Trivia - Obsolete Railway Terms still used

[High Dyke]

Signalman is another that's fallen out of favour officially too.

Not on my turn it isn't...though I have been told off in the past for using the term. In these days of political correctness when someone can show me where there is a gender term of 'Ler' then I will always be a signalMAN, just the same as we have signal(wo)men.

As an aside I found this reminder of Network South East (NSE) at Romsey in 2015

 

[alxndr]

Fault control - apparently they're officially Incident Something-or-Other (I really should know this, I hear it often enough...)

 

[A Challenge]

There's a lot of NSE branding on the Northern City Line.

 

[Esker-pades]

There's a lot of NSE branding on the Northern City Line.

Hasn't most of it been scrubbed off during the recent refurbishment?

 

[theageofthetra]

Not on my turn it isn't...though I have been told off in the past for using the term. In these days of political correctness when someone can show me where there is a gender term of 'Ler' then I will always be a signalMAN, just the same as we have signal(wo)men.

As an aside I found this reminder of Network South East (NSE) at Romsey in 2015
View attachment 57628

Was one at Hayes (Kent) until some veg went trespassing and nicked it.

 

[class 9]

I’ve never really understood why people get so hung up over language evolving. It always has (English is particularly good at it) and probably always will.
If Railway station becomes Train station, so what?
Indeed, I would argue it should. In ye olde days it was called Railway station, as that was where the Railway staff were stationed. Nowadays many stations are unstaffed (the few before were called halts) so no Railway staff are stationed there, so they now all become train stations, this also matches bus stations which are rarely when bus staff are stationed, that being the bus depot.
If bus stations are named after the transport, so should train stations.
In reality of course, most people just call it “The Station” and say “Bus Station” if they mean that instead.

So why haven't Airports evolved into Planeports?

 

[trash80]

Well airport already evolved from aerodrome.

 

[shredder1]

A maintenance depot is distinctly different from a Train Crew depot. A crew depot merely hosts crew booking on and off. Usually at a station. Not many maintenance depots are crew points these days.

Ah yes of course, thank you.

 

[theblackwatch]

It's been called 16-25 since before I got mine but I still use young persons'!

Similarly, people refer to a 'Senior Citizens Railcard' - I'm assuming the word Citizens was dropped from it at the same time as the YP was renamed.

 

[notlob.divad]

One and a half for an adult and child ticket or an Awayday.

That's a good one.
I've often thought "half"... meaning, half what? Half a human?
Junior is another term used.
Never really saw what was wrong with "child" myself.

I have to say I don't remember "and a half" on the railway, but I do remember my Mum taking "me and my younger brother on the bus asking for 1 and 2 halves to ...."

I always assumed it was a half fare. (In the days when a child's fare was simply half an adult's fare).

I still tend to say "1 to ..." when I get on a bus. Usually the drivers look at me like some kind of alien, presumably because they somehow expect me to know the cost in advance even in a place I haven't set foot in before.

 

[theblackwatch]

ETH (Electric Train Heat) is still commonly used, but it migrated to ETS (Electric Train Supply) in the late 80s/early 90s.

 

[Spartacus]

It's surprising just how long, out of use phrases still exist and TOC names long after a new operator takes over.
Buffet not shop
I'm getting my head around the idea of a train manager.

Ironically the shops didn't last long and were all removed, but don't don't me started on Train Manager, depending on who's train it is it can be the driver, guard, or neither of the two!

 

[Deafdoggie]

Ironically the shops didn't last long and were all removed, but don't don't me started on Train Manager, depending on who's train it is it can be the driver, guard, or neither of the two!

Virgin certainly still have shops. XC removed them for a trolley.

 

[Mag_seven]

The phrase "facing the engine" when used to describe facing direction of travel, even if travelling on a unit!

 

[al78]

So why haven't Airports evolved into Planeports?

Airport: Place for boarding air transport.
Train station: Place for boarding a train.
Bus station: Place for boarding a bus.
Sea port*: Place for boarding sea transport.
Taxi rank: Place for boarding a taxi.
Pedestrian crossing: Facility to allow pedestrians to cross another mode of transport more safely/easier.
Cycle track: facility for cyclists to use.

*term not used in the UK, probably more common in America.

 

[xotGD]

I have to say I don't remember "and a half" on the railway, but I do remember my Mum taking "me and my younger brother on the bus asking for 1 and 2 halves to ...."

I always assumed it was a half fare. (In the days when a child's fare was simply half an adult's fare).

I still tend to say "1 to ..." when I get on a bus. Usually the drivers look at me like some kind of alien, presumably because they somehow expect me to know the cost in advance even in a place I haven't set foot in before.

I used to ask for "A half day return" when I was a lad. Makes it sound like you need to be back by lunchtime!

 

[hexagon789]

I used to ask for "A half day return" when I was a lad. Makes it sound like you need to be back by lunchtime!

Still hear "half" used by parents with kids on trains a fair bit, though Under 16s themselves don't use the phrase that I've noticed preferring to use "child" followed by the type of ticket.

 

[Breize block]

Again, the switches are part of the points.

When I started (in the seventies) one of the things that threw me was PW staff talking about 'switches and crossings' and not points.
However the one that I always disliked, was the use of 'turnout' , whilst it may well appear in official manuals somewhere, in my 39 yrs of service I never heard anyone use it until the last year or two when a few newer members of staff started. Its a term I always associated with modellers and/or America.

 

[vlad]

I have to say I don't remember "and a half" on the railway, but I do remember my Mum taking "me and my younger brother on the bus asking for 1 and 2 halves to ...."

I always assumed it was a half fare. (In the days when a child's fare was simply half an adult's fare).

My mum always asked for "half" fares, even though child fares were closer to three-quarters than half of an adult fare.

I still tend to say "1 to ..." when I get on a bus. Usually the drivers look at me like some kind of alien, presumably because they somehow expect me to know the cost in advance even in a place I haven't set foot in before.

That's the way buses work - they refuse to advertise their fares but require you to know how much the ticket costs and pay the exact amount.

 

[6Gman]

Train station: Place for boarding a train.

This is an endless debate on here, but ...

The justification for "railway station" is that it was the base for all the services provided by the railway - boarding/ alighting from passenger trains, leaving goods, parcels, livestock for onward delivery [sometimes not by train], collecting same, settling accounts etc etc etc - rather than using the train per se.

 

[6Gman]

Or even ticket collector, which strictly speaking meant someone who collected up the used tickets. I suppose referring to guards or conductors as ticket collectors is a throwback to the days when revenue protection relied mainly on manned ticket barriers at stations rather than on-train checks (i.e. up until the 1970s or '80s).

Or "ticket snapper" which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s, but would scarce be appropriate these days when most ticket "snapping" seems to involve a ballpoint scribble.

 

[xotGD]

Or "ticket snapper" which was widely used in the 1960s and 1970s, but would scarce be appropriate these days when most ticket "snapping" seems to involve a ballpoint scribble.

Gripper - the person who gripped your ticket (or piece, or frog)

However, I'm veering into crank vernacular rather than obsolete terms.

 

[Socanxdis]

"Home signal" on TCB lines.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

Why is class 153 referred to as a DMU when there is nothing "multiple" about it (unless coupled to another 153 or 150 or 156)? Surely it should be just a DU?

 

[Spartacus]

Why is class 153 referred to as a DMU when there is nothing "multiple" about it (unless coupled to another 153 or 150 or 156)? Surely it should be just a DU?

It's the multiple working capability, rather than the number of them. There'd be problems when they ran as a pair as EMT and Northern often have them.

 

[stut]

Why is class 153 referred to as a DMU when there is nothing "multiple" about it (unless coupled to another 153 or 150 or 156)? Surely it should be just a DU?

By the same reckoning, you could argue it's not a "train" either...

 

[philthetube]

you could argue that, in the pre railway sense of the word, that anything not loco hauled is not a train.

 

[stut]

you could argue that, in the pre railway sense of the word, that anything not loco hauled is not a train.

And I'm sure there are many on here who would

 

[theageofthetra]

Bang Road for wrong direction working.

 

[quarella]

"Bus Seats". Usually in connection with the type of seats originally installed on Pacers and not seen on a bus in regular service for at least 25 years.