An online pictorial hobby on Scotland's Railways, Past and Present

WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Kirkintilloch to Lenzie without moving an inch.

If you were a train traveler in the mid 19th century and traveling between Glasgow and Aberfoyle, things were made a little bit confusing for you. The railway companies, under the guise of making things less complicated would regularly change the names of stations. For example in 1874 Milltown became Milton, and then in 1912 it became Milton of Campsie.

Lennoxtown had one station for a number of years until 1867 when Lennoxtown Blane Valley was opened with the Blane Valley branch to Strathblane. The original Lennoxtown station then became Lennoxtown Old station. Services however called at both using a complicated reversing scheme. However, as the stations were only 200 yards apart, Lennoxtown Old was closed in 1881. This left Lennoxtown Blane Valley as the only remaining station, so it was renamed plain old Lennoxtown. Hence there have been 2 stations with the name Lennoxtown in Lennoxtown! But ...


Lennoxtown Station circa 1950

The story for the people of Lenzie involves 5 station names! The Edinburgh to Glasgow railway company built a station some 6 miles from Glasgow and called it after a town 3 miles away, Kirkintilloch. However, when the Campsie branch was added in 1848 and a station was opened in Kirkintilloch, the original was renamed Kirkintilloch Junction. This proved to be complicated for folks wanting to get to Kirkintilloch proper so in 1849 it was renamed Campsie Junction.

Campsie Junction, a geographically meaningless name only served to confuse further so in 1867 the name was changed to Lenzie Junction, Lenzie being the new town that was building up round the station. The irelevant Junction bit was eventually dropped in 1890 and the name Lenzie has now survived for over 100 years. Is this a record?