King's Cliffe, King's Cliff, Kings Cliff, Kingscliffe

I've had another serendipitous Wikipedia discovery: the entry on Kings Cliffe, Northamptonshire.

As the entry says, this village is "variously King's Cliffe, King's Cliff, Kings Cliff, Kingscliffe".

I don't have my gazetteer to hand, but both Google Maps and the AA Route Planner opt for Kings Cliffe. I wonder whether the other spellings remain in much use.

The village used to have a railway station; Wikipedia refers to this as both Kingscliffe and King's Cliffe station.

Queue here for tickets for future travel

Gingerous has emailed us with the following:

At London Euston station this weekend I noticed a sign at the ticket booths that read "Queue here for tickets for future travel". Which made me ask the question: why would you buy tickets for past travel? Surely all travel is in the future, even if only five minutes in the future.

Well, er, yes – but can you think of better wording? I assume that 'future travel' means travel on any day apart from the current one, only I don't know how to express that concisely and unambiguously on a sign...

Word of the day: bustitution

I've made another serendipitous discovery on Wikipedia!

The noun 'bustitution' is a portmanteau of 'bus' and 'substitution', and can be used to refer to the temporary or permanent replacement of train services with bus services.

It has given rise to a transitive verb, 'to bustitute', and an adjective, 'bustituted'.

• Macmillan English Dictionary: Bustitution

While we're on this topic, I have to say that the phrase 'rail replacement bus' annoys me. Why not 'train replacement bus'?

Is it a bus? Is it a train? Er, yes, it's a train

A confused reader writes

The Engine Room gets some interesting emails, but this one – from Ms Idowu Opeyemi – has to be my favourite so far:

I'm a Nigerian and a lover of railway system of transportation which is not so effective here in Nigeria. As a result of my passion for it, I decided going on net for information on railway (like I just did today) and stumbled on your blogspot – it was really amazing.

Please, I would like you to do me a favour by updating my mailbox anytime with any information you know/have on railway system of transportation.

To start with, could you please solve this riddle for me? What does a railway uses in running its engine? petrol, diesel or what?

I will be very happy and grateful if you can always be there for me in answering this question and any other one that I may come across later.

Looking forward to a good learning relationship with you.

Ms Opeyemi – I'm sorry if the title of the blog confused you, but here at The Engine Room we are not very knowledgeable about trains. Apus is quite good with motorbikes, we both know a little about trucks and vans, and we'll even try to help you with any language or editing-related queries – but trains, no. Sorry.

If any railway experts out there would like to help Ms Opeyemi, please let me know and I'll put you in touch.