By way of a hobby I assist the editors of some dictionaries. One of
these dictionaries is a dictionary of abbreviations. This book
contains the abbreviation BCZ. The dictionary gives as an explanation:
Bielorusse Zeleznue Dorogi (meaning Belarussian Railways). But a child
can see that Bielorusse Zeleznue Dorogi would give BZD as an
abbreviation. Could somebody tell me what the origin of the
abbreviation BCZ is? BCZ itself is probably the abbreviation of the
long form of the translitteration into Latin characters of three (or
less) (Bela)russian words. I would very much like to know what these
words are, preferably in the (Bela)russian characters. But if you only
can provide me with the full words in Latin characters I'll be very
pleased already.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 19 Jun 2005 06:13 PDT

Hah!  I'm still stuck on how the old Soviet Union became USSR/CCCP, so
I'm probably not the right person to answer your question.

Still...I did find some clues which may help you or another researcher:




The train line IS called BZD, at least at this one site:
http://www.rail-train.ch/general/num-34.html
Bielorussie BZD Bielorusse Zeleznue Dorogi 


Most often, though, it's referred to as BCZ, or even more simply, BC,
as can be seen in numerous mentions here:





http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/by/car/pix.html
The Railfaneurope.net Picture Gallery 
e.g., Belarus Railways (BC) sleeping-car 


Some of the photos show a considerable amount of text on the cars
themselves, like this one:

http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/by/car/1_21_koeln_minsk.jpg

Perhaps BYDGOSZCZ somehow transmorgrifies to BCZ...you might want to
explore the other pictures here for additional clues.


Hope that helps you or another researcher.  Thanks for the fun question...


pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by gch_nl-ga on 21 Jun 2005 03:09 PDT

Thanks so far. In the mean time I've made some progression myself and
think that the B and the C could stand for Belaruskaya Chygunka. In
that case there would be a third word missing, beginning with a Z. The
other option is that Chygunka can also be spelled as Czygunka (like
the Polish would do), in which case the possibility arises of BCz
being the proper spelling of this so puzzling abbreviation (BCZ). In
the last case there wouldn't be a third word missing. But I still
can't find no confirmation of either option. The last option is maybe
the most plausible one, since you found out that BC (with the Z left
out at all) also seems to be a commonly used abbreviation.