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Trivia: Stations that lost their suffix

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A0wen

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An interesting one is Letchworth - which started out as Letchworth Garden City up until 1937 when it was renamed Letchworth. It then regained the Garden City suffix in 1999.
 

A0wen

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That's interesting. It's the only map of Northampton I've ever seen that makes mention of Bridge Street south of the river

Agreed - in days gone by I'd have spoken to a former neighbour about it; he worked at Bridge Street Yard in the 1960s before heading down to Euston until he retired in the 1980s, sadly he's no longer with us. I suspect he might have had some info.
 

Peacehaven

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Don't forget us in Sussex! - Worthing(Central) and all the little stations on the SR. previously known as halts ie; Aldrington(Halt) Fishersgate(Halt) East Worthing(Halt) for starters.
 

vic-rijrode

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That would tie in with Arkwright Street closing.
Nottingham Arkwright Street actually closed in 1963 (by Beeching) before being reopened to act as the northern terminus of the remaining service on the GCR between Rugby Central (has anyone mentioned Rugby Midland as losing its suffix?) and Nottingham when Victoria closed in 1967. It finally closed in 1969. I can remember seeing a DMU running on the GCR close to Lutterworth from the adjacent M1 sometime in 1968.

Banbury Station was Banbury General (GWR) when the close-by Banbury Merton Street (LMSR) was still open. I'm not sure when the General suffix was dropped - certainly when I lived there, no-one used General!
 

MadMac

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Nottingham Arkwright Street actually closed in 1963 (by Beeching) before being reopened to act as the northern terminus of the remaining service on the GCR between Rugby Central (has anyone mentioned Rugby Midland as losing its suffix?) and Nottingham when Victoria closed in 1967. It finally closed in 1969. I can remember seeing a DMU running on the GCR close to Lutterworth from the adjacent M1 sometime in 1968.

Banbury Station was Banbury General (GWR) when the close-by Banbury Merton Street (LMSR) was still open. I'm not sure when the General suffix was dropped - certainly when I lived there, no-one used General!

Good point re Arkwright Street - that was, of course, the second closing. Also, I think Rugby Midland was mentioned earlier as part of a group of WCML stations?
 

WesternBiker

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Aughton Park Halt...was years ago though!

There must be hundreds of those.
...especially on the former Great Western Railway network, which was fond of both 'halt' and 'platform'. The latter always struck me as a bit odd - a sort of lesser halt!

I can think of Penmere Platform on the Falmouth line - the last time I was there they still had a GWR style nameboard (beautifully preserved) alongside a BR totem-style nameboard - both including the "platform" suffix.

While on GWR metals, Dingle Road Halt (in Penarth), Chetnole (halt), Thornford (Bridge Halt), Upwey (once Upwey Junction, then Upwey & Broadwey), Bramley (Bramley for Silchester), Neath (General), Avoncliff (Halt), Denham Golf Club (Platform), South Greenford (Halt), Drayton Green (Halt), and Castle Bar Park (Halt).

That's probably enough "halts" for now...;)
 

Mat17

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Lincoln's a funny one. The station may say Lincoln, but the displays at stations en route to Lincoln and some of the trains themselves still refer to it as Lincoln Central.

It'll always be Lincoln Central to me.
 

YorksLad12

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Lincoln's a funny one. The station may say Lincoln, but the displays at stations en route to Lincoln and some of the trains themselves still refer to it as Lincoln Central.

It'll always be Lincoln Central to me.
Go to RTT, type Lincoln into the search box and it shows trains from... Lincoln Central.

LNER's booking website calls it... Lincoln.

I'm sure I've seen a site or app somewhere that shows both in a drop-down list when you start the search!
 

vlad

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Kidsgrove was called Kidsgrove Central in the middle of the 20th century, despite not being very central. It's had several other names too: Kidsgrove Junction makes sense, whereas Harecastle (for Kidsgrove) just makes you wonder.
 

JWK

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Have recently come across a few instances in online databases where some surprising long-defunct suffixes still seem to survive - the SBB journey planner wants to convince you there is a station in Kent called Ham Street & Orlestone, despite the ‘Orlestone’ having been dropped in 1976.

Meanwhile, the Ticketysplit website is convinced of the existence of a station called Balloch Central, despite that having closed in 1988 and the current station (admittedly just the other side of the former level crossing) never having had a suffix at all.
 

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Calthrop

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...especially on the former Great Western Railway network, which was fond of both 'halt' and 'platform'. The latter always struck me as a bit odd - a sort of lesser halt!

I can think of Penmere Platform on the Falmouth line - the last time I was there they still had a GWR style nameboard (beautifully preserved) alongside a BR totem-style nameboard - both including the "platform" suffix.

Scotland -- particularly, though not exclusively, its approximate northern half -- appears also to have had rather a fondness for the "platform" halt-equivalent suffix.
 

Bletchleyite

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Go to RTT, type Lincoln into the search box and it shows trains from... Lincoln Central.

LNER's booking website calls it... Lincoln.

I'm sure I've seen a site or app somewhere that shows both in a drop-down list when you start the search!

Is it one like Cark (& Cartmel) which has bounced back and forth in recent years?
 

vic-rijrode

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Also Leamington spa, far as I recall it gained a suffix (and lost another) as the the station originally opened as Leamington, had spa added to it after and then the name was changed again to Leamington Spa General.
It was called Leamington Spa General to distinguish it from the LMSR station Leamington Spa Avenue - which was actually next to it and was the station for trains to Coventry and Rugby. When Avenue closed (you can still see the bridge abutments to the north of the former GWR line as you run run from the south) the General was dropped at sometime.
 

WesternBiker

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Is it one like Cark (& Cartmel) which has bounced back and forth in recent years?
The sequence of name changes at Highbridge since the closure of the branch to Burnham-on-Sea is almost neurotic. (The Somerset & Dorset Joint branch to Burnham's own station closed to regular passenger services in 1951 and to excursion trains in 1962.) It was called "Highbridge" until 1962; then "Highbridge for Burnham-on-Sea" - sometimes shown with or without brackets; then back to just "Highbridge" in 1974; and since 1991 "Highbridge & Burnham". (Maybe we need a thread on the most name changes for a single station...)
 

The exile

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Scotland -- particularly, though not exclusively, its approximate northern half -- appears also to have had rather a fondness for the "platform" halt-equivalent suffix.
Did it not also for a while, boast BR’s only official halt? Rosyth Halt’s suffix outlived all the others I believe, though at least St Keyne etc has had it subsequently reinstated
 

SargeNpton

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Did it not also for a while, boast BR’s only official halt? Rosyth Halt’s suffix outlived all the others I believe, though at least St Keyne etc has had it subsequently reinstated
Also IBM Halt for a while.
 

MadMac

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Also IBM Halt for a while.
I mentioned several in Scotland at the start: Carfin, Balmossie and Golf Street were also ‘halts’ at one point. Two others that lost suffixes were Wishaw and Uddingston, which still carried ‘Central‘ long after they became the only stations in their respective areas.
 

d9009alycidon

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I mentioned several in Scotland at the start: Carfin, Balmossie and Golf Street were also ‘halts’ at one point. Two others that lost suffixes were Wishaw and Uddingston, which still carried ‘Central‘ long after they became the only stations in their respective areas.
Garrowhill was also was a "Halt" prior to the Blue Trains
 

Mikey C

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Gravesend was known as Gravesend Central for a while, to distinguish it from the rival Gravesend West Street/Gravesend West
 
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