Trivia: Three letter station names?

[Purple Train]

Interesting how this thread has devolved from "three-letter", to both "very short", and "much longer".

I would reckon that France's champion-length station name nowadays, has got to be the one on the Vivarais preserved metre-gauge line (honourably mentioned in the 2020 International Transport thread cited by me upthread) -- Colombier-le-Vieux-Saint-Barthelemy-le-Plain -- beats by several characters, the above Saint Ouen-etc. !

And we Britons have the temerity to complain about long announcements!

 

[racyrich]

There's also the long gone Eye station in Suffolk.

 

[91130nut]

There's also the long gone Eye station in Suffolk.

Also long gone is Usk, near Pontypool.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

In the French Pyrenees is the village of Ur, which has a station on the "Petit Train Jaune" line... unfortunately for this thread, the station is called Ur - Les Escaldes.
A few stops further down the line towards Villefranche is Err station.

 

[Calthrop]

In the French Pyrenees is the village of Ur, which has a station on the "Petit Train Jaune" line... unfortunately for this thread, the station is called Ur - Les Escaldes.
A few stops further down the line towards Villefranche is Err station.

Ur-Les Escaldes: have seen it suggested that this is a local-language(s)? rendering of "Ur of the Chaldees", where per Old Testament, Abraham originally came from -- one tends to suspect that this kind of stuff is "folk-etymology", and that the learned scholars of these matters will tell us that the derivation involves other, and more complicated, matters.

The Petit Train Jaune's route would seem to be "big" both on very short; and long-and-convoluted; names. This featured, again, in the International Transport thread of several years ago -- I take particular pleasure, on this section, in Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains-Fuilla; and Olette-Canaveilles-les-Bains.

 

[Mike99]

Probably a bit off topic but I have a photo of a station in Norway my train from Oslo to Gothenburg served called ED. The same London Transport Garage I worked at before it closed.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Ur-Les Escaldes: have seen it suggested that this is a local-language(s)? rendering of "Ur of the Chaldees", where per Old Testament, Abraham originally came from -- one tends to suspect that this kind of stuff is "folk-etymology", and that the learned scholars of these matters will tell us that the derivation involves other, and more complicated, matters.

The Petit Train Jaune's route would seem to be "big" both on very short; and long-and-convoluted; names. This featured, again, in the International Transport thread of several years ago -- I take particular pleasure, on this section, in Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains-Fuilla; and Olette-Canaveilles-les-Bains.

I suspect that is a "folk etymology". Several of the convoluted names on the line seem to be where stations have been given the names of several nearby settlements rather than just the one nearest the station. From a quick look at online maps, it appears that "Ur" is the name of the village, and "les Escaldes" is the name of the part of the village where the station is*. Quite why a small village with only one station needs that station to have such a specific name is anyone's guess of course... it's the equivalent of Denby Dale station being called "Denby Dale (Bromley Farm)" or similar.

*- though it also appears that the wider district in that area is also called "les Escaldes"... foreign naming conventions are both fascinating and confusing!