Line Nicknames

[Eagle]

Is there a nickname for the rather long "Birmingham to Worcester via Kidderminster Line"?

The Snow Hill line (or, if you need to be specific, the western half of the Snow Hill line).

 

[Whistler40145]

Welsh Marches line

 

[Whistler40145]

Burma Road (Shields Junction-Bellgrove)

 

[jimm]

I'm not sure, but is not The Cotswold Line is more of a nickname? I'm pretty sure it was know as this in the 70s, before it was branded as such.

As far as I know, the Cotswold Line name was originally devised as a marketing brand by local BR management in the mid-1970s, a few years before the formation of the Cotswold Line Promotion Group in 1978.

And not a very good nickname, being as it runs perpendicular to the Cotswolds and hence doesn't spend all that much time in it. (Surely a better home for the name would be the old Birmingham–Stratford–Honeybourne–Cheltenham–Bristo l line, which actually runs along the hills.)

No it doesn't, the GWSR line runs below the Cotswold ridge. The Cotswolds are the hills, the Old English word 'wold' means high ground, same as in the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wolds.

The Cotswold Line runs through the Cotswold hills all the way from Hanborough, near Oxford, to the northern end of Chipping Campden tunnel for the best part of 30 miles, also forming the boundary of the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty for much of that distance.

If it's not in the hills, it's not in the Cotswolds, same as Cheltenham isn't, despite racing commentators' incessant claims that they are in the Cotswolds during the National Hunt racing festival each year.

True. It's unfortunate that the derailment happened along there in 1976, otherwise it might have hung on and still been with us as the 'proper' Cotswold Line.

I refer you to my previous answer.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

A couple more:-

Dumfries to Stranraer, direct, was The Port Line.

No, it was the Port Road

 

[krus_aragon]

Swansea - Shrewsbury is known today as the Heart of Wales Line but this is a marketing creation of the 70s. The correct name is the Central wales Line and that is how many people along the route still think of it or quite simple as "The Central". The origin of the name goes back to the original companies who built part of the route......The Central Wales Railway (Knighton to Llandrindod) and The Central Wales Extension Railway (Landrindod to Llandovery). Personally I think the Central Wales Line is far preferable to the (perhaps sickly?) Heart Of Wales Line!

The Welsh equivalents of the above also happen to be palindromic:

Central Wales Line: Lein Canol Cymru
Heart of Wales Lines: Lein Calon Cymru

 

[Tomonthetrain]

The line that passes by near to my estate I believe used to be called the Old Worse and Worse.

Yes it's the The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway!

 

[fadge]

The Midland line from Manton to Kettering is known as going "Round the Alps" locally

 

[Whistler40145]

Wasn't the Mid Hants line known as 'The Alps'?

 

[Trog]

Old and New lines between Hanslope and Rugby on the WCML depending on if you go direct via Weedon or round the Northampton Loop.


'The DC' Euston to Watford.

(The LNWR NL electrified system includes the highest line speed on a third rail fitted line.)

 

[Flywaver]

Wimbledon Loop = Wall of Death...anyone know how long it's been called that?

It's because of repetitive Drivers diagrams around it. Bedford Drivers hate it.. Think it was three loops at times. Hence the nickname..

Hertford East branch is affectionately known as the Helmand branch by West Anglia Drivers.. No need to say why..

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It's because of repetitive Drivers diagrams around it. Bedford Drivers hate it.. Think it was three loops at times. Hence the nickname...

It had that nickname before thameslink was introduced; I was told the nickname in the early 1980s; the reason given at the time was the same as someone posted earlier in the thread... the steep gradient and the walls at the Sutton end. It was not unknown for trains to stall on it while heading towards Sutton in poor adhesion conditions.

 

[Eagle]

(The LNWR NL electrified system includes the highest line speed on a third rail fitted line.)

That cannot be true. The highest posted speed on the DC lines is 45 (apart from a couple of hundred yards of 25/50 differential on the approach to Euston, after the merge with the main lines).

 

[Trog]

That cannot be true. The highest posted speed on the DC lines is 45 (apart from a couple of hundred yards of 25/50 differential on the approach to Euston, after the merge with the main lines).

I suspect that will be news to those driving through Watford Junction on the Down Fast.

 

[MCR247]

Not sure if it has been mentioned - but Nottingham - Leicester(?) via the 'slow lines' is called the Ivanhoe line

 

[Eagle]

I suspect that will be news to those driving through Watford Junction on the Down Fast.

The down fast isn't on the DC line, it's on the WCML.

 

[Welshman]

Do railwaypeople still call the opposite line the "Bang" line?

I remember when a train was diverted from the up to the down[or vv] due to an incident, etc, the crew said they were travelling "bang" line between A & B.

Perhaps use of such a term is not encouraged nowadays.

 

[Trog]

The down fast isn't on the DC line, it's on the WCML.

Who mentioned the DC line? I was careful to specify the LNW DC system as a whole.


With reference to the Welshmans bang line, I have certainly heard the term bang road used quite a bit. May just be a regional variation on a theme.

Either way the phase probably makes the blood of the public/press relations staff run cold.

 

[Eagle]

Who mentioned the DC line? I was careful to specify the LNW DC system as a whole.

Which doesn't include the main-line (and never has), as that was never DC-electrified.

 

[Metrailway]

Which doesn't include the main-line (and never has), as that was never DC-electrified.

What I think Trog is referring to is the Down Fast at Watford Junction (IIRC Platform 6) which is the WCML proper (not the Watford DC line) which is partially electrified with 3rd rail, and thus part of the wider LNW DC system.

 

[sbt]

Not really a 'Nickname' as it was the original project name from the Godalming - Portsmouth link, but the Woking - Guildford - Portsmouth line is still the 'Portsmouth Direct'. This is despite the line it was more 'direct' than, the LSWR route via Winchester to Gosport and then to Portsmouth via the Ferry, being no longer possible due to the Gosport Branch having closed.

Then there is/was the, also closed, Hayling Billy.

 

[RPM]

Do railwaypeople still call the opposite line the "Bang" line?

I remember when a train was diverted from the up to the down[or vv] due to an incident, etc, the crew said they were travelling "bang" line between A & B.

Perhaps use of such a term is not encouraged nowadays.

Yes the terms "bang line" or "bang road" are still commonly used.

 

[12CSVT]

Slightly off topic, a couple of derogatory names for pre-nationalisation railway companies.

GWR (Great Western Railway) - Green, Wet & Rusty
MGN (Midland & Great Northern Joint) - Muddle & Go Nowhere

 

[Keith Jarrett]

Nicknames of a couple of lines used by bashers down the years...

'The Desert' = Berks & Hants line (which doesn't actually pass through Hants...)

Supposedly so called because the stretch between Reading and Taunton passes through very few towns of any sizeable significance. (No doubt those who live in places such as Newbury & Westbury might choose to differ). The term "desert" was certainly in use in the latter half of the 70s by Western bashers

 

[D6975]

Have we had any of these yet?
VOG
Golden Valley
The Line
The District Line

 

[D1009]

Slightly off topic, a couple of derogatory names for pre-nationalisation railway companies.

GWR (Great Western Railway) - Green, Wet & Rusty
MGN (Midland & Great Northern Joint) - Muddle & Go Nowhere

The GWR was also the "Great Way Round" from Paddington to Weymouth via Swindon.

 

[Zoe]

The GWR was also the "Great Way Round" from Paddington to Weymouth via Swindon.

I've seen "Great Way Round" used referring to the route from Paddington to Penzance via Bath which even today is still designated MLN (Main Line) in the Engineer's Line Reference.

 

[Eagle]

I've seen "Great Way Round" used referring to the route from Paddington to Penzance via Bath which even today is still designated MLN (Main Line) in the Engineer's Line Reference.

I've also seen it used to the route to Birmingham via Didcot (or Birkenhead via Didcot, Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Chester).

 

[Zoe]

I've also seen it used to the route to Birmingham via Didcot (or Birkenhead via Didcot, Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Chester).

Oh yes, the Didcot and Chester Line.

 

[BestWestern]

The branch line from Bristol Temple Meads (or from Narroways Hill Jcn to be precise) out to Avonmouth and Severn Beach is routinely referred to by crews as 'The Beach'.

A certain area around Exmouth-Exeter-Barnstaple is known as the 'Triangle of Doom', presumably due to the arduous nature of the diagrams crews work over the lines.

Mildly off topic, but Drivers shunting stock into and out of Bristol St Philips Marsh are referred to as going 'round the Marsh'. The stabling siding alongside the bay platform 1 at Bristol Temple Meads is referred to as the 'high level', and the disused former platform 2 at the west end of the station is known as the 'Motorail'.

Portsmouth & Southsea station tends to be known locally as the 'the Town station', with crews generally referring to the downstairs bay platforms as the 'low level' with the through platforms upstairs being the 'high level'.

 

[Deerfold]

The Welsh equivalents of the above also happen to be palindromic:

Central Wales Line: Lein Canol Cymru
Heart of Wales Lines: Lein Calon Cymru

Do you mean they're anagrams of one another (a palindrome is a word or more that reads the same backwards as forwards).