Odd or appealing names of railway undertakings

[martinsh]

If you want wildly optimistic titles, how about the Trans Saharan Railway ?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/fr-trans-saharan-railway.htm

 

[Calthrop]

A bit more Americana: for "purely fine-sounding", I reckon hard to beat, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.


From various parts of the British Commonwealth:


The Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway on Vancouver Island, Canada.

Tasmania: the Emu Bay Railway.

Victoria, Australia: the Kerang & Koondrook Tramway.

 

[AndrewE]

Don't think anyone has mentioned FART yet (sorry, it's there in post #5. I searched for Ticino and got a blank)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_Bus_and_Rail_Company_of_Canton_Ticino
One of the best...

 

[Railops]

Lochearnhead, St Fillans and Comrie Railway should still be open.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Not a railway, but the Swiss lake steamer company, that connects with the trains to offer the Wilhelm Tell Express tours, I was always disappointed that the
Schifffahrtsgesellschaft des Vierwaldstättersees
chose not to write the company as a single word:
Vierwaldstätterseeschifffahrtsgesellschaft

 

[matchmaker]

The Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway. I don't know why it wasn't called the Spean Bridge, Invergarry and Fort Augustus Railway as that correctly describes the route!

However, having passed that way yesterday it's easy to see why it failed. Invergarry in particular is tiny!

 

[341o2]

Corris Machynlleth & River Dovey Tramroad

 

[david_g]

And who could resist a schoolboy snigger at the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway - never went anywhere near the Potteries and only just made it into North Wales - in its later incarnation as the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire whose carriages, labelled with the company's initials, promised untold naughty delights within.

 

[Calthrop]

You mean sado-masochistic stuff had actually been invented in 1933 ?

(I notice that if you put "Shropshire & Montgomeryshire" into Google: the two entries which come up in the box underneath are "shropshire & montgomeryshire railway", and then "shropshire & montgomeryshire lunatic asylum".)

 

[DerekC]

Not the longest, but I have always thought the Tralee & Dingle's name matched its laid back operating style really well.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The (London Necropolis & Mausoleum) station in London was just outside Waterloo, on the south side, where the two stabling sidings now are. It was obliterated in WW2 by one of the largest single bombs to be dropped on London, apparently targeted on Parliament across the river. The LSWR/SR provided a locomotive when required, while the special rake of carriages was lost in the bombing raid.

There were actually two London Necropolis stations at Waterloo. The first was about where the 507 bus and taxis emerge from the tunnel under the station throat. It went in about 1900 and was replaced (at the LSWR's expense) by a new one - the frontage onto Westminster Bridge Road still exists, although (as Taunton says) the train shed and rolling stock was destroyed by a bomb on 16th April 1941. Not sure about it being one of the largest!

 

[Adlington]

Bideford, Westward Ho! & Appledore Railway is probably the only railway in the world with an exclamation mark in its name.

 

[Ianno87]

In recent years, you really couldn't beat the "Wrexham, Shropshire & Marylebone Railway Company Ltd."

 

[Adlington]

The French Chemins de fer Touristiques et de Montagne existed 1973-2004, later becoming Société Anonyme d'Économie Mixte Locale du Chemin de Fer du Vivarais, which in turn went belly up in 2008.

 

[Calthrop]

The French Chemins de fer Touristiques et de Montagne existed 1973-2004, later becoming Société Anonyme d'Économie Mixte Locale du Chemin de Fer du Vivarais, which in turn went belly up in 2008.

Those Froggies don't half like wordy titles, hey? I gather that the name "CF Touristiques et de Montagne" was chosen because before becoming involved with the Vivarais metre-gauge system, the group concerned had for some years run a more modest 60cm gauge operation near Lyon, not a great distance from the Vivarais. This 60cm undertaking -- if I have things rightly, a short purpose-built "park railway" kind of set-up -- was called the Chemin de Fer Touristique de Meyzieu. The "Touristiques et de Montagne" naming manoeuvre enabled the same initials to be kept: hanging on to some of the identity, I suppose, and in a way memorialising the 60cm line -- also maybe administrative advantages of some sort? Rather a similarity with our own Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway = GWR.

 

[DerekC]

Those Froggies don't half like wordy titles, hey? I gather that the name "CF Touristiques et de Montagne" was chosen because before becoming involved with the Vivarais metre-gauge system, the group concerned had for some years run a more modest 60cm gauge operation near Lyon, not a great distance from the Vivarais. This 60cm undertaking -- if I have things rightly, a short purpose-built "park railway" kind of set-up -- was called the Chemin de Fer Touristique de Meyzieu. The "Touristiques et de Montagne" naming manoeuvre enabled the same initials to be kept: hanging on to some of the identity, I suppose, and in a way memorialising the 60cm line -- also maybe administrative advantages of some sort? Rather a similarity with our own Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway = GWR.

I accidentally visited the Chemin de Fer Touristique de Meyzieu whilst hitch-hiking round France in about 1966. From memory it was a 60cm line, a mile or less long. I recall seeing the stock parked in the open on a siding by the roadside, with the track following the verge for some distance. I have never ceased to kick myself for failing to visit the Vivarais on that trip!

 

[DerekC]

(The Necropolis Railway) station in London was just outside Waterloo, on the south side, where the two stabling sidings now are. It was obliterated in WW2 by one of the largest single bombs to be dropped on London, apparently targeted on Parliament across the river. The LSWR/SR provided a locomotive when required, while the special rake of carriages was lost in the bombing raid.

The bomb must have obliterated only the trainshed, because the street frontage is still there, just south/east of the railway bridge over Westminster Bridge Road and complete with arch for horse-drawn hearses to enter.

 

[Calthrop]

I accidentally visited the Chemin de Fer Touristique de Meyzieu whilst hitch-hiking round France in about 1966. From memory it was a 60cm line, a mile or less long. I recall seeing the stock parked in the open on a siding by the roadside, with the track following the verge for some distance. I have never ceased to kick myself for failing to visit the Vivarais on that trip!

I was also in France in '66. Would have the opportunity to visit the Reseau Breton (quite easily), and the Vivarais (less easy, but with determination it could probably have been managed). With stupidity which I now find hard to believe, I let these opportunities go by, thinking "there'll be chances in the future": which in the event, effectively there were not !

 

[Taunton]

Those Froggies don't half like wordy titles, hey? ... the Vivarais metre-gauge system.

I've never seen the Vivarais, whose enthusiast support group seems to have major difficulties in recent years, and I'm not sure if the main part is running. Anyway, shortly after the enthusiast reopening, about 1971, the BBC (of all organisations) decided to make a comedy TV series, in English, of the classic French book "Clochemerle" by Gabriel Chevalier (repeated in the early 1990s), and the village they chose was on the Vivarais and their Mallet tank and vintage stock can be seen in several shots, and takes centre stage in a couple of them. Hands up if you recall the TV series (very well done and humorous, and now finally available on DVD).

Anyway, the intermediate station, and the village, they chose for the location scenes, was (pause for breath)

Colombier-le-Vieux - St. Barthélémy-le-Plain

And yes, the whole lot does appear on the station name board. 39 characters. A worthy challenger to Llanfair PG.

 

[eastdyke]

1875 The Felixstowe Railway and Pier Company (FRPC) which in 1879 became The Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, just as it is today.

Small beginnings:

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Bs5CdnFV...27_10153280329218606_755500312745124269_n.jpg

But take a look at me now:

https://www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk/

https://www.portoffelixstowe.co.uk/company-information/history/

'Port of Felixstowe is the trading name of The Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, a limited liability company incorporated by statute'

 

[Adlington]

Colombier-le-Vieux - St. Barthélémy-le-Plain
And yes, the whole lot does appear on the station name board.

Indeed, here it is:

 

[30907]

I've never seen the Vivarais, whose enthusiast support group seems to have major difficulties in recent years, and I'm not sure if the main part is running.

A lovely line which my 3yo daughter christened the rocky train.

I think it has finally reopened, after a period of Velorail use, but from a new terminus by the river, losing the mixed-gauge section on the main line.

 

[Calthrop]

And yes, the whole lot does appear on the station name board. 39 characters. A worthy challenger to Llanfair PG.

I feel it's a pity that the New Zealand railways never opened a line running close to that place in North Island with a colossally long name beginning with T -- a name that puts Llanfair PG totally in the shade. That would have been a station name to conjure with...

 

[Taunton]

A lovely line which my 3yo daughter christened the rocky train.

I think it has finally reopened, after a period of Velorail use, but from a new terminus by the river, losing the mixed-gauge section on the main line.

That would seem to isolate their main shed and workshop, which was at the main station in Tournon.

There's a good description and photos of the line 10 years ago (just before their troubles) here

https://www.martynbane.co.uk/france/lemistral07/07may.html

 

[Adlington]

Moving on to India: Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta

 

[30907]

That would seem to isolate their main shed and workshop, which was at the main station in Tournon.

There's a good description and photos of the line 10 years ago (just before their troubles) here

https://www.martynbane.co.uk/france/lemistral07/07may.html

http://trainardeche.fr/wp/en/

A shadow of its former self, but at least it's running.

 

[Busaholic]

Moving on to India: Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta

There was an off-spin bowler with a fairly similar name who played in the Indian test cricket side about 1980.

 

[Calthrop]

Moving on to India: Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta

Got to be in the south of India -- an area specialising in long-as-your-arm-and-unpronounceable names. My favourite travel writer, Dervla Murphy, remarks -- telling of time spent in that part of the country -- "With my being blessed with neither a good ear nor a good memory, South Indian names are a considerable trial to me".

 

[eastwestdivide]

Venkatanarasimharajuvaripeta - that's only the station name. Just imagine the name of the railway company.

...checks on google...

How disappointing, it's on the Southern Railway.

 

[Calthrop]

However, in British Raj days Venkatana-etc. was on the system of the Madras & Southern Mahratta Railway -- a fine sonorous title.

 

[Taunton]

South Indian names are a considerable trial to me".

Nothing more than Indians being confronted with Machynlleth or Blaenau Ffestiniog.