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Where do junctions get their names from?

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cambsy

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Was reading another thread which mention Stoats Nest junction, and was wondering how it and other junctions got their interesting names? Would be interested to know of other interesting junction names?
 
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Welshman

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Presumably because there was originally a well-known colony [or whatever the collective noun is for stoats], on a waterway nearby?

There's a similar Throstles Nest Junction near Manchester, where the old Midland route met the old Cheshire Lines Committee, just outside what was Manchester Central station.

Of course, throstle is another word for songthrush, and I don't know if there are any songbirds left in that part of Manchester, but the name inspired the composer Peter Maxwell Davis to write his Throstles Nest Junction..

The one which particularly amuses me is Bog Hall Junction, near Whitby.
 
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matchmaker

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It used to be the case that some junctions were named after the destination of the branching line, although nowadays it is normally a nearby geographic location.

For example the current Newbridge Junction on the Glasgow - Edinburgh line used to be Bathgate Junction, despite Bathgate being miles away, and Alloa Junction near Larbert was miles from Alloa on the other side of the River Forth!
 

LNW-GW Joint

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There's a similar Throstles Nest Junction near Manchester, where the old Midland route met the old Cheshire Lines Committee, just outside what was Manchester Central station.

Throstle Nest Bridge was on the Bridgewater Canal in Old Trafford long before the railway turned up.
It's still there, with original iron nameplates, hidden in a cutting near Pomona Metrolink station.
Back in the 1760s it was quite possibly a rural retreat as part of the old Trafford Park estate.
In fact the one time Pomona Gardens were near there which rivalled Vauxhall in London, eventually being taken over for the MSC docks.

But it was an evocative railway name, like North Pole Jn and Gas Factory Jn.
Whitchurch Cambrian Jn was an iconic name too, as well as Three Cocks (pub).
 
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Eagle

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It used to be the case that some junctions were named after the destination of the branching line, although nowadays it is normally a nearby geographic location.

There are still quite a few like that.

Perhaps the most famous is Llandudno Junction, which then became a station, and then became a town. If you were to do the location-based naming now, it would have to be Llandudno Junction Junction.
 

tsr

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Stoats Nest Village (interestingly, there's never been an apostrophe, to my knowledge) is a road in Coulsdon which isn't really a village, but used to be a slightly more distinct settlement. Londonist wrote a short piece on it. The land used to belong to Squire Byron, and the "Village" was originally for returning servicemen after WWI. This made use of land near the Stoats Nest Quarry, developed in 1805, on an Iron Age defensive site & Roman cemetery. An extract of the historical record is available online. None of this tells us why it's called "Stoats Nest" - that remains a mystery. Presumably, the extensive woodlands in the area were an ideal habitat for stoats, who prefer covered areas. These woods were partially destroyed by the suburban redevelopment of the area. One can only speculate as to the impact on the ground stability - something which has caused landslips & line blockages in the cutting just to the South of Coulsdon South station - but one thing is certain, and that is that poor rail conditions can be caused by local wooded areas shedding their leaves.

The disused and effectively non-existent Coulsdon North station was once called "Stoats Nest and Cane Hill", which is presumably where the railway association is from.
 
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eastwestdivide

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Another pub gave its name to Bopeep Junction near Hastings.
And which came first, the chicken or the egg, in Junction Road Junction (old signalbox photo).

Still on wildlife, there was Pyewipe Junction near Lincoln, near a pub (still open) of the same name, Pyewipe being a local name for lapwing/peewit.
 
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LNW-GW Joint

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There are still quite a few like that.
Perhaps the most famous is Llandudno Junction, which then became a station, and then became a town. If you were to do the location-based naming now, it would have to be Llandudno Junction Junction.

Same as at St Helens Junction (but there's no junction any more...).

A lot of junctions take their name from the connecting railway name (like Whitchurch Cambrian Jn above).
Eden Valley Jn on the WCML in Cumbria connected to the Eden Valley Railway.
Grand Junction in Birmingham was the joining of the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction railways.
Didcot Chester Line Jn is named because the GWR managed its northern main line through Birmingham as the "Didcot and Chester Line".
The signal box has gone now, but Carnforth had a Furness and Midland Jn, the name of the railway from Wennington.
Sometimes the initials of the railway got into the junction name, so there is still a Calvert LNE Junction, Hartford CLC Junction etc.

There's still a Cambridge Line Jn at Bletchley, and a Uttoxeter Line Jn at Stafford, despite the through lines being closed 50-odd years ago.
Rugby still has a Peterborough Branch Siding.
 

MidnightFlyer

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Not to be confused with Cambridge Jn, which is in Hitchin.

One that's always puzzled me is Tollerton Jn in Yorkshire. It's at Tollerton so that part of the name is reasonable, but has there ever been any more of a junction than a siding?

I might be getting confused with Tallington, but is there a set of crossovers there too, or anything similar? On the West Coast Main Line, there are the likes of Bourne End, Hanslope and Ledburn Jns: to the best of my knowledge only the former has ever been a junction in the traditional sense - all of them now however are just a series of crossovers between the Fasts and Slows.
 

Tomnick

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I might be getting confused with Tallington, but is there a set of crossovers there too, or anything similar? On the West Coast Main Line, there are the likes of Bourne End, Hanslope and Ledburn Jns: to the best of my knowledge only the former has ever been a junction in the traditional sense - all of them now however are just a series of crossovers between the Fasts and Slows.
Indeed, there are plenty of similar examples on the Midland too: both connections between running lines on the four (or 3 nowadays!) track sections of the main line, and also at the ends of loops on other lines.
 

Eagle

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Didcot Chester Line Jn is named because the GWR managed its northern main line through Birmingham as the "Didcot and Chester Line".

That line still has an engineers' line reference of DCL, although nowadays it only refers to the section between Didcot and The Hawthorns, and the Metro from there to where it leaves the original alignment in Wolverhampton. (The continuation to Chester now has the code WSJ2, for Wolverhampton to Saltney Junction.)
 

Mojo

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There's also Dr Days Junction in Bristol too. Branching off here is the amusingly named Rhubarb Curve.
 

MidnightFlyer

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There's also Dr Days Junction in Bristol too. Branching off here is the amusingly named Rhubarb Curve.

The story I've heard behind the name of the former is that he was simply a doctor based in Bristol when the railway was initially built, and simply leant his name to it. Can't remember where I heard that though, might've been a driver's eye video or something.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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That line still has an engineers' line reference of DCL, although nowadays it only refers to the section between Didcot and The Hawthorns, and the Metro from there to where it leaves the original alignment in Wolverhampton. (The continuation to Chester now has the code WSJ2, for Wolverhampton to Saltney Junction.)

Most of the ELRs can be guessed from the route, others need a bit of thought.
LEC is for instance London Euston to Crewe, followed by CGJ: Crewe-Gretna Junction.
But it's a bit more subtle on the Midland.
SPC is St Pancras to Chesterfield (Tapton Jn), and the extension north is TJC.
I took this to be Tapton Jn to Carlisle, but it seems it is in fact Tapton Jn to Colne.
It seemed very odd to measure the route down a closed branch line rather than the principle destination, but in fact it reflects the original Midland Railway ownership.
The Midland line north of Skipton was initially the North Western Railway, and its ELR is SKW (Skipton to Wennington) followed by SAC (Settle and Carlisle).
 

davetheguard

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Same as at St Helens Junction (but there's no junction any more...).

A lot of junctions take their name from the connecting railway name (like Whitchurch Cambrian Jn above).
Eden Valley Jn on the WCML in Cumbria connected to the Eden Valley Railway.
Grand Junction in Birmingham was the joining of the London & Birmingham and Grand Junction railways.
Didcot Chester Line Jn is named because the GWR managed its northern main line through Birmingham as the "Didcot and Chester Line".
The signal box has gone now, but Carnforth had a Furness and Midland Jn, the name of the railway from Wennington.
Sometimes the initials of the railway got into the junction name, so there is still a Calvert LNE Junction, Hartford CLC Junction etc.

There's still a Cambridge Line Jn at Bletchley, and a Uttoxeter Line Jn at Stafford, despite the through lines being closed 50-odd years ago.
Rugby still has a Peterborough Branch Siding.

Wow, well done for knowing about Didcot's Chester Line Junction! Not many have heard about it (even some of the station staff), but there it is, in plain view, at the end of platform three at Didcot station.

I'm slightly intrigued by Falcon Junction at Clapham Junction (at the "country" end where the Brighton & Windsor Lines diverge). There's also a pub near the subway entrance to the station called the Falcon (and a brilliant Good Beer Guide-listed one at that) but it's not beside the junction. Anyone know the origin of the name, and which came first, junction or pub?
 

DarloRich

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One that's always puzzled me is Tollerton Jn in Yorkshire. It's at Tollerton so that part of the name is reasonable, but has there ever been any more of a junction than a siding?

It was a junction at one point - there were lines towards Knaresborough and Malton/Kirbymoorside/Pickering as well as the main line

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/t/tollerton/index.shtml (although the junction was a bit north of the station i think)
 
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Eagle

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Wow, well done for knowing about Didcot's Chester Line Junction! Not many have heard about it (even some of the station staff), but there it is, in plain view, at the end of platform three at Didcot station.

I believe it can also be known as Didcot West Junction, because it's to the west of the station (compare it with Didcot East Junction, which is to the east).
 

Northerner

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Also on the Weston region between Reading and Twyford, is
Twyford west
Also know as "Lands End" ?
 

davetheguard

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Also on the Weston region between Reading and Twyford, is
Twyford west
Also know as "Lands End" ?

Yes, there's two sorts of junctions really:

1. Junctions where another route branches off (or used to) e.g. a branch line

and

2. Junctions which are simply sets of points with crossovers between different running lines on the same railway.

"Lands End" falls in to the latter category: you can be signalled from the Up Main Line to the Up Relief Line, or from the Down Relief Line to the Down Main Line at this junction. But there never was a branch line from here.
 

PeterY

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4 Junctions here in Watford.
Watford Junction
Watford East Junction
Watford North Junction
Watford South Junction

Some Junctions do make logical sense namewise but others must have a long history to their name of origin.
 

DarloRich

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another one was Dalton Junction at Eryholme station on the ECML (where the Richmond line trains left the main lines) about 5 or 6 miles south of Darlington.

it is not really near either Dalton on Tees or Eryholme as it must be a couple of miles across the fields to each village
 

LNW-GW Joint

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CGJ is in fact Carlisle Grand Junction Line (the GJR being the predecessor of the LNWR). It doesn't extend as far as Gretna Junction; north of Carlisle is much more simply named WCM.

I thought that initially, but I was going on the list in Quail Vol 4 which quotes Gretna.
Actually the Grand Junction never got further north than Newton-le-Willows/Parkside before it was folded into the LNWR.
The North Union onwards to Preston was jointly leased with the Manchester & Leeds (becoming LNWR/L&Y joint from Euxton Jn).

Which reminds me that Preston station was always known as "Preston N.U." in working timetables until fairly recently, from its early days as the principal North Union station.
 
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HowardGWR

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Could someone correct the title please? I made a mistake in mine once and it annoyed me that i could not correct it. (Perhaps you can -anyone know how?).
 
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