I’ve also Googled old photos of British horse-drawn wagons and unlike most American horse-drawn wagons, they seem to have a lot of single axle (two-wheels) wagons verses the preponderance of American wagons having two-axles with four-wheels…
OK, we seem to have resolved the term “Brake” and it referring to a mode of transportation in the UK in days of old…
However, I have never heard of the Surrey, except in the song, “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top”
But there is no song for any of these horse-drawn carriages: a Phaeton, a Gig, a Brougham, a Hackney, a Post Chaise, a Barouche, a Hansom Cab, or a Landau…
I am leaving out all the obvious carriages or wagons, like Buggy, Stage Coach, and Conestoga Wagon…
+1
Additionally, trucks are “lorries” in Britain, fenders are referred to as “wings”, and bumpers are called “fenders”. Two nations… divided by language…
We’ve had a lot of fun with all the words in the American language, but with entirely different words in the British English Language. Lord knows, I grew up with a Scottish mother.
As has been observed, two nations separated by a common language…
However, in the UK there is an entire class of comedian that spit out words that they refer to as “Double-Talk”…
I remember a Johnny Carson show when he was set up while he was vacationing in London and was invited to a fake Wimbledon Tennis Committee Cocktail Party…
Finding this video was about as easy as finding that 1/4" socket I dropped down the back side of the engine…
Actually good point. I find station wagon and shooting brake equally nonsensical. They should have called it “square ended car” on both sides of the pond.
This is the automotive equivalent of the horse-drawn wagon brought to the train station to load up people’s trunks and other luggage in the old days. I guess I don’t find the name to be particularly confusing.
Just a WAG, station wagons may have been initially purpose built for hotels picking up guests from the train station. Room for five passengers and all their luggage.
I watched some of the old Roy Rogers TV show, they mentioned the stage coach coming in, the stage coach was a station wagon!
USA viewers benefit by UK comedians as late night tv talk show hosts. Craig Ferguson (prior), James Corden (current), both pretty good. James Corden in his pre-CBS era had one of the best lines ever made on a tv series:
“But I didn’t know the Cybermen would attack!” … lol
It’s origin is a horse drawn wagon used to transport people and their belongings to a station, like a train station. It followed over in 1929 to the automobile equivalent.
