My dad worked on the railway for more than 40 years and he never called it a train station, nor did he know anyone who did. It was always a railway station. Why is it so common these days to call it a train station?
I could have sworn you asked this already.
1. Because TRAINS are on stopping there and ONLY trains. Not railways.
i once walled from Lam Tin railway station in Kowloon across Victoria Harbour to Quarry Bay railway station on Hong Kong island and back again
Probably American influence. I am in USA and have never heard anyone say railway station. I have heard train station, and train depot.
Great song, Sol.
Simon and Garfunkel are American, aren't they? SelangorNight has already posted the song which leaps instantly to mind. Their 1966 hit "Homeward Bound" (which every American must have heard at some point in their lives) opens with the lyric "I'm sitting in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination". It doesn't say "Sitting in a train station", does it? At the same time, I can't think of any songs off the top of my head that do have "train station" in the lyrics. Anyway, I think that eliminates American influence as the answer to my question.
Walled? What does that mean?
I love the journey you took, it sounds like the trip of a lifetime for me.
Hope you and Andy both like this one too.
My 2, what is your nationality or where are you from originally? I am asking because it may help me understand your point of view better. You certainly have knowledge aplenty, I just don't see how you formulate your opinions from what you know. But to each his own. I just would be very interested in that just from a personal point of view.
I am American and outspoken and a big mouth. I was born here. I don't know a lot about other areas unless I read about them. I know you live in the USA. I just was not sure if you were from here or somewhere else.
I love "Runaway Train", I bought it on a vinyl single in 1993. I don't know much else by Soul Asylum though. That particular song was their only Top 10 hit in the UK, but they weren't one-hit wonders, they had three lesser Top 40 singles and two Top 40 albums, but none of their other songs have stuck in my mind like "Runaway Train".
It's an excellent song. I was only 4 years old when it came out and I remember hearing it on the radio regularly then. Some time later (in the early 70s) my mum bought Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, so I started hearing it a lot again then (at maybe 10), and it was still being played on the radio from time to time. It is now 50 years old and it remains a timeless classic.
As a small child the men in my family worked for Southern Railroad. We road the train free of charge. We road often. We boarded and detrained at the train station. I never heard it called a railway station. Let me say that the train station is still in my memory the most beautiful building in which I have ever been.......................and I've been in beautiful places all over the world.
We ROAD often???? Great jangling jellybabies, I didn't expect that from you, Thriftymaid. Lol:)
My dad and his brothers (and their dad) were all working on the railway (or railroad, as it is known in the USA) at various times during the 1950s (before I was born), and my dad continued to work on it until the 1990s. I never heard my dad or any of the others in his family calling it a train station. Some have suggested it's an American phrase, but I have already eliminated that possibility with that Simon and Garfunkel song. In addition to that, the British jazz band the Temperance Seven did a song about a place in the USA (Pasadena), which was probably composed by an American songwriter, and that one also says "railway station" in the lyrics.
Many of the old Victorian railway stations in the UK are among the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen (the one in York is especially something to behold), so I can definitely agree with you on that point. :)
Railway station, train station - what's the difference? Talk about splitting hairs.
Stu, do you know what "keeping the status quo" means, as opposed to "change"? The reason I ask is because I grew up with it being called a railway station, then all of a sudden people started calling it a train station and not even having the common decency to explain the logical reason (or even if there was a logical reason) for this sudden change. You see, Stu, I take to change roughly as much as the Jews took to Adolf Hitler, and I really mean that with the utmost sincerity. Now do you understand what the difference is, or why I am splitting hairs?
Thanks.........yes, that was a good one. No excuse.
The only reason I mentioned Hitler versus the Jews was to express my loathing of change, I just wanted to compare it with something on a similar level. Now if the term "train station" had always been used since 1825 and the term "railway station" hadn't been coined, I would call it a train station myself for the plain and simple reason that I would have grown up with it being called that. What part of that don't you understand, Stu?
Andy, people who like language are always interested in changes like this. I like language. This was interesting:
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2011/oct/18/railway-station-or-train-station
Andy, me neither. I started liking the idea of Soul Asylum because of this song. It played a lot in the US
It's a bit confusing in places, Thriftymaid. For example, it implies that a train depot is the same thing as a railway station (or it could be misinterpreted that way), but it isn't. The depot is where they store the trains when they are not in use, not where passengers get on and off. As the son of a railwayman I have been familiar with railway terminology all my life. Lol:)
I still hear it from time to time in the UK as well (on the radio, in shops and on pub jukeboxes). It reached number 7 in the UK charts, their only Top 10 entry here, and it stayed in the charts for 19 weeks (their longest run with a single), so it was clearly their biggest seller, and it has remained popular for 23 years.
Sorry, typo - should have been 'walked'
There was a great film called Runaway Train' starring Jon Voight
One of my favourites
