A pointless station name?!

rjhowie

Active member
The thread on the potential name change in New York reminded me of something here.

In Clydebank on the western outskirts of Glasgow there are two suburban electric lines. Ine has Clydebank Central as the name and the other running parable but a ten minute walk is 'Singer.' Now the thing that has always niggled me any time I pass it or use it is that name. Back in history it was called that because right bang beside it was a large Singer sewing machine factory. Understandable of course but the factory was pulled down actually decades ago and today most of the people will never have a clue why it is called that. Elsewhere in Glasgow another suburban station called Finnieston was renamed Exhibition as there were no longer as many houses as used to be and over the line and next the River Clyde was the big new Exhibition & Conference Centre. Fair enough but I still think that Singer is a very pointless name and should have been changed!
 
We have Downtown Crossing in Boston's shopping district. For years this was called Washington Street after the street it's located on. In fact Boston has many stations named after the streets the stations are located like Park Street, Boylston Street, Arlington, Huntington Avenue, and so on. This makes sense and you have an idea where you are in the city, not that Boston is very big by any means.

Then the hair brained idiots thought they'd start naming stations after nearby locations. Downtown Crossing was one of them. There are stations named after specific locations such as Mass. General, Lechmere, (named after the square), Ruggles, Back Bay, and so on, but Downtown Crossing doesn't fit like the others do.

John
 
Good to see that answer John as hoped others might scratch there heads.

What a piece of news that was and it did make me laugh a bit as it makes one want to scratch the head! I have often pondered on writing or emailing the head bummers of Scotrail on that Singer station daftness even though I will get some standard and pointless progressive answer. Now you over there have this prospective name change of one of the two main stations in NYC which I used on both my trips years ago.

Any more head shaking similarities anywhere else?! :)

Bobby
 
Good to see that answer John as hoped others might scratch there heads.

What a piece of news that was and it did make me laugh a bit as it makes one want to scratch the head! I have often pondered on writing or emailing the head bummers of Scotrail on that Singer station daftness even though I will get some standard and pointless progressive answer. Now you over there have this prospective name change of one of the two main stations in NYC which I used on both my trips years ago.

Any more head shaking similarities anywhere else?! :)

Bobby

The Singer station name I can see remaining since there is probably still a local connection to it, however, why did they rename the famous Penn Station in NYC is beyond me. I wonder if it's because the current generation of bureaucrats have no connection to history or care about the past.

John
 
The thread on the potential name change in New York reminded me of something here.

In Clydebank on the western outskirts of Glasgow there are two suburban electric lines. Ine has Clydebank Central as the name and the other running parable but a ten minute walk is 'Singer.' Now the thing that has always niggled me any time I pass it or use it is that name. Back in history it was called that because right bang beside it was a large Singer sewing machine factory. Understandable of course but the factory was pulled down actually decades ago and today most of the people will never have a clue why it is called that. Elsewhere in Glasgow another suburban station called Finnieston was renamed Exhibition as there were no longer as many houses as used to be and over the line and next the River Clyde was the big new Exhibition & Conference Centre. Fair enough but I still think that Singer is a very pointless name and should have been changed!


I have a notion that Singer station was origonally called Kilbowie, but renamed when the factory was built. The train route indicators also show services as via "Singer" on via "Yoker" so you'd need to redo all those. So inertia leaves things as they are. Oh, and I still call "Exhibition Centre" Finnieston, cos that's what it was when I Learned the road!
 
I am afraid you are wrong there on the suggestion 37040 that Singer may have been Kilbowie. There was a Kilbowie station on the same main road and further downhillnear Glasgow Road. It was on an embankment line and you enetered under a rail bridge and upstairs. The reason I am very definite on that is I was on it when in my early twenties I worked on the railway as a booking clerk at Singer after that line was electrified.On a Monday whichever one of the clerical staff was on duty at the more busy Singer I for example would after midday have to walk the street right down to Kilbowie to pick up the money. No clerks just a porter down there and it was a dead line. It was part of the network from Glasgow Central low Level and the line along the Clyde was a dead loss. You could take a train from there through the lower west of the city via Yoker Ferry, Scotstoun West and East, Partick West, Partick Central, Finnieston, Anderston Junction. As a wee boy I lived in Whiteinch and sadly knew that route was well overdue for closing even then as it had been dead for decades.
 
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