Brought about by a video I saw where WR loco numbers like 4932 (an old Taunton stalwart) were being pronounced "Forty-nine thirty-two".
This just sounds wrong. In my experience numbers were always pronounced as individual digits "Four nine three two", so putting them into pairs just sounds wrong. Likewise double numbers were pronounced individually, so 4077 was "Four oh seven seven", and not "Four oh double-seven". Same approach applied to 5-digit numbers; 70024 would be "Seven oh oh two four", not "Seven double-oh two four".
What was experience elsewhere? Different in different parts of the country?
This just sounds wrong. In my experience numbers were always pronounced as individual digits "Four nine three two", so putting them into pairs just sounds wrong. Likewise double numbers were pronounced individually, so 4077 was "Four oh seven seven", and not "Four oh double-seven". Same approach applied to 5-digit numbers; 70024 would be "Seven oh oh two four", not "Seven double-oh two four".
What was experience elsewhere? Different in different parts of the country?