Seemingly immortal railway expressions

[Taunton]

"The desert" - Castle Cary - Taunton - there's nothing there .......

Most waterlogged desert that I know, then ...

 

[Trackman]

Signal is on/off

 

[Dr Hoo]

Perhaps not a precise term but I like “I have been branded with folly and madness…[and told] I deserve hanging”. (Richard Trevithick around 1804)

Sentiments directed at many rail staff from Porter to Chairman ever since.

Can’t think of anything earlier.

 

[alxndr]

“One on!”

”Put it back through” when reconnecting, even though these days there’s often no link to slide back through.

“Put the signal back” [in the frame].

Asking if the “lock is through” even on types of points where the locking mechanism doesn’t go through anything.

Are signallers still bobbies, and signals themselves sticks, or boards?

Sticks are also sleepers.

The GB&K; Glasgow Barrhead & Kilmarnock Joint Line, between the Caledonian and Glasgow & South Western Railways [GS&W], which both ceased to exist in 1923

I mostly hear it as just the GBK which is still the ELR, although the origins are the same.

Lots of local place names referring to long-gone buildings, yards, or stations. My favourite example is of an access point we knew locally as “Maurice Skulls”; I did a bit of digging and found there was a baker of that name in the area born in 1872! I doubt he would have expected his name to still be known a century and a half later.

 

[Falcon1200]

I mostly hear it as just the GBK which is still the ELR, although the origins are the same.

Indeed, I included the ampersand so that the initials corresponded with the full name!

I recall the term 'Joint Line' being used to describe the Shields Junction-Paisley Gilmour Street route, to differentiate it from the Paisley Canal Line, but with the closure of the latter as a through route the expression I think died a natural death.....

'The Jungle' was/is used for the complex of lines immediately outside Glasgow Central, and having heard hair-raising stories from colleagues who formerly worked there it is an apt description!

 

[alxndr]

I recall the term 'Joint Line' being used to describe the Shields Junction-Paisley Gilmour Street route, to differentiate it from the Paisley Canal Line, but with the closure of the latter as a through route the expression I think died a natural death.....

Unfortunately yes, I’ve only ever heard that one called the Ayrs.

'The Jungle' was/is used for the complex of lines immediately outside Glasgow Central, and having heard hair-raising stories from colleagues who formerly worked there it is an apt description!

Still is, and even in these days of line blocks it still gets a bit nerve wracking when it looks like something is heading for you before turning off.

The Through Terminus (connecting the Ayrs to the Corkerhills) still often gets called the “Burma Road”.

 

[yorksrob]

"the buffet will be closed for stocktaking"

 

[Taunton]

I recall the term 'Joint Line' being used to describe the Shields Junction-Paisley Gilmour Street route, to differentiate it from the Paisley Canal Line,

Well to the south, that seems a still-used expression about the onetime GN & GE line from Spalding to Doncaster - only a couple of years ago at Kings Cross a closure of the mainstream ECML led to a whiteboard message there, written in railway-ese, that trains to the North "Will be diverted via the Joint Line".

Both these 'jointnesses' ceased to be over 100 years ago now.

 

[xotGD]

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause."

 

[signed]

"Doors will open on the left, mind the gap between the train and the platform"

The automated announcement broadcasted on Line 14 of the Paris Metro, every time it serves Gare de Lyon

 

[Dr Hoo]

"Doors will open on the left, mind the gap between the train and the platform"

The automated announcement broadcasted on Line 14 of the Paris Metro, every time it serves Gare de Lyon

Has that been around long enough to make it ‘immortal’?

I presume that there is an equivalent announcement in French.

 

[signed]

Has that been around long enough to make it ‘immortal’?

Well, it's been 25 years in (it was here since it inaugurated) so I don't know

I presume that there is an equivalent announcement in French.

The mind the gap part of the annoucement is actually done multilingually, in both French, English, Spanish and Chinese.

 

[GordonT]

"This train is for 'Victoria Only' "

 

[midland1]

Are signallers still bobbies, and signals themselves sticks, or boards?

Or pegs.

 

[xotGD]

Dreadful!

My Lords!

 

[Trackman]

"the buffet will be closed for stocktaking"

That old chestnut still goes on to this day., card/coffee/tea machine not working.

Dreadful!

My Lords!

Large.

 

[xotGD]

"This is a platform alteration."

 

[65477]

"This train is approaching"

"..where it terminates "

 

[pitdiver]

The "Kybher Pass". A passageway in the pre refurbished King's Cross Underground Stn

 

[Western 52]

"The fast train approaching platform x does not stop here".

 

[GordonT]

"Please make your way to Platform X"
"... will be the Rear Train at Platform X"
"... is not for Public Use."

 

[matchmaker]

Hawes Junction, Christmas Eve 1910. Signalman Alfred Sutton. "Please go to the stationmaster and tell him I am afraid I have wrecked the Scotch Express".

 

[AJM580]

Dreadful!

My Lords!

Hellfire!

 

[norbitonflyer]

If £5 you can afford.
Go ahead and pull the cord
If £5 you do not own
Leave the bloody thing alone

 

[Rescars]

If £5 you can afford.
Go ahead and pull the cord
If £5 you do not own
Leave the bloody thing alone

Or, a long time ago "Penalty not exceeding 40/-"

 

[Taunton]

"Why didn't it wait for us?"

 

[norbitonflyer]

Do not use whilst the train is in a station.

 

[Tester]

DO NOT LEAN OUT OF THE WINDOW

altered to

DO NOT CLEAN SOOT OFF THE WINDOW

 

[GordonT]

GENTLEMEN LIFT THE SEAT

 

[Flange Squeal]

“I’ll do it for 12”