[I posted this to uk.rec.waterways this morning, where it seems to have sunk without trace, so let's wake here up a bit!].
It's interesting to find as I collect canal data that the precise naming of every junction seems to be an idiosyncrasy of the UK canal network and elsewhere (even in the UK) junction's don't have the same specific names they do in - say - Birmingham. I'm currently adding the waterways of Ireland - in skeletal detail to start with - to CanalPlanAC and am looking at the Grand Canal. As I understand it, this has three major "lines" - the Dublin Line, the Shannon Line and the Barrow Line (plus the Circular Line and the New Barrow Line cutting a corner off, and a few more bits). These three major lines meet somewhere near Lowtown. That's clearly an important place and one I should name properly. Does it have a name? If not, is Lowtown the best name for it or something else? I note that Wikipedia manages "Just east of Robertstown is the location where the Blackwood Feeder used to join the canal, whilst just to the west can be found the busiest junction on the canal where the Old Barrow Line..." - the authors clearly faced the same problem. Knowing we have a few Irish waterway users here, I'd welcome their local advice - what should I call this place? If anyone wants to play (or even better, flesh out the data a bit) then so far I've got the Shannon, the Royal Canal and the Suck in. The Grand exists as a single Shannon->Dublin link which will be broken into to the appropriate lines soon, then the Barrow Line and the Shannon-Erne are to come.
