TRIVIA: Stations with 3-letter codes with letters that aren't in the station name

[AY1975]

The newly reopened Soham station has been given the three-letter code SOJ, presumably because most if not all of the other obvious ones such as SOH and SOM have already been used. There is no "j" in Soham, although I suppose it could be said to mean Soham Junction.

Does anyone know of any other examples of stations (either existing stations or proposed new stations that have already been allocated a code) whose three-letter codes contain letters that aren't in the station name?

The New Station Calendar thread at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/new-station-calendar.169424/ mentions at least one other example: BCZ for the proposed new station at Brent Cross West.

Also mentioned in that thread are the new Crossrail stations, all of which have two letters followed by the letter X (though it's debatable whether they count, as the X could be said to mean Crossrail).

 

[Watershed]

I'm sure there must have been a thread about this in the past!

A few I can proffer:

• HND - Hanborough (it used to be spelled with a 'd' after the 'n')
• QPW - Queens Park, London (the one in Glasgow has QPK, but I've no idea why they couldn't have used QPL for the one in London and QPG for the one in Glasgow)
• BSV - Buckshaw Parkway (it was originally to be called Buckshaw Village)
• BIT - Bicester Village (it used to be called Bicester Town - OK, technically Bicester does contain a 't', but it ought to have been changed with the name change)
• HPQ - Harwich International (used to be called Harwich Parkeston Quay)

 

[snowball]

King's Cross, Charing Cross, New Cross, New Cross Gate all contain X in the code.

 

[swt_passenger]

Slightly different to the question because the expanded name “Mottisfont & Dunbridge“ retains DBG from when it was simply named Dunbridge, I suspect many people would expect a code starting with M…

 

[SargeNpton]

Any London Underground or DLR station: they all begin with Z.

Certain non-railway station locations used for passenger purposes, which begin with X.

There are also a few dummy codes used in retail systems that begin with Q.

 

[Starmill]

BDM - Bedford
MHS - Meadowhall

 

[pdeaves]

Any London Underground or DLR station: they all begin with Z.

Amersham doesn't (AMR).

In other areas:
Anerley (ANZ)
Stow (SOI)
St Peters (STZ)
South Hylton (SHZ)

 

[norbitonflyer]

County added to distinguish from namesake
ADC Adlington (Cheshire) ADL is the Lancashire one
AFS Ashford (Surrey)
AFK Ashford International
BYK Bentley (Yorkshire: BTY is its older namesake in Hants)
BOC Bootle (Cumbria)
CPY Clapham (Yorkshire)
CWD Cresswell (Derbyshire, but no namesake)
GMG Garth (Mid Glamorgan)
KSW Kirkby Stephen (Westmoreland, but no namesake)
MES Melton (Suffolk)

Former names
BAJ Baglan - was it once a junction?
BHC Balloch - right letters, wrong order - used to be Balloch Central?
BDM Bedford (formerly Midland)
ELW Eltham (seems to have taken over Well Hall's code?)
HND Hanborough
HPQ Harwich International (Parkstone Quay)
HHB Heysham Port (Harbour?)
MHS Meadowhall (Stadium)

LUL stations
ZCW Canada Water
ZFD Farringdon

Oddities
ANZ Anerley
BBS Bordesley (Birmingham Bordesley)
BKQ Hamilton Square (BirKenhead hamilton sQuare)
BSU Brunstane (wrong order)
BSV Buckshaw Parkway
DMG Dinas Rhondda
DOT Dunston
EBD Ebbsfleet International
HOZ Howwood (Renfrewshire)
HXX Heathrow Terminals 1,2 & 3
LLG Llanfairpwll (the made-up longer name does include a "G" though)
MIA Manchester Airport (wrong order unless you call it International Airport)
MFT Mansfield

 

[Jorge Da Silva]

County added to distinguish from namesake
ADC Adlington (Cheshire) ADL is the Lancashire one
AFS Ashford (Surrey)
AFK Ashford International
BYK Bentley (Yorkshire: BTY is its older namesake in Hants)
BOC Bootle (Cumbria)

Former names
BAJ Baglan - was it once a junction?
BHC Balloch - right letters, wrong order - used to be Balloch Central?
BDM Bedford (formerly Midland)


Oddities
ANZ Anerley
BBS Bordesley (Birmingham Bordesley)
BSU Brunstane (wrong order)
BSV Buckshaw Parkway

Baglan is a new station built in 1994 so no it wasn’t but is there a junction near the station???
Balloch is a new station that replaced the former Central station on the other side of the crossing.

 

[pdeaves]

Wapping (WPE) - E from 'East London'?
Wembley Stadium (WCX)

 

[SargeNpton]

Amersham doesn't (AMR).

In other areas:
Anerley (ANZ)
Stow (SOI)
St Peters (STZ)
South Hylton (SHZ)

Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer and Amersham are the exceptions to the London Underground = Zxx rule. Don't ask me why as I have no idea.

 

[pdeaves]

Woburn Sands (WBO) is odd with the letters in the wrong order.

 

[Peter0124]

EXG - Exhibition Centre
HOZ - Howwood

 

[SteelWeelApeal]

Here’s the previous thread on the subject, which should have a few more to add to the list. https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-with-letters-not-in-the-station-name.205444/

 

[Millisle]

County added to distinguish from namesake
ADC Adlington (Cheshire) ADL is the Lancashire one
AFS Ashford (Surrey)
AFK Ashford International
BYK Bentley (Yorkshire: BTY is its older namesake in Hants)
BOC Bootle (Cumbria)
CPY Clapham (Yorkshire)
CWD Cresswell (Derbyshire, but no namesake)
GMG Garth (Mid Glamorgan)
KSW Kirkby Stephen (Westmoreland, but no namesake)
MES Melton (Suffolk)

Former names
BAJ Baglan - was it once a junction?
BHC Balloch - right letters, wrong order - used to be Balloch Central?
BDM Bedford (formerly Midland)
ELW Eltham (seems to have taken over Well Hall's code?)
HND Hanborough
HPQ Harwich International (Parkstone Quay)
HHB Heysham Port (Harbour?)
MHS Meadowhall (Stadium)

LUL stations
ZCW Canada Water
ZFD Farringdon

Oddities
ANZ Anerley
BBS Bordesley (Birmingham Bordesley)
BKQ Hamilton Square (BirKenhead hamilton sQuare)
BSU Brunstane (wrong order)
BSV Buckshaw Parkway
DMG Dinas Rhondda
DOT Dunston
EBD Ebbsfleet International
HOZ Howwood (Renfrewshire)
HXX Heathrow Terminals 1,2 & 3
LLG Llanfairpwll (the made-up longer name does include a "G" though)
MIA Manchester Airport (wrong order unless you call it International Airport)
MFT Mansfield

KSW from Kirkby Stephen West, not Westmorland (sic).

 

[emoaconr]

DMG Dinas Rhondda

Dinas (Mid Glamorgan) I assume.

Perhaps to distinguish from Dinas in Caernarfon (closed 1964) or Dinas Powys (confusingly not in Powys, but now Vale of Glamorgan or the preserved county of South Glamorgan).

Penychain near Pwllheli was coded as BPC (Butlins Penychain) until fairly recently - despite being called simply Penychain for many years (Butlins became Haven in 1998ish). It is now PNC.

 

[plugwash]

Also mentioned in that thread are the new Crossrail stations, all of which have two letters followed by the letter X (though it's debatable whether they count, as the X could be said to mean Crossrail).

Interestingly, it seems from https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:G92142/2021-12-21/detailed that Bond Street, Tottenham court road, custom house and woolwhich all have regular codes without an X.

It will be interesting to see whether the X codes for places like Paddington, Farringdon and Liverpool street are actually used when the railway opens or whether they choose to treat both the mainline and Crossrail platforms as parts of a single Station.

Speaking of codes with an X in them I can think of a couple of non crossrail stations where "X" is used in the CRS code to represent "cross". Hunts Cross (HNX) and London Kings Cross (KGX)

 

[robert thomas]

Baglan is a new station built in 1994 so no it wasn’t but is there a junction near the station???
Balloch is a new station that replaced the former Central station on the other side of the crossing.

No junction near but BAG BAH & BAI were all already in use so BAJ was the next available

 

[Neptune]

Streethouse (SHC)

 

[snowball]

Streethouse (SHC)

Could that be because it's next door to Sharlston Common?

 

[robbeech]

MFT Mansfield

I believe it refers to Mansfield Town, as opposed to nearby Mansfield Woodhouse (MSW).



Sarn (SRR)
Stow (SOI)

 

[150219]

Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer and Amersham are the exceptions to the London Underground = Zxx rule. Don't ask me why as I have no idea.

Not now, but they used to. I can't recall specifically when they changed, but perhaps around 2000/1. ZMP is still used for Moor Park. ZHH was Harrow OTH, as you might expect!

I'm sure there must have been a thread about this in the past!

• BIT - Bicester Village (it used to be called Bicester Town - OK, technically Bicester does contain a 't', but it ought to have been changed with the name change)

It's easier not to sometimes, especially when staff are used to using one code for a long time. Different with stations that haven't yet opened though. There's more flexibility in being able to change them, before being put into mainstream use.

 

[Bletchleyite]

BDM - Bedford
MHS - Meadowhall

I'm guessing those two are:

Bedford Midland
Meadowhall Sheffield

Though I agree they indeed aren't in the official name!

KSW Kirkby Stephen (Westmoreland, but no namesake)

I believe that's "Kirkby Stephen West", its former name before the other one (East) closed.

HHB Heysham Port (Harbour?)

Yes, Harbour.

BSV Buckshaw Parkway

Buckshaw Village, as someone else said. Would have been a better name - though personally I think they should have built it to look like the old one and called it "Euxton ROF" for historical connection. The old one was an enigma - on highly secure land so it was just as it had been left. (ROF = Royal Ordnance Factory, on which the new estate is built).

MIA Manchester Airport (wrong order unless you call it International Airport)

It does indeed derive from "Manchester International Airport", which (other than calling it Ringway) was a fairly common abbreviation for it locally.

 

[mcnw35282]

HNX - Hunts Cross (Merseyside)

 

[AY1975]

QPW - Queens Park, London (the one in Glasgow has QPK, but I've no idea why they couldn't have used QPL for the one in London and QPG for the one in Glasgow)

I believe that the park after which it is named is partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the Borough of Brent, so I can only think that it's W for Westminster (or W for West Coast Main Line).

 

[Mojo]

Harrow-on-the-Hill, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Chalfont & Latimer and Amersham are the exceptions to the London Underground = Zxx rule. Don't ask me why as I have no idea.

As is Moorgate [MOG], although when Thameslink used to operate into the City Widened Lines platforms (adjacent to the Met line platforms) it used a separate code [ZMG] to the lower level (Northern City Lines) platforms.

There are plenty of LU managed stations that under the National Rail CRS codes system don't have CRS codes beginning with a Z.

 

[SargeNpton]

HNX - Hunts Cross (Merseyside)

"X" is often used as a reference to Cross in a station name: Charing Cross (CHX), New Cross (NWX), New Cross Gate (NXG), Kings Cross (KGX), Kirkby Cross (KBX).

 

[reb0118]

SOI for Stow In Wedale.

 

[AY1975]

SOI for Stow In Wedale.

It's debatable whether that one counts, though, as Stow has an S and an O in it and In has an I in it.

 

[Watershed]

It's debatable whether that one counts, though, as Stow has an S and an O in it and In has an I in it.

I think the official name of the station is simply Stow, so whilst the 'in Weardale' part might help explain the reason for the CRS code, it does still qualify.

That said, with the name only being four characters long, and STW (Strawberry Hill) and STO (South Tottenham) both being taken, they didn't exactly have a lot of options!