Mastodawn

Owen May 21, 2023

Train stations in the UK each have 3 letter codes. For instance Kings Cross is KGX and Leeds is LDS. What's the best journey you can do in 3 letter codes?

HIP ➡️ HOP (Highams Park to Hope, Derbyshire)
SKI ➡️ SEA (Skipton to Seaham)
BUY ➡️ HAT (Burley Park to Hatfield)
EGG ➡️ HEN (Eggesford to Hendon)
TIP ➡️ TOP (Tipton to Topsham)
TOO ➡️ HOT (Tooting to Henley-on-Thames)
TAT ➡️ TOO (Tattenham Corner to Tooting)

COW ➡️ PAT (Cowdenbeath to Patricroft)
BIG ➡️ BEN (Billingshurst to Bentham)
BAD ➡️ ASS (Banstead to Alness)

GYM ➡️ BRO (Great Yarmouth to Bridge of Orchy)
HAT ➡️ PIN (Hatfield, Herts to Pinhoe)
ARM ➡️ PIT (Armadale, West Lothian to Pitlochry)

BOT ➡️ TOM (Bootle Oriel Road to Tottenham Hale)
CAT ➡️ POO (Caterham to Poole)
BIN ➡️ BAG (Bingham to Bagshot)
HID ➡️ DEN (Hall-i'-th'-Wood to Dean, Wilts)
EWE ➡️ RAM (Ewell East to Ramsgate)
TOO ➡️ FRO (Tooting to Frome)
MOO ➡️ COW (Muir of Ord to Cowdenbeath)

BAD ➡️ LAD (Banstead to Ladywell)
BAR ➡️ BRA (Bare Lane to Brora)
WIN ➡️ DOW (Winchester to Downham Market)
TEA ➡️ CUP (Tees-side Airport to Cupar)
BAT ➡️ MAN (Battle to Manchester Piccadilly)
WAR ➡️ GOD (Ware, Herts to Godalming)
BLT ➡️ RYE (Blantyre to Rye)

PEA ➡️ NUT (Peartree to Nutbourne)
ADD ➡️ HOC (Adderley Park to Hockley)

A multi-leg journey:
WWW ➡️ DOT ➡️ COM (Wootton Wawen to Dunston to Commondale)

Alun Salt May 21, 2023

@slowe
TRA ➡️ INS (Trafford Park to Insch)

Λidan May 21, 2023

@slowe For the computer folks (like me!), there’s RAM ➡️ SSD (Ramsgate to Stansted Airport)

Quinn 🌸🏳️‍⚧️May 21, 2023

@slowe STU➡️ART (Sturry to Arrochar & Tarbet; minimum 10 hours, mind)

Quinn 🌸🏳️‍⚧️May 21, 2023

@slowe OK well I had to write a script didn't I? The longest possible word is:

DIS➡️ENF➡️RAN➡️CHI➡️SEM➡️ENT (Diss to Enfield Town to Rannoch to Chingford to Seamer to Entwistle)

At 12 letters there are lots that work on syllable boundaries too, e.g.

WAR➡️MON➡️GER➡️ING (Ware, Herts to Monifieth to Gerrards Cross to Invergowrie)

Full list: https://gist.github.com/pedantic-git/8ddc371bb2a405e776c666816828beae

Jim MacArthur May 21, 2023

@quinnmx This thread has made me realise that I've met my family in Battle and in WAR.

Quinn 🌸🏳️‍⚧️May 21, 2023

@jmacarthur There's only one thing for your next family holiday https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C4%85ca%2C_Gmina_Osiek

Frąca, Gmina Osiek - Wikipedia

@quinnmx You are the second to get that ;) https://social.linux.pizza/@hypercube/110406972378539972

hypedcube (@[email protected])

@[email protected] Incredibly, if you have 6 stations, Disenfranchisement works DIS ➡️ ENF ➡️ RAN ➡️ CHI ➡️ SEM ➡️ ENT

Linux.Pizza

Quinn 🌸🏳️‍⚧️May 21, 2023

@slowe Hah of course I wasn't the first of your followers!

vurpo 🏳️‍⚧️ (2869)May 21, 2023

@quinnmx @slowe I did this with Finnish railway stations a few months ago. The longest word I found was Va-Sta-Va-Ll-An-Kum-Ou-Ks-Ell-In-En ("counterrevolutionary")

(Finnish station abbreviations are 2-4 letters long and are typically written with just the initial capital, rather than all capitals)

Dr David Martin May 26, 2023

@quinnmx @slowe That last route is bonkers, up and down the country twice.

Quinn 🌸🏳️‍⚧️May 26, 2023

@bioinformagic @slowe Worthy of some warmongering

Jim MacArthur May 21, 2023

@slowe I've done BAT->MAN!

Our group declare to be true May 21, 2023

@slowe One for the goths:

AMY➡️LEE (Amberley to Lee (London))

Shinydan May 21, 2023

@slowe
FAR ▶️ COV (Fareham to Coventry)

Edward Andrews-Hodgson May 21, 2023

@slowe Growing up I lived in St Albans. The route into London was on the BED ➡️ PAN line (Bedford to St Pancras). It was disappointing when the changed the terminus so it came into Kings Cross!

James Wood May 21, 2023

@slowe Invergowrie is a useful destination.

Terence Eden May 21, 2023

@slowe
Topsham [TOP] to Caterham [CAT]!

Terence Eden May 21, 2023

@slowe
Maidenhead [MAI] to Tain [TAI].
Delicious!

Terence Eden May 21, 2023

@slowe
EUS-TON is a bit self referential!

Harri Cross May 21, 2023

@Edent @slowe TOP > HAT?

The Queen of Weltschmerz🏳️‍⚧️May 21, 2023

@Edent @slowe The indisputable leader of the gang!

Colin the Mathmo May 21, 2023

BUG ➡️ OUT (Burgess Hill to Outwood)

I originally tried for BUG->OFF, but apparently we can't get OFF.

Shinydan May 21, 2023

@ColinTheMathmo @slowe Does COVentry help, or is that an accent thing?

Colin the Mathmo May 21, 2023

@Shinydan Definitely an accent thing, but certainly an option.

Andy Davies May 21, 2023

Stonehouse (SHU) to Tufnell Park (TUP)

Ok so I had to cheat an use Tufnell Park’s eclipse code

Chris Sefton-Hearn May 21, 2023

@slowe
TOP ➡️ TEN (Topsham to Tenby)
TEN ➡️ PIN (Tenby to Pinhoe)
NAR ➡️ ROW (Narberth to Rowley Regis)

Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE May 21, 2023

@slowe Similar games are possible with the five letter aviation waypoints. But some of them are deliberately named to make silly phrases, so maybe that's too easy a game.

AlisonW ♿🏳️‍🌈♾️May 21, 2023

@slowe
Shouldn't it really be HEN▶️EGG ?

@AlisonW I'm not sure which journey you should do first.

PhDog 🇮🇪May 21, 2023

@AlisonW @slowe

The eternal question.

Hywel May 21, 2023

@slowe
ASS-HAT (Alness to Hatfield)
WAM-BAM (Walmer to Bamford)
BUC-KET (Buckenham to Kettering)

Owen May 21, 2023

@slowe One I actually do quite often: BAN ➡️ CAR (Banbury to Carlisle)

Joe ᔪᐊᐣ May 21, 2023

@slowe
DAR → NIT (Darlington to Nitshill)

Eleanor LNR Blair May 21, 2023

@slowe these are brilliant. Thank you.

BeeCycling has moved May 21, 2023

@slowe
HEX ➡️ HAM (Hexham to Hamworthy. It's like you're going nowhere at all...)
SNA ➡️ KEY (Sandal and Agbrigg to Keyham. I'm sick of these goddamn snakes on this goddamn train.)
SNA ➡️ CKS (Sandal and Agbrigg to Clarkston)

BeeCycling has moved May 21, 2023

@slowe I could lose an entire day to this thread.

BeeCycling has moved May 21, 2023

@slowe
FOX ➡️ CUB (Foxfield to Cumbernauld.)

BeeCycling has moved May 21, 2023

@slowe
WAF ➡️ FLE (Wallyford to Fleet) 🧇

Matt Jones May 21, 2023

@beecycling @slowe Sandal and Agbrigg to Clarkston has an especially good food trolley.

Djoerd Hiemstra 🍉May 21, 2023

@slowe There's a Tooting station!?

@djoerd Yep. You could toot in Tooting.

Long Starbird May 21, 2023

@slowe I don't know about these, but I've always said that Bezmer Airbase, in Bulgaria, is my JAM.

Experiencer (Mastodon)May 21, 2023

@slowe I didn't even realise you could be this creative with the train station names

tbh I've only ever seen the three letter train station codes on like digital tickets, that's it. my local station definitely doesn't have anything interesting in its three letter code which sucks

@experiencersinternational It is the digital tickets that brought it to prominence for me too. Having gone to/from Burley Park (BUY) in Leeds.

Long Starbird May 21, 2023

@slowe Quick check yields:

Battle, Sussex to Manchester Piccadilly: BAT-MAN
Old Street - Tattenham Corner: OLD-TAT
Earley to Burneside: EAR-BUD
Kingussie to Hensall: KIN-HEL

Workshopshed May 21, 2023

@slowe Ladywell LAD to Menheniot MEN
Poole POO to Looe LOO
Sandown SAN to Dyce DYC

Anna May 21, 2023

@slowe WAT ➡️ POO (London Waterloo to Poole)

Bill, organizer of stuff May 21, 2023

@slowe These are all amazing. Thank you.

bazbt3 🦣May 21, 2023

@slowe @Edent Hmmm… thanks!

Plymouth to Motherwell = PLY➡️MTH

Motherwell to Wellingborough = MTH➡️WEL

Wellingborough to Commondale = WEL➡️COM (gone off the intended place names rails bit now)

Commondale to Plymouth = COM➡️PLY

I'd have preferred to have a more circular route, or perhaps one with a particularly naughty outline, but hey, I'm pleased with this so far. :)

emurphy42 May 21, 2023

@slowe YYZ➡️MCC

Heather May 21, 2023

@slowe WAT POO (London Waterloo to Poole)

Heather May 21, 2023

@slowe wait wait POO HAT!!

Todd Katz May 22, 2023

TU DUM > (Timbuktu to Dum Dum, India)

der.hans May 22, 2023

@slowe Wait! What? There's a Mastodon train station?

Tooting

Colin Beveridge May 22, 2023

@slowe Cheadle Hulme to Wool: CHU-WOO!

The quantum physicist might go from Brora to Kettering as BRA-KET.