Glossary/Summary of Acronyms

[crispy1978]

Simply - is there one on here?

Whilst I can get my head round some of them - like I know what HST, TOC, TPE, FCC, etc are - some of them I do have to have a good think about, and then decide I don't know what they are, but I aren't sufficiently interested in the topic to ask what they are.

If there is/was a page which said what these are - for example, just seen a post on Easements, which I assume is a directory of via routes which are acceptable, but I would have had no real idea what one of these were if it was mentioned in a post.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The subject does come up every so often, perhaps a search of the forum for a similar topic may be useful. I'm sure there are websites for general acronyms, but a specific railway one? I'm not sure.

The forum staff do ask that before an acronym is used, the full term is used with the acronym in brackets (for example 'London Marylebone (MYB)' should precede usage of 'MYB'), however some forum users forget or don't realise that not everyone knows what it is.

Some terms will only really show up in particular parts of the forum because they are specific. 'Easements', for example, would more often be used in the ticketing section as a reference to a section (or a part thereof) of 'The Routeing Guide' which permits, or restricts, routes over which a ticket is valid.

I must admit I thought a glossary might have been put in the new ticketing guide that the forum has sprouted, but it seems not.

 

[ainsworth74]

I must admit I thought a glossary might have been put in the new ticketing guide that the forum has sprouted, but it seems not.

We're working on it

 

[brillopad]

Simply - is there one on here?

Whilst I can get my head round some of them - like I know what HST, TOC, TPE, FCC, etc are - some of them I do have to have a good think about, and then decide I don't know what they are, but I aren't sufficiently interested in the topic to ask what they are.

If there is/was a page which said what these are - for example, just seen a post on Easements, which I assume is a directory of via routes which are acceptable, but I would have had no real idea what one of these were if it was mentioned in a post.

The nice folk at 'Great Western Coffee Shop' have one here

 

[Mugby]

I find it quite interesting trying to work out the Engineers Line References sometimes, the three letter codes you see on plates attaches to bridges and structures etc.

e.g. SPC: St Pancras - Chesterfield, BAH: Barnsley - Horbury, MVN: Manchester Victoria - Normanton, SMJ: Swinton - Milford Jcn. to name just a few.

 

[button_boxer]

I find it quite interesting trying to work out the Engineers Line References sometimes, the three letter codes you see on plates attaches to bridges and structures etc.

e.g. SPC: St Pancras - Chesterfield, BAH: Barnsley - Horbury, MVN: Manchester Victoria - Normanton, SMJ: Swinton - Milford Jcn. to name just a few.

You can really irritate certain forum members by using BML to refer to the Brighton main line...

 

[SS4]

BNS is not Birmingham New Street

In my sig you have WVH = Wolverhampton, BHM = Birmingham New Street, LM = London Midland

 

[johnnychips]

I think a list of station codes (there must be a list somewhere) is rather different from a list of railway abbreviations and acronyms. I think it would be polite to fill in the full name of the station before using the codes. However, for other abbreviations, tickets and technical, a glossary would be a good idea.

Incidentally, an acronym has to be pronounceable as a word. An abbreviation is a set of letters. So for TOC (Train Operating Company), if people call them 'tocks' it is an acronym, 'T-O-C's it is an abbreviation.

Edit: Here's a list of station codes. If you download the Excel file you can sort into alphabetical order and delete the rest if you want.

http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/server/show/nav.1529

Don't know if any stations have opened since.

Edit 2: Just done this, but I don't know if I am allowed to post the file on here, and actually I wouldn't know how to.

 

[GatwickDepress]

National Rail Enquires also has an index of station codes arranged in alphabetical order available here. Wikipedia has a slightly misleading article entitled "Glossary of United Kingdom railway terms" which sounds like it should be a comprehensive list of industry terms, but is seemingly an attempt to compile trainspotter slang. The Office of Rail Regulation has a somewhat more corporate glossary here.

 

[moogal]

The ones that I always have trouble reading are the vehicle types (e.g. TSO, UNDM, etc) as there seem to be so many variations.

 

[ainsworth74]

You might find this useful.

 

[starrymarkb]

BNS is not Birmingham New Street

In my sig you have WVH = Wolverhampton, BHM = Birmingham New Street, LM = London Midland

Oh yes it is

 

[bluegoblin7]

Incidentally, an acronym has to be pronounceable as a word. An abbreviation is a set of letters. So for TOC (Train Operating Company), if people call them 'tocks' it is an acronym, 'T-O-C's it is an abbreviation.

Not quite. 'TOCs' as a word would certainly be an acronym, but 'T-O-Cs' would be an initialism. Abbreviations are something different entirely (although people tend to group them all, wrongly, under abbreviation), more akin to something like 'Met.' for Metropolitan.

Sorry, I'll take my pedant hat off now... it's what a big interest in the English language does to you!