English Language - what "Does your head in" ??

[Cyril Haearn]

Another one on a railway theme: improper use of the word "carnage".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45885867
In the words of one tweeter, "It's carnage with no-one informing passengers that arrive to change at Reading."
To me, the word 'carnage' evokes images of blood and gore and bodies scattered everywhere. Not a crowd of hapless and infuriated passengers stomping about on the platform just because the 8:17's been cancelled...

The journalist reported what someone had squealed
Journalists use inappropriate language themselves often enough, mind

[Mick F]

It's murder on the dance-floor.

[cyclemad]

people who use the word ''like'' after every other word

and....the over-use of the word ''basically''

really gets on my nerves !!! -- rant over , happy now.

[661-Pete]

Pedants corner: it was sevenfeetanda*quarterinch* That made the curves easier

I'd really love to know how that extra quarter-inch made the curves 'easier'!

[Cyril Haearn]

Pedants corner: it was sevenfeetanda*quarterinch* That made the curves easier

I'd really love to know how that extra quarter-inch made the curves 'easier'!

I used to work on a railway but I am not technical, you could read wykedpia about gauges, apparently a few mm are significant, the gauge could be wider on curves
Went to a model railway exhibition Saturday, wish I had asked there

Still puzzling about three-track routes, there are a couple near Hamburg, is the third track up or down?

[Bmblbzzz]

Pedants corner: it was sevenfeetanda*quarterinch* That made the curves easier

I'd really love to know how that extra quarter-inch made the curves 'easier'!

I used to work on a railway but I am not technical, you could read wykedpia about gauges, apparently a few mm are significant, the gauge could be wider on curves
Went to a model railway exhibition Saturday, wish I had asked there

Still puzzling about three-track routes, there are a couple near Hamburg, is the third track up or down?

Presumably it will be whichever direction is needed. It might be bidirectionally signalled.

[Cyril Haearn]

I'd really love to know how that extra quarter-inch made the curves 'easier'!

I used to work on a railway but I am not technical, you could read wykedpia about gauges, apparently a few mm are significant, the gauge could be wider on curves
Went to a model railway exhibition Saturday, wish I had asked there

Still puzzling about three-track routes, there are a couple near Hamburg, is the third track up or down?

Presumably it will be whichever direction is needed. It might be bidirectionally signalled.

There was an interesting article about this, I did not understand it completely (+1!) it is a bit philosophical
On some stretches stopping and goods trains are grouped, several go in the same direction consecutively so capacity is higher, trains going the other way might have to wait, mind
Elsewhere it functions a bit like a single line, but then capacity is less, reversible signalling is the norm I imagine
The lines south from Hamburg are very busy, there is a huge marshalling yard at Maschenv

[661-Pete]

Still puzzling about three-track routes, there are a couple near Hamburg, is the third track up or down?

Presumably it will be whichever direction is needed. It might be bidirectionally signalled.

Yes, both ways. For years, the mile south of East Croydon has been five-track: four of the tracks are respectively up/fast, down/fast, up/slow and down/slow.

The fifth is bidirectional. In my schooldays the steam trains going to/from Oxted and Tunbridge Wells were often routed along that line. OK the steam has gone, but the line is still there...

[Bmblbzzz]

I used to work on a railway but I am not technical, you could read wykedpia about gauges, apparently a few mm are significant, the gauge could be wider on curves
Went to a model railway exhibition Saturday, wish I had asked there

Still puzzling about three-track routes, there are a couple near Hamburg, is the third track up or down?

Presumably it will be whichever direction is needed. It might be bidirectionally signalled.

There was an interesting article about this, I did not understand it completely (+1!) it is a bit philosophical
On some stretches stopping and goods trains are grouped, several go in the same direction consecutively so capacity is higher, trains going the other way might have to wait, mind
Elsewhere it functions a bit like a single line, but then capacity is less, reversible signalling is the norm I imagine
The lines south from Hamburg are very busy, there is a huge marshalling yard at Maschenv

I believe this is called flighting in railway terminology.

[al_yrpal]

"I am bored of...."

Used to be " I am bored with..."?

Why change it, 'of' sounds wrong?

Al

[horizon]

Here's a quick bit of Guardian sub-title:

The Tories savage struggles over the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s looks like an epoch of peace and goodwill in comparison

Without the apostrophe, the sentence is meaningless, never mind the inappropriate use of the singular. This is quite common in the Guardian now.

The page is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -the-abyss

[thirdcrank]

Here's a quick bit of Guardian sub-title:

The Tories savage struggles over the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s looks like an epoch of peace and goodwill in comparison

Without the apostrophe, the sentence is meaningless, never mind the inappropriate use of the singular. This is quite common in the Guardian now.

The page is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -the-abyss

The subs have been at work eg:

comparable to this was during the Tory party’s savage struggles over the Maastricht treaty in the 1990s

[horizon]

Yes, you're right. The problems are often if not always to be found in the headlines and sub-headings - laughably inappropriate Americanisms, misuse of verb tenses and other nonsense. I think I will just to have to ignore them (Sound advice horizon, Ed.) though it does make me wonder what qualifications they have to get the job of sub-editor.

By the way, I do forgive miscreants on this forum (and my own mistakes) but we are not professional writers and are not paid for our scribblings.

[thirdcrank]

... it does make me wonder what qualifications they have to get the job of sub-editor. ...

Isn't the point that sub-editors have been replaced by wordprocessing software with spelling checkers etc?

(PS if it wasn't clear from my earlier post, the errors you highlighted did not appear in your link.)

[Audax67]

"I am bored of...."

Used to be " I am bored with..."?

Why change it, 'of' sounds wrong?

Al

I first saw bored of in the title of Bored of the Rings, a schoolboy satire turned out by The Harvard Lampoon. It seemed archaic, and since a lot of supposedly wrong American usage is simply English that has died out here but survived there I had no great quibble with it. Ngrams shows that it's recent, though, even over there: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?c ... of%3B%2Cc0 It's by no means challenging conventional usage, though.

The one that has me unbuttoning my holster* is would of. I've even seen enquiries about when to use should of rather than would of.

* is that a rude expression these days? I once referred to an untidy storeroom as a glory hole and got shocked looks and guffaws.