Spelling Mistakes on Models (and the prototype)

[Binky]

I picked up a Lima LMS GUV at Alexandra palace to add to my ever expanding collection of BR blue era parcel stock.

 

Upon taking it apart to make a few improvements (mostly fitting correct bogies and wheels) I noticed a spelling mistake, the dimension info on the van side says "Lenght" instead of "Length".

 

It reminded me of a photo I once saw in a magazine of a brand new 1/1 scale Rock Island Railroad boxcar in the USA that had been lettered "ROCK ISALND".

 

Does anyone know of any more examples of railway spelling mistakes?

[65179]

Here's a private owner wagon one from another thread:

 

Simon

[Jeremy Cumberland]

Another one recently mentioned, although I suppose Paisley Central isn't a spelling mistake as such, and perhaps it is mere coincidence that Paisley has a real life railway station called Paisley Canal that was served by Strathclyde-liveried class 101s. Paisley has had six railway stations, but none of them has ever been called Paisley Central.

 

[Mol_PMB]

There's a sign at the Huddersfield end of the platform at Slaithwaite station which is actually spelt Slaithwaithe. I suspect there are a lot of errors when you look closely.

Slaithwaite is of course pronounced Slawi', so if anyone was getting it wrong you would expect them to leave letters out rather than add more in!

 

Few signwriters seem to have been in the top set for spelling and grammar at school. They were probably sitting in the back row with the greengrocers and their bucket of free apostrophes. I've even seen a signwriter's own van with a spelling mistake on it!

[Wheatley]

The one time Regional Railways NE Technical Services office had a 'Wheeton' Station nameboard on the wall, hung behind the desk of the person who misspelled it on the order form to Doric Signs. At the same time Chapletown station near Sheffield was spelled three different ways on the actual station (Chapeltown, Chapel-Town and Chapel Town), although in fairness that was their BR(E) predecessor's fault. 

[Steamport Southport]

Wales is/was full of them.

 

ISTR that Dolgelley at one point had four different spellings on the platforms. At least two of which were wrong!

 

 

Jason

[kernowtim]

One of the Hornby releases of the ex-lima railcar had an extra letter added to the name on one destination blind, can not remember what it was now!,

And there was the Heljan cls 47 Capatain  sensible too.

Also remember cheap train sets at a local garden centre labeled Westren express!

[johnofwessex]

Crewkerne was given a set of signs spelt Crewekerne.

 

No prizes as to where the signs were made!

[BernardTPM]

Another Lima model  86235 Navalty. Now there's a novelty.

[beast66606]

Replica produced a 7 plank wagon with Stockport Edgeley (sic)  spelled wrong

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333808718309

 

 

[MattR]

A real one I know of was SR King Arthur Class 770 which was supposed to be named "Sir Priamus," but the nameplate read "Sir Prianius."

[AY Mod]

Some would have you believe Swindon was perfect.

 

Western Legion(n)aire

 

And then Dapol spelt it in correct form wearing a livery only carried when the name was misspelt.

[kevinlms]

1 hour ago, beast66606 said:

Replica produced a 7 plank wagon with Stockport Edgeley (sic)  spelled wrong

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333808718309

 

 

Bit was it a replica of something and so correct?

[Mark Saunders]

Eaglescliffe was allegedly meant to be Egglescliffe.

[SRman]

In Melbourne's suburbs (Australia) we have a suburb called Mont Albert. In the days when it was mainly green fields and bushland, the railway came through and put a station in to what was then Mount Albert. When the enamel signs for the station were delivered, they had omitted the "u" from Mount, and as it really didn't affect many people, it was decided to stick with Mont Albert as the name for what much later became a busy suburb.

Not so much rail-related, when Matchbox released a model of their 1920 K type bus in East Surrey's blue livery, the destination screen had "Coptworne" on it as an intermediate point. That was supposed to read "Copthorne", a place I didn't live too far away from in the 1960s. Similarly, Corgi/OOC released a Southdown 'Queen Mary' Leyland PD3 bus with "Porchester" as its final destination: that should have been "Portchester".
 

One of the worst on road vehicles was in the tiny legal lettering on the side of a support vehicle for Birmingham City Transport (Corgi 96895 Morris J van), which should have read "General Manager", but actually said "Genetal Manager"! They corrected it, but some escaped uncorrected (photo from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianz-toyz/51274493088/).

 

 

 

[Richard_A]

12 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

There's a sign at the Huddersfield end of the platform at Slaithwaite station which is actually spelt Slaithwaithe. I suspect there are a lot of errors when you look closely.

Slaithwaite is of course pronounced Slawi', so if anyone was getting it wrong you would expect them to leave letters out rather than add more in!

 

Few signwriters seem to have been in the top set for spelling and grammar at school. They were probably sitting in the back row with the greengrocers and their bucket of free apostrophes. I've even seen a signwriter's own van with a spelling mistake on it!

As a native of Huddersfield, I thought Slaithwaite was pronounced as, slawit. 

 

I also couldn't understand how Linthwaite was pronounced as "Linthwaite" and not "Linwit" or similar. 

[Mol_PMB]

15 minutes ago, Richard_A said:

As a native of Huddersfield, I thought Slaithwaite was pronounced as, slawit. 

 

I also couldn't understand how Linthwaite was pronounced as "Linthwaite" and not "Linwit" or similar. 

Agreed, I wrote Slawit first, but then thought that the t is rather soft and sometimes omitted altogether in the pronunciation.

I've heard Linfit a few times, but I agree the full Linthwaite is more common.

[Kris]

Lego spelt several destinations incorrectly on their orient express model. 

 

[stewartingram]

Model Bus Zone - Model Errors & Variations List

 

Quite a few bus errors on the above link

[4069]

Henwick level crossing (Worcester), 1979:

 

Edited April 2 by 4069

[Mike_Walker]

At Bourne End there used to be a sign at the end of both platforms that read 'COMMENCEMENT OF TOKEN SECTION' and every 'N' on both was reversed.  I always regret not taking a picture.

 

Back in 1974 when Alder Valley were expecting a trio of minibuses to work across Marlow Bridge, the prototype was displayed at the Commercial Motor Show with 'MORLOW' on the destination display.  I pointed out the error and a quick scroll through the blind showed Morlow Bottom and Morlow Common as well.  Luckily it was corrected before delivery and the other two were also correct.

[mike morley]

I think reversed 'N's were quite common on the Western - particularly on the '1-in-xx' of gradient posts.  I recall seeing more than one photographed by Ben Ashworth.

[Mol_PMB]

17 minutes ago, mike morley said:

I think reversed 'N's were quite common on the Western - particularly on the '1-in-xx' of gradient posts.  I recall seeing more than one photographed by Ben Ashworth.

I wonder whether there was a large batch of N's cast in reverse? 

[beast66606]

11 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Bit was it a replica of something and so correct?

 

Unlikely - I doubt a local coal merchant would spell their own district wrong, there are photos of the actual wagons in a couple of books but I don't have either. Given it's number is 50, we'd have to believe that Messrs Wood allowed at least 50 mistakes to be made on their wagons - can't see that happening but I'd never say never.

[Steamport Southport]

There is the E Baily Malsters wagon made by Slaters in the pre printed range.

 

I thought the model was wrong until I saw the photo of the real one. No image but you get the idea from this.

 

https://hmrs.org.uk/acj915-10t-coal-wagon-6-plank-e-baily-son-malsters-sic-bristol-frome-warminster-cross-hands-coll.html

 

Should be E Bailey, Maltsters.

 

Funnily enough Dapol corrected it for their model which was therefore wrong compared to the photograph. No idea whether the real wagon was corrected. Wrong type of wagon though....

 

https://themodeltrainshop.co.uk/product/boxed-dsp0460-7-plank-wagon-e-bailey-son-15-black-special-edition/

 

 

 

Jason

 

 

Edited April 2 by Steamport Southport