Talk:Middletown–Portland railroad bridge

In use?

Got any references for it ever moving recently? - Denimadept 21:36, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

It was used today. April 24, 2023 76.118.181.210 (talk) 15:56, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Article title

@Trainsandotherthings: Your (correct) ampersand removal has prompted me to think about a better name for this article. "Providence and Worcester railroad bridge" could describe any number of bridges, many of them on the original P&W line rather than a line only recently taken over by the P&W. The bridge doesn't seem to have an official name, even in government reports. My preference would be something like Middletown–Portland railroad bridge, which uniquely identifies the bridge without pretending to be an official name. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 06:02, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

@Pi.1415926535:I agree that the current name is less than ideal, and I have the same concern with the Connecticut Southern railroad bridge. Both should probably be given better names, for the CSOR bridge, something like Hartford-East Hartford railroad bridge would work, unless we can identify another name in sources. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 13:26, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

@Pi.1415926535: I am confused regarding the capitalization of the title, shouldn't "Railroad Bridge" also be capitalized as it is a proper noun? Or as it is not an official name it does not receive title casing? However this contradicts Rocky Hill-Glastonbury ferry as Wikipedia conventions would mark this as a proper noun--officially given by the CTDOT [1]. Regardless, I would appreciate an explanation to gain a better understanding of convention as I am newer to the Wikipedia community! Htttps (talk) 03:44, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

"Middletown–Portland railroad bridge" is a descriptive name that we use because there doesn't seem to be a consistent official name for the bridge. There is not any evidence that this is a proper noun;, whereas MOS:CAPS requires substantial agreement among sources for a capitalized proper name to be used. In the future, please read the talk page - and start a discussion if necessary - before moving pages. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 03:52, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

It's more or less what Pi described - depending on who you ask, this might be called the Middletown swing bridge, Middletown railroad bridge, Middletown-Portland railroad bridge, Air line railroad bridge, or any combination of those names... in the absence of a commonly used proper name, we've moved this and a few others to these names, as an improvement over the old names which simply listed the bridge's current owner, followed by "railroad bridge". Trainsandotherthings (talk) 04:14, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

Requested move 14 December 2021

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (non-admin closure) Colonestarrice (talk) 20:33, 21 December 2021 (UTC)

---

• Providence and Worcester railroad bridge → Middletown–Portland railroad bridge
• Connecticut Southern railroad bridge → Hartford–East Hartford railroad bridge
• Springfield Terminal railroad bridge, Deerfield → Deerfield–Montague railroad bridge
• Rail Bridge, Northfield, Massachusetts → Connecticut River railroad bridge (Northfield, Massachusetts)

– All four of these are very awkward names for railroad bridges. The first two are ambiguous (there are plenty of bridges on both those railroads), the third is awkward and outdated, and the fourth incorrectly appears to be a proper name. None of the four bridges appears to have a formal name, so I think consistent geographical descriptive names are best. (I'm willing to take suggestions for the Northfield bridge - it's the only of the four that's in a single town, and there are lots of Northfields out there.) Pi.1415926535 (talk) 20:00, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

• Support proposed renames, per my comments above and per nom. These names are not very descriptive, and make it confusing to refer to their histories before their present operators. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 20:26, 14 December 2021 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.