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British Railways multilingual signage

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py_megapixel

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Here is a sign from the toilet of an ex-BR train, which gives instructions on how to operate the flush in English, French, German and a fourth language which I don't recognise (apologies for the camera being out of focus).
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Why are some, but not all, ex-BR signs multilingual like this?
What other such signs are there?
Are there any other interesting things about such signs?
 
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sprunt

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Could it have been a train that served an airport? The Stansted Express has multilingual signage and announcements.
 

mmh

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Multi-lingual signs were commonplace on Southern region trains which served ports. In the modern era, class 175s had bilingual English/Welsh signs from introduction.
 

Saperstein

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All the Tfw stock has stickers in both English and Welsh.

Saperstein.

7CD52274-C686-4A9A-8B34-8B8F2E578D28.jpeg
 
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Ianigsy

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Some 142s and 150s allocated to Newton Heath had similar stickers precisely because they served Manchester Airport, although I think I also remember them having Italian.

Dover Priory of course used to have signage in English and French throughout.
 
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Going a bit further back, I’ve seen plenty of Southern Railway signage turn up at auction in English and French, mostly from ports and London Victoria, one assumes.
 

DarloRich

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There are safety notices in the mkiii sleeper carriages in several languages similar to those you often find in hotels
 

nw1

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I'm fairly sure the 4BEPs used on Portsmouth Direct services from 1983 used to have English, French and German.

Given that international travel is more common now than it was then, I'm surprised there appears to have been a backward step; I don't think SWT/SWR for instance offers any other languages. Many continental railways offer English so we should really do the same in return.
 

AY1975

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Multi-lingual signs were commonplace on Southern region trains which served ports.

Yes, and I seem to recall seeing signs in Dutch, German and Danish (and maybe Swedish and/or Norwegian as well) on Mark 2A coaches that were used on the Harwich-Manchester boat train in the 1980s. I think this train was traditionally simply referred to as the North Country Boat Train, and was named "The European" when it ran through to Glasgow and Edinburgh via Manchester Victoria, Preston and the West Coast Main Line for a short time in the mid-1980s, then "The Rhinelander" for its last year or so as a loco-hauled train in about 1987/88 by which time it had reverted to just running Harwich-Manchester.

In those days, as well as the Harwich-Hook of Holland ferry, Harwich was also served by occasional ferries to Hamburg and Scandinavia (and of course a lot of passengers travelling to and from Germany, and to some extent the Scandinavian countries, would use the Hook of Holland route).
 

AY1975

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I'm fairly sure the 4BEPs used on Portsmouth Direct services from 1983 used to have English, French and German.

I presume this was either because they were originally expected to run on the South Eastern Division just like their CEP counterparts, before it was decided to dispense with buffet cars on the SED, or because Portsmouth had (and AFAIK still has) ferries to France, which were used by a lot more rail-sea-rail passengers in the days before the Channel Tunnel.
 

AlbertBeale

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I presume this was either because they were originally expected to run on the South Eastern Division just like their CEP counterparts, before it was decided to dispense with buffet cars on the SED, or because Portsmouth had (and AFAIK still has) ferries to France, which were used by a lot more rail-sea-rail passengers in the days before the Channel Tunnel.

Yes - there are still ferries from Portsmouth to France ... and to northern Spain.

And there used to be passenger (and vehicle) ferries from Southampton to Lisbon - I travelled that route once in the 1970s; though they stopped long ago I guess!
 

FQTV

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There's a multilingual (English, French, German, from memory) sign by the lift serving Platforms 10 & 11 at York, which certainly dates from BR days.
 

etr221

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My understanding is that the UIC 'rule' for coaches in international service in Western Europe was for signs to be in French, German and Italian, and one other - either the local language (e.g. Dutch) or English - and in practice all main line stock met this. Stock for local use might just have the local language. In Eastern Europe, the selection was different (dredging memory, Russian may have replaced Italian), but still normally four.

One of the oddities I remember was a London Midland Region sign (just one!) in Polish (amongst others) - it was at Broad Street, to say that it wasn't Liverpool Street, and that you might want to try next door - whether there were any signs in Polish there is not something I noticed.
 

AlbertBeale

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My understanding is that the UIC 'rule' for coaches in international service in Western Europe was for signs to be in French, German and Italian, and one other - either the local language (e.g. Dutch) or English - and in practice all main line stock met this. Stock for local use might just have the local language. In Eastern Europe, the selection was different (dredging memory, Russian may have replaced Italian), but still normally four..

I don't know whether it was an actual rule, but 4 languages seemed standard on non-local trains in Europe at least as far back as the 1960s (and even on local ones sometimes). In the places I most travelled, it was English, German, French, Italian (and English/French/German were the standard non-"indigenous" ones used pretty much everywhere in western Europe as I remember it).

I always loved little cultural differences, like the French and German languages telling you it was forbidden to lean out of the window, but the Italian just pointing out it was dangerous, while leaving you to make up your own mind...
 

eastwestdivide

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I'm fairly sure the 4BEPs used on Portsmouth Direct services from 1983 used to have English, French and German.

Given that international travel is more common now than it was then, I'm surprised there appears to have been a backward step; I don't think SWT/SWR for instance offers any other languages. Many continental railways offer English so we should really do the same in return.

I presume this was either because they were originally expected to run on the South Eastern Division just like their CEP counterparts, before it was decided to dispense with buffet cars on the SED, or because Portsmouth had (and AFAIK still has) ferries to France, which were used by a lot more rail-sea-rail passengers in the days before the Channel Tunnel.

Pretty sure all the CEP/BEPs that were refurbished received those English/French/German stickers, as standard issue on refurbishment at Swindon.
 

AlbertBeale

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Were there ever any bilingual signs for the London Waterloo - Weymouth boat trains for the Channel Islands?

Also, do the ferries still run from Weymouth?

I don't know about the languages on the trains - but I do remember, when in Weymouth once many years ago, being excited to see a train running on the track down the street from the side of the station to the quayside. Ferries do still run from there, but - sadly - trains no longer run through to the dockside. In fact, the last time I looked at Channel Islands travel, the Weymouth route seemed only bookable with a vehicle, not by just a foot passenger. And the foot passenger route via Poole doesn't have the possibility of a rail connection, as far as I could see. Roll on the day when train-boat connections are integrated again ... and with the planetary need to end most car-driving and flying, that day must surely be in the offing...
 

PR1Berske

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Here is a sign from the toilet of an ex-BR train, which gives instructions on how to operate the flush in English, French, German and a fourth language which I don't recognise (apologies for the camera being out of focus).


full

Why are some, but not all, ex-BR signs multilingual like this?
What other such signs are there?
Are there any other interesting things about such signs?

I remember these from very old RRNW trains in Preston. There was something about in an emergency break glass and pull the red handle which has been translated into French, German and Japanese (I found out that the German at least was a terrible literal translation that didn't really work in actual German)
 

Waldgrun

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Sorry, I am a bit late in replying. These notices, where first fitted to refurbished Kent Coast 4 cep units when the work was undertaken from the late 1970's until the early 1980's. the 4 languages where, English, French, German, and a strange choice for the Channel Ports.. Cantonese (Chinese) at the time there was limited travel opportunities for most Chinese people! This was remarked upon in a article on the refurbishment project in the "Railway Magazine", at the time!
 

sarahj

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Newhaven Harbour has a keep of the electrified tracks sign in French and Italian IIRC.
Gatwick Express's chunter on in French and Spanish
 

30907

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Any reason English speakers are charged five times what Latin speakers are? :smile:
Inflatio multos transiti annos (apologies if the Latin is incorrect) - 200 libris was a heck of a lot of money when a denarius was a day's wage :)
 

mikeg

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Presumably the Latin sign hasn't been updated for a while . The penalty was £200 for trespassing in English once too!
 

yrreb

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Not sure of many instances of this except for on some Northern stock but there is the signage at Southall station in Punjabi

Southall_station_sign.jpg
 
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