM surely?

 

[davetheguard]

St James' Park, or St James's Park.

I assume we are discussing multiple names officially used for stations rather than colloquial ones? That would give a lot of localisms (Portsmouth Harbour - the harbour, Portsmouth & Southsea - the city)

If you're referring to the Exeter one, it seems to be known as St. James Park - without the apostrophe or the possessive "s" sound.

 

[nw1]

‘Formally’, the change happened around 2014. That’s when the announcements changed. Possibly when GTR took over? However the station code is SAC, so in one respect it has always been.

However, it is very rare for it to be described as ‘City’ station locally. I can’t think of a time when I have heard it called as such. There’s two stations: the station (which everyone uses) and the Abbey station (which very few people from St Albans do). Anyone referring to ‘City’ station is usually referring to City Thameslink.

And before that, it was St Albans City again by the looks of things.

The 1981 timetable on timetableworld.com (in which, incidentally, the station received two DMUs an hour to London, one fast, one stopping - plus an InterCity service about every two hours) revealed that name.

 

[bramling]

‘Formally’, the change happened around 2014. That’s when the announcements changed. Possibly when GTR took over? However the station code is SAC, so in one respect it has always been.

However, it is very rare for it to be described as ‘City’ station locally. I can’t think of a time when I have heard it called as such. There’s two stations: the station (which everyone uses) and the Abbey station (which very few people from St Albans do). Anyone referring to ‘City’ station is usually referring to City Thameslink.





BDM surely?

That ties in with how I saw it - not having had much to do with St Albans for some years by that point I was surprised to see “St Albans City” start appearing.

Have to disagree with the point about “city station”, though with a caveat. When I was in St Albans in the 1990s this is how I heard it referred to pretty much exclusively. However, this may have been influenced by me being in the area near the abbey station, so there may have been more of a need to differentiate between the stations than elsewhere in the city.

 

[nw1]

Many villages simply didn't have an official spelling. The railway chose one and usually others fell into line. Handborough was one exception - the railway-chosen spelling didn't stick, and the villagers/local authorities dropped the D. (Strictly speaking there's no single village called Hanborough, but one called Long Hanborough and another called Church Hanborough, though they're run by a single Hanborough Parish Council.)

Eventually the railway fell into line (in the 90s, I think). Mostly, at any rate... the three-letter code is still HND.

Whittlesey (town)/Whittlesea (station) is one example where the railway and town still differ. And although it doesn't have a station any more, Bletchingdon, not too far from Hanborough, still preserves the difference: the village is '-don', but the aggregates company based at the station yard is still "Smiths of Bletchington".

Interesting, thanks.
Also brings to mind the Reading station announcements of the time, which were non-automated: I remember the station's one-and-only evening peak service started from Reading Platform 7 at that time, operated by a 117, and the announcer pronounced the stations in a way that would suggest the station was called "Handborough Combe" if you didn't know otherwise.

 

[Purple Orange]

Newcastle seems to be called simply "Newcastle" in most railway contexts but is almost always referred to as "Central Station" locally (and on the Metro network). I have sometimes heard it announced (manually) on trains as "Newcastle Central".

There are then a few which are almost always referred to with one name but have a suffix applied very occasionally - Carlisle Citadel for instance.

Yeah, it’s “the Central station” to me. Although outside of Newcastle and Tyne & Wear, referring to the station as Newcastle seems reasonable. Same with London - when outside of London, it’s a case of “getting in to London”. Also with cities with one mainline station, it seems strange to refer to ask when in Sheffield, “can you tell me how to get to Sheffield station?”

 

[bramling]

Letchworth Garden City used to be just Letchworth, until they changed it. everyone i know still calls it Letchworth. Couldn't see the point in the change really. OK Welyn Garden City - yes as there is also a Welyn North.

Letchworth is a bit of a bugbear. The renaming came after quite a bit of badgering by a small coterie of locals keen to promote the superiority of Letchworth being a “garden city”. As you say, pretty much no one locally says anything other than Letchworth, either for the town or station. Indeed you’d probably get an odd look if you did use the full name!

The railway does seem to have embraced the full name though, after a slow start most signage and announcements nowadays use it. I think the 387s are the inevitable exception though.

I’m not sure the garden city credentials are really anything to brag about. You wouldn’t get pestering for “Stevenage New Town”, which certainly used to carry derogatory connotations a generation ago.

 

[urbophile]

Did the railway have anything to do with the divergent spelling of Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells?
As for the Welsh 'Wells' towns, I believe the official Welsh names for them (Llandrindod, Llanwrtyd etc) do not use an equivalent for the English suffix, but the simple one word. (Well, simple if one knows Welsh!)

 

[Llandudno]

I think some of the PIS displays on EMR units display Liverpool South Parkway HL

HL referring to High Level, it’s certainly higher than the Merseyrail platforms, but it’s all the same station.

 

[stuu]

However, it is very rare for it to be described as ‘City’ station locally. I can’t think of a time when I have heard it called as such. There’s two stations: the station (which everyone uses) and the Abbey station (which very few people from St Albans do). Anyone referring to ‘City’ station is usually referring to City Thameslink.

That's strange, when I lived there in the late 90s it was always City Station, that's what people asked for a ticket to on the bus or whatever.

Didn't the destination blinds on the 319s say St Albans City?

 

[trentvalley]

Interestingly I was just about to mention this. It seems that some train guards/managers refer to it as Trent Valley although I've never seen anything official suggesting this.

And it's the same guards that announce Tamworth Low Level

 

[Royston Vasey]

Yeah, it’s “the Central station” to me. Although outside of Newcastle and Tyne & Wear, referring to the station as Newcastle seems reasonable. Same with London - when outside of London, it’s a case of “getting in to London”. Also with cities with one mainline station, it seems strange to refer to ask when in Sheffield, “can you tell me how to get to Sheffield station?”

Indeed since the Metro was extended, Sunderland I find is now referred to amongst locals as "Sunderland Central" or occasionally just "Central", which makes some sense now the city centre has three Metro stations, if you include University, four including St Peter's.

Sunderland folk also refer to Newcastle almost exclusively as "Central Station" but it's usually understood which is meant, in context.

 

[Bald Rick]

Have to disagree with the point about “city station”, though with a caveat. When I was in St Albans in the 1990s this is how I heard it referred to pretty much exclusively. However, this may have been influenced by me being in the area near the abbey station, so there may have been more of a need to differentiate between the stations than elsewhere in the city.

That's strange, when I lived there in the late 90s it was always City Station, that's what people asked for a ticket to on the bus or whatever.

Didn't the destination blinds on the 319s say St Albans City?

I’ve been here 20 years, and lived on all sides of the city except the Abbey side, and as I said, it’s rare to hear the station called ‘City’.

 

[DorkingMain]

My namesake station now is simply known as Dorking, but is still down in some systems as Dorking (Main) to distinguish it from Dorking Deepdene.

Some of the signage at Reading on the entrance still says "Reading General".

Ashurst New Forest is still down as "Lyndhurst Road" on a few systems.

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

My namesake station now is simply known as Dorking.

It was known as 'Dorking North' or 'Dorking (North)' between 1923 and 1968. Many locals still call it 'Dorking North' (it's less of a mouthful than 'the main Dorking Station') to distinguish it from the other two.

 

[RH Liner]

Mansfield station was known in pre-closure days as Mansfield Town to distinguish it from Mansfield Central. Now that it is open again, simply as Mansfield, some on-train announcements still refer to it as Mansfield Town to distinguish it from Mansfield Woodhouse. It was always also the closest station to Mansfield Town (the football club).
Elsewhere, along the ECML, Alnmouth, or Alnmouth for Alnwick? Edinburgh, or Edinburgh Waverley? Haymarket, or Edinburgh Haymarket? Leuchars, or Leuchars for St Andrews?