Folklore: Railroad Nicknames

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Dead Horse
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 09:10 AM

"Arriva was appropriate in that it never quite got there..."
And it is run by a bunch of cowboys...I used to work for them when the name change was made and we thought it very apt.
Other rail companies in UK were LNER (London & North Eastern Railway) = Late & Never Early. LMS (London Midland Railway)= Lots More Smoke.
The South East & Chatham soon became Slow & Easily Confused.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Mark Ross
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 11:59 AM

In Montana, where I used to live, the Burlington Northern (BN) was called "The Big Nothing", and the Butte, Anaconda, and Pacific (which never went any further than Georgetown Lake), the B.A.P., was called "The Back Up And Push".


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 01:39 PM

Network Rail in the Uk is known as " Oh Bollox!
Whats that stuff falling from the sky?
Best stop all the trains running .
Just in case.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 02:41 PM

GWR (Great Western) was called "Goes When Ready" by the drivers on the London and South Western. Apparently this was because the LSWR docked the pay of train crews who ran behind schedule, but the GWR (at least on the branch lines) had a very relaxed attitude to punctuality.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,warren fahey
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 04:38 PM

In Australia our most famous train, it worked the Sydney - Katoomba and west - was known as the Fish because it's original driver was a Mr Salmon. Other trains were called Chips.

I'd be interested in airline nicknames from around the world. Quite a few years ago my group, The Larrikins, did a cultural tour of the pacific Islands (tough gig he?) and we flew several island airlines

Air Pacific - Air Pathetic
UTA = stood for Unlikely to Arrive
Air Noumea - Air No Where (because of limited route)
Qantas - Quaint Arse (because of roo tail )
etc

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Santa
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 04:40 PM

GWR: Green, Wet and Rusty.

Donkey was a common term for the slow local trains, as in Stanley Accrington's song "Last Train" which includes the term "The Delph Donkey", Delph being up in the Pennines near the Lancashire/Yorkshire border

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 10:44 AM

The Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway was known as the "Old Worse and Worse". The nickname provided the inspiration for this song about its history.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 11:45 AM

The MKT, the Missouri Kansas Texas, is known to all as the Katy.

Archaic slow railroad joke: A female passenger riding on the Ghan, the train from Adelaide to Alice Springs, frantically gets the conductor's attention when a delay is announced.
"How long is the delay? I have to get to Alice Springs right away. I am about to have a baby."
"Madam, you should never have gotten on this train if you were in that condition!"
"When I got on the train I wasn't in this condition."
- Phil

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: open mike
Date: 20 Dec 10 - 01:55 PM

The Pacific Great Eastern, from North Vancouver to Prince George, had many nicknames based on "P.G.E.". The one I recall is "Prince George Eventally". ..

The power company in Calif. is called P G&E (Pacific Gas and Electric)
It is sometimes called Pacific Graft and Extortion.

Part of the Western Pacific RR is the Calif. Zephyr route which used to
go thru scenic areas, with the route scheduled so that the most scenic
were passed thru in daylight so passengers could enjoy the view. Now the Feather River Canyon portion of the route is no longer available to passengers, due to unstable soil, rock slides, and other dangers.
There is plenty of freight that passes through here, including nuclear waste....go figure!

A friend of mine was killed in an automobile collision with a boulder in that canyon last week, so the dangers are real.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,seth in Olympia
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 02:26 AM

After a 10 hour late ride from Los Angeles to Olympia on the Amtrak "Coast Starlight" it will forever be the "Coast Stoplight" at least in my family

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 08:57 AM

Like many other towns in the Mississippi Delta, Tutwiler stakes a claim to being the "birthplace of the blues". This is the site where W. C. Handy reportedly "discovered" the blues in 1903, on a train platform in the town. Handy had heard something akin to the blues as early as 1892, but it was while waiting for an overdue train to Memphis that he heard an itinerant bluesman (legend says it was a local field hand named Henry Sloan) playing slide guitar and singing about "goin' where the Southern cross the Dog," referring to the junction of the Southern Railway and Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad farther south. (The Y&D railroad was locally called the "Yellow Dog".) Handy called it "the weirdest music I had ever heard."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,Neil D
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 09:02 AM

Here is an article that goes into detail about which RR was called the Yellow Dog and it's many references in Blues songs.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Dec 10 - 06:23 PM

Open Mike, I'm very sorry to hear about the death of your friend. What a terrible thing to happen.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 01:13 PM

The LNER suburban services out of Liverpool Street to London's eastern suburbs was always known as the 'Jazz', probably because they were fast, noisy, and swayed from side to side.

Thread-creeping to the airline theme, I was working at Heathrow years ago, and in a rare quiet moment we started putting together a few variations on airline names: TWA: Try Walking Across', SAS: 'Sex And Satisfaction', SABENA: 'Such A Bloody Experience, Never Again!', BOAC: 'Better On A Camel', Qantas: 'Quite A Nice Trip, All Survived'.

After a while, a passing Lebanese businessman overheard us, and said, 'You know, of course, about Lufthansa?'

We confessed that we didn't.

And he told us: 'Let Us Fondle The Hostess As No Steward Available!'

Only he didn't say 'fondle'.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: open mike
Date: 22 Dec 10 - 01:59 PM

there is also a yellow dog river...50 miles long...
it is in the U.P. (upper peninsula) of michigan.

(thanks leeneia)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,jimboylan
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 05:34 PM

Erie-Lackawanna = Erie Lack a wampum (Indian currency)
Prince George Eventually = Please Go Easy
Union Pacific = Uncle Pete
Philadelphia & Western = Pig & Whistle
Hoosac Tunnel & Wilmington = Hoot, Toot & Whistle
(New York, ) Ontario & Western = Old Woman; Old & Weary
New Hope & Ivyland = No Hope & Poisonivyland
Chicago & North Western = Can't & Never Will

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Mark Ross
Date: 17 Jun 11 - 08:49 PM

Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western, known as the "Delay, Linger, & Wait." the Burlington Northern was called the "Big Nothing." The say that UP stands for "Usually Parked."

Mark Ross