Trivia: Three letter station names?

[RailWonderer]

I was wondering how many there were after having looked up the BR station code index. I assume there are no one or two letter station names. If there are no more three letter names, you can stretch to four.

 

[Trainguy34]

Wye, Rye, Ore, IBM depending if it counts, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch might count

 

[Gloster]

Ash and you used to have Bow, Box and Ide.

 

[swt_passenger]

Ash
Ayr
Ely
IBM (recently closed as per later replies)
Lee
Lye
Ore
Par
Rye
Wem
Wye

This from the 2022 thread asking the same question:

Trivia: Station names exactly the same as the station code

There are some stations I can think of, having its name exactly the same as the 3-letter code. For example, Ash and IBM. Are there any other stations which have their name exactly the same as the code?

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[Buzby]

I’m sure IBM (Spango Valley) is no more (figuratively and physically) it was removed from Wemyss Bay services a good few years ago. If it ever reopens it’ll have a more appropriate name.

 

[JKF]

I assume there are no one or two letter station names. If there are no more three letter names, you can stretch to four. Please don't clog the responses with five or more

I’m currently staying not many miles from the delightful station of ‘Ul’, but that’s not in the U.K. so doesn’t count (although similarly pronounced to a certain four-letter terminus in the north-east). It also only has a taxi service at the moment, but is supposed to be coming back unless the current government gets booted out in forthcoming elections (which is possible).

 

[Mordac]

I’m currently staying not many miles from the delightful station of ‘Ul’, but that’s not in the U.K. so doesn’t count (although similarly pronounced to a certain four-letter terminus in the north-east). It also only has a taxi service at the moment, but is supposed to be coming back unless the current government gets booted out in forthcoming elections (which is possible).

Vouga Valley line in Portugal?

 

[JKF]

Vouga Valley line in Portugal?

Yes. I understand there are some other two-letter ones around the globe, though. Think there was a thread somewhere about it!

 

[D6130]

Italy has Rho in the North Western suburbs of Milano....and there is Dax in the South West of France and Gap in the South East of France.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Yes. I understand there are some other two-letter ones around the globe, though. Think there was a thread somewhere about it!

One of which is Aš (pronounced Ash, funnily enough- there's one for the town twinning thread!) in Czechia close to the German border. The station only reopened in 2015.

 

[D6130]

Belgium has Aye, Huy and Lot....plus at least one two letter station - Sy.

 

[RJH]

One of which is Aš (pronounced Ash, funnily enough- there's one for the town twinning thread!) in Czechia close to the German border. The station only reopened in 2015.

Aš wasn't closed, it's on the Cheb to Hranice v Čechách branch line. You may be thinking of the cross-border section of line between Aš and Selb-Plößberg, now part of the Cheb - Hof route, and which was indeed reopened in 2015.

 

[Calthrop]

Yes. I understand there are some other two-letter ones around the globe, though. Think there was a thread somewhere about it!

Thread (I fear I lack the skill for doing links -- if I try to, always screw it up) on the International Transport sub-forum: TRIVIA: Longest Station Names -- first post 27/3/2020. Title notwithstanding, the thread diversifies into, also, shortest names -- some fine two-letter ones were furnished. On that thread, I mentioned my wish for a one-letter station somewhere in the world: made mention of the village of Y, in the Somme departement of France. Sadly -- despite France's having been in "the best of times" for such, extremely well-supplied with railways, especially in its more northerly reaches -- referring to Google did not seem hopeful as regards Y's having ever had a rail station.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Aš wasn't closed, it's on the Cheb to Hranice v Čechách branch line. You may be thinking of the cross-border section of line between Aš and Selb-Plößberg, now part of the Cheb - Hof route, and which was indeed reopened in 2015.

Thanks for the correction. The English Wikipedia entry for the town is rather poorly worded.

 

[Purple Train]

On the subject of two-letter names, I believe that there is a station on the Gisors branch of Transilien line J called Us.

 

[JKF]

Thread (I fear I lack the skill for doing links -- if I try to, always screw it up) on the International Transport sub-forum: TRIVIA: Longest Station Names -- first post 27/3/2020. Title notwithstanding, the thread diversifies into, also, shortest names -- some fine two-letter ones were furnished. On that thread, I mentioned my wish for a one-letter station somewhere in the world: made mention of the village of Y, in the Somme departement of France. Sadly -- despite France's having been in "the best of times" for such, extremely well-supplied with railways, especially in its more northerly reaches -- referring to Google did not seem hopeful as regards Y's having ever had a rail station.

I wonder if there are some one-character stations in countries with pictographic writing like China or Japan? I could also imagine some soviet nations having numbered rather than named stations, though would probably be of the format ‘Station No.4’.

 

[D6130]

Veering slightly 0/T, there was also the station at Moy on the Highland Main Line, which closed in 1965. It still has a remotely-controlled passing loop.

 

[CarrotPie]

Ii in Finland used to have a station, but it closed in 2006, with only the passing loops remaining.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

On the subject of two-letter names, I believe that there is a station on the Gisors branch of Transilien line J called Us.

There is indeed; it's four stops past Pontoise.

 

[snowball]

Not a station, but there's at least one 2-letter place name in the UK: Ae in Dumfries and Galloway.

 

[mailbyrail]

I could also imagine some soviet nations having numbered rather than named stations, though would probably be of the format ‘Station No.4’.

A lot of stations in remote areas are simply 123Km or suchlike based upon their distance along the line

Meanwhile, France has the now closed stations of GY and WY

 

[Gloster]

You have Ry in Denmark, Ed in Sweden and, Bø, Os and Ål in Norway, all with stations (I think).

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I wonder if there are some one-character stations in countries with pictographic writing like China or Japan? I could also imagine some soviet nations having numbered rather than named stations, though would probably be of the format ‘Station No.4’.

Wasn't there once a class 31 with the name "Bletchley Park: Station X"?

 

[W-on-Sea]

Sticking to three characters.....QT8 on the Milan Metro.

Also, not far from Dax, in the south-west of France, Pau.

I don't think I've come across purely numbered stations in post-Soviet lands (as opposed to numbered stations within a settlement, like Tukums II in Latvia), other than the fairly common practice of small country halts being named after how many km they are from the start of the line.

 

[Tester]

I wonder if there are some one-character stations in countries with pictographic writing like China or Japan?

Certainly in Japan - for example Sakari (盛).

But I suspect that isn't what you had in mind!

 

[hermit]

Belgium has Aye, Huy and Lot....plus at least one two letter station - Sy.

Also Ans, near Liège.

 

[Springs Branch]

In Australia, a quick scan of currently open stations in various states shows there's only one 3-letter station - Moe, in regional Victoria, south-east of Melbourne.

I could also imagine some soviet nations having numbered rather than named stations, though would probably be of the format ‘Station No.4’.

A lot of stations in remote areas are simply 123Km or suchlike based upon their distance along the line

Australia also used to have some stops of the '110 Mile Crossing' or 'Stopping Place No. X' format.

AFAIK these were generally wayside halts in remote areas with hardly any facilities apart from a nameboard. But one exception was 'Stopping Place Number 15' on the DMU-worked Stony Point line on Melbourne's outer fringe.

This shack has been renamed Morradoo since 1996 but had been opened as "Stopping Place No. 15" as late as 1960. I remember the former numbered name appearing and looking quite incongruous printed on the modern, multicoloured diagrammatic maps published by Melbourne's suburban train network in the late 1980s/90s.

On the other hand, some very remote Australian railway locations absolutely in the middle of nowhere on the Nullabor, or the Ghan Line - which could quite conceivably be named '1105 km Siding' etc. - are all given names. Possibly this is to avoid misunderstandings in radio messages. Either an aboriginal name presumably related to the locality, or a person's name. A good handful of these are the surnames of previous Australian Prime Ministers.

 

[Calthrop]

In Australia, a quick scan of currently open stations in various states shows there's only one 3-letter station - Moe, in regional Victoria, south-east of Melbourne.

Topic-drifting; but in times past, Moe had the distinction of being the interchange point with Victoria's 5ft. 3in. gauge; of one of the 2ft. 6in. gauge "sister lines" of the renowned Puffing Billy preserved railway: "PB" being the only meaningful survivor of the group, all others long-abandoned. The Moe narrow gauge ran for 41km. eastward, to the settlement of Walhalla -- the line especially in its more easterly reaches, definitely mountainously spectacular. Line closed down in stages between 1944 and 1954. In recent decades, a few kilometres at the Walhalla extremity have been revived as a preservation venture; of the kind which I -- admittedly a Scrooge about such matters -- regard as totally bogus, ludicrous, in the "necrophilia" department, and "shouldn't have been done".

(Long ago, I had a crush on a -- found by me highly attractive -- work colleague, known as Moe [diminutive of Moira]. Fantasies on my part, about stuff which never happened: involved musings on being taken by Moe, to Walhalla ...)

 

[Purple Train]

There is indeed; it's four stops past Pontoise.

And therefore five stops from the delightfully long Saint Ouen l'Aumone Quartier de l'Eglise!

Isn't Us effectively one sound as well?

 

[Calthrop]

And therefore five stops from the delightfully long Saint Ouen l'Aumone Quartier de l'Eglise!

Isn't Us effectively one sound as well?

Interesting how this thread has devolved from "three-letter", to both "very short", and "much longer".

I would reckon that France's champion-length station name nowadays, has got to be the one on the Vivarais preserved metre-gauge line (honourably mentioned in the 2020 International Transport thread cited by me upthread) -- Colombier-le-Vieux-Saint-Barthelemy-le-Plain -- beats by several characters, the above Saint Ouen-etc. !