The Bristol Railway Archive

I was talking to someone the other day about stations in Weston and remembered how it used to be Weston-super-Mare General. There used to be lots of 'General's - Cardiff, Neath, Reading, Bodmin(?) but the only one left is Wrexham, I think. Can anyone recall any others?

I think it was a GWR thing, distinguishing their station in a town/ city from those of other companies. There were of course exceptions; Exeter St Davids and Gloucester Central spring immediately to mind. Some more "Generals" that sprang to mind as I was writing this were Banbury and Leamington Spa

The Midland seemed to like adding "Midland" to their station names, whilst the GC seemed to prefer "Victoria"

Then of course there were the "Roads" Not just a GWR thing, but could be loosely translated in all cases as "not necessarily too far from the place mentioned on the nameboard, but wear good walking boots"

If a passenger (sorry, customer these days) asks me for the next train to 'Parkway', I always ask them to clarify which one. How many do we have these days? Bristol, Bodmin, Didcot, Port Talbot to name but a few.