Rail 'chatter' before arrival

I too have heard this. But I couldn't tell you where I'm afraid. :-\

This is an entry in "The Meaning of Liff" which coined names for "things that there aren't any words for yet" by making use of words "which are just hanging around on signposts pointing at places".
They included
Edmonton - that part of an overcoat that is sat on by your neighbour on a bus

Edgbaston - the spare seat-cushion carried by a London bus, which is placed against the rear bumper when the driver wishes to indicate that the bus has broken
down (sadly this custom seems to have died out - they just put the hazard lights on instead).

Didcot - the tiny oddly-shaped bit of card which a ticket inspector cuts out of a ticket with his clipper for no apparent reason. If the book is to believed, the confetti at Princess Margaret's wedding was made up of thousands of didcots collected by inspectors on the Royal Train - (John Lloyd, who wrote the book with Douglas Adams, is also the producer of QI, and duped Steven Fry into stating this as fact in one episode).

Tooting Bec - A car behind which one draws up at the traffic lights and hoots at when the lights go green before realising that the car is parked and there is no one inside.

and indeed
Amersham - something that is often talked about but never actually happens


Liff itself is a village near Dundee, and the term was defined in the book to mean "A book, the contents of which are totally belied by its cover. For instance, any book the dust jacket of which bears the words, 'This book will change your life"

Thanks everyone.

By a weird coincidence, despite being a D.A. fan, I'd never heard of "The meaning of Liff", until yesterday when I saw in mentioned elsewhere, when I toyed with the idea of buying it.

So strange that it should come up the very next day in relation to something I'd been wondering about, on and off, for years.

I sort of do things the other way round.

I'm forever thinking of things we need new words for. Seriously as well as in jest.

e.g.

A programme you watched because you 'fell into' it when something you were watching on your PVR ended.

A miss click because your mouse moved a microscopic fraction just before the click registered meaning you, for example, that you select the wrong text.

Something you 'knew' that wasn't true. Not quite the same as 'was certain' or 'was positive', as they both imply that you were aware that there was a possibility of being wrong, you were just sure you weren't. My word would be for cases where you didn't even consider the possibility that what you thought could be incorrect; you knew it as a fact, even though it wasn't.