Assume v. Presume

[Wildebeest]

That article reminds me of an incident many years ago, when IRA attacks in mainland UK were happening. The police in a certain town received a telephoned warning, validated by the appropriate code words, that an explosive device had been planted at the station. The police immediately evacuated the area around the police station, sending those people to the sports centre. Which was next door to the (ahem) railway station. You're probably ahead of me by this point... yes the caller had meant the railway station. Fortunately the device was a small one intended to damage the track infrastructure and there were no injuries, but very appropriate for an "assumes/presumes" thread!

 

[EEPhil]

It's very confusing. Do you call the vehicle a train or a railway train? Why is the bus/coach a rail replacement?
Of course, to add to the confusion, there are road trains - we could blame the Aussies for that one.

 

[Black Hole]

the rot started... here in the 60's

Looks more like the '90s to me:


...which correlates with mass US TV imports.

 

[Black Hole]

Do you call the vehicle a train or a railway train?

Well, to be precise it would have to be railway train, which comprises a locomotive and carriages. Any series of things is a "train".

With DMUs there is no locomotive, but what if there is only one self-powered carriage? It's no longer a train!

 

[trog]

I wonder if in the days of yore there was ever a grumpy old man complaining about there being no E at the end of Old and how dare they say The, it does not even start with a Y and has more letters than Ye.

 

[antipodean]

I wonder if in the days of yore there was ever a grumpy old man complaining about there being no E at the end of Old and how dare they say The, it does not even start with a Y and has more letters than Ye.

 

[Wildebeest]

how dare they say The, it does not even start with a Y and has more letters than Ye.

A thorny subject.

 

[EEPhil]

A thorny subject.

Thanks to an episode of QI I understand the point!