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Train Station

(78 Posts)
railman Fri 19-Oct-12 18:48:17

I know - it doesn't really matter - and given my nom de pen I should be more sympathetic.

What on earth is a "Train Station" - these must have materialised in the last decade, along with cup cakes, etc., - they are after all railway stations, and derived from - hey believe it or not, stations on the railway!!

I've heard this repeated so many times on the BBC - and no doubt other TV and radio broadcasters - but it is just plain wrong.

I'm afraid I didn't know whether to include my little rant in pedants corner or not.

Mind you I can't wait for someone to say they're going to travel by train on the train way! Then we can all arrive into a train station, and go to the kiosk and ask if we can get a newspaper, coffee, bacon barm, etc.

railman Tue 23-Oct-12 12:11:17

I like that gracesmum - I wonder how a "work station" should be described in standard English?

I am assuming here that on your desk is a computer with a screen - what happens if you place a laptop, Mac or iPad on the same desk - does it then have a different name.

You can't beat the world of ICT for inventing non-descriptions of devices and gadgets.

railman Tue 23-Oct-12 12:07:30

And another thing that can get under my skin is the current propensity for turning nouns and adjectives into verbs:

"Please exit by the main door...."

Editorialize, verbalize.....etc., etc.

Lilygran Tue 23-Oct-12 07:34:22

Very nice, gracesmum! grin

gracesmum Mon 22-Oct-12 22:42:57

I make no apologies for my first plagiarism from these wonderful words of wisdom:
10) A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk, I have a work station.

crimson Sun 21-Oct-12 23:44:46

Why do we say 'catch'? Is it anything to do with camels and deserts and things?

gillybob Sun 21-Oct-12 22:50:54

When was the last time caught a railway to London
Or Edinburgh or anywhere? No you catch a train don't you ?

Bags Sun 21-Oct-12 17:11:07

Three syllables instead of four too. More efficient [little devil]

goldengirl Sun 21-Oct-12 17:02:44

I first heard the term in the US. I'm afraid I tend to use it now as opposed to bus station. It makes it clearer for our foreign visitors I think.

gracesmum Sun 21-Oct-12 14:15:34

"Die Eisenbahn" feetle (pedants' alert)

JessM Sun 21-Oct-12 14:08:13

Yes the main character in the book reminded me so much of Maxwell. The way we live now, too.
Good BBC adaptation.
Made a name for Shirley Henderson.

feetlebaum Sun 21-Oct-12 13:50:19

@JessM : "Trollope's finest work (i believe) was about getting people to invest in a railroad in the US. (The Way we Live Now)"

A railroad that was never going to be built... It is a great book - on the same lines (ha!) as Dickens and his Mr Merdle, in Little Dorit -- in fact both were based on the same real-life Irish banker, who ended up committing suicide on Hampstead Heath...

"It always intrigues me to see the way it is called the "iron road" in most languages - spainish, french, irish etc" - German, too, 'der Eisenbahn'.

crimson Sun 21-Oct-12 13:11:29

I was on a train when it was announced that the seats were now first come first served. There were a number of people who had booked seats; one girl, a foreign student I believe just kept saying over and over again that she'd booked a seat. I felt ashamed of how shambolic it all was. We used to travel to Cheltenham by train for the races, but got sick of paying a lot for a ticket and having to stand all the way back. We now go by car.

railman Sun 21-Oct-12 13:07:42

Haha - I'd forgotten "Train Manager" - brilliant invention grin

railman Sun 21-Oct-12 13:05:22

I was on a west coast train a year or two back now, and I seem to remember the speaker over the tannoy (there's a good word you don't hear about much these days!) said something like, disabled railcards weren't valid for tickets/travel on this train.

Probably not, but there's just something about it in the back of my mind.

That said, I was on a train from Euston about a year or so back, when the announcement was made that certain tickets were not valid on this train - the announcement was made about 30 seconds or less before the train was due to depart.

What transpired next was like watching lemmings leaping off cliff.

At least, I was sure that whether my ticket was valid or not, I wouldn't be kicked off until Warrington.

I did have a standard class ticket, and I was in standard class - unlike some!

Beachee Sun 21-Oct-12 11:59:59

I hate "arriving into" as well. It's completely wrong also. I think the thing is that people making the announcements just don't know it's wrong!

railman Sun 21-Oct-12 11:50:33

I agree FlicketyB - I do think the pomposity of 'management speak' being introduced to over complicate stuff has a lot to answer for.

It's a very useful way of flogging the emperor some new clothes too - or the same clothes with a shiny new badge!

Love the "customers" point absentgrana - I wonder when they will become "service users" like NHS patients!

And, don't forget to take your personal belongings with you when descending to the surface of the platform - or is that 'train passenger filtering channel' !!!

AlieOxon Sun 21-Oct-12 10:56:20

And another one about the train - very funny and very early, I hadn't realised how early!
mysongbook.de/msb/songs/i/ironhors.html

AlieOxon Sun 21-Oct-12 10:41:22

That reminded me:
SONG OF THE IRON ROAD
(Ewan MacColl)..................any one heard this one? I have it on an old 10" LP I got in the 60s, but I don't have a date for the song.

JessM Sun 21-Oct-12 10:33:09

Trollope's finest work (i believe) was about getting people to invest in a railroad in the US. (The Way we Live Now)
It always intrigues me to see the way it is called the "iron road" in most languages - spainish, french, irish etc

Gally Sun 21-Oct-12 10:30:19

DD1 travelled to school by train with her 'cello. I used to get a phone call from the Station Master: (broad Fife accent) 'Mrs.C, yer Hannah's left her thingie on the platform agin' so off I would go to fetch it - any excuse to get out of cello lessons. On the subject of gaps between the platform and the train - ours is huge - probably a good 14" as the station is on a slight bend, very dangerous in fact. The girls used to lose their shoes down the gap regularly, so Andrew would have to fish them out with a long pole. An elderly lady did actually slip down the gap and injured her leg quite badly, luckily she was stopped from falling the whole way by her companion shock

AlieOxon Sun 21-Oct-12 10:27:34

Ah!

absentgrana Sun 21-Oct-12 10:24:21

AlieOxon Railroad was the original term, but was quickly superseded by railway in Britain. In America, railroad, just like gotten, continues to be used.

AlieOxon Sun 21-Oct-12 10:21:20

I thought 'railroad' was American - as in
'I've been working on the railroad'

kittylester Sun 21-Oct-12 09:25:09

About sixty five years ago my husband did fall down the gap. An announcement wouldn't have helped him because, as his mother said, he was always where he shouldn't be. grin

absentgrana Sun 21-Oct-12 08:28:45

Surely the identity of a railway (or train) station has always been a place where trains stop. A place on the railway could be all sorts of other things, e.g. a cutting, level crossing, points, junction.