BS: UK Rail Jargon

Subject: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 18 May 09 - 06:32 AM

Have taken the liberty of starting a new thread on this as I thought there would be some people who would be interested who missed it on the 35028 thread and that it deserves a thread in its own right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_UK_railfan_jargon

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 18 May 09 - 11:54 AM

It does of course miss out the insulting "Spamcan" for Bulleid Mercant Navy or Battle of Britain classes.

"Train proof vest". That orange safety vest wot idiot gricers wear standing in the four foot trying to get their last photo before the loco hits them.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 19 May 09 - 07:44 AM

"Biscuit Barrel" for Bullied "Q" class 0-6-0.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:01 AM

Thanks!!!

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Zen
Date: 19 May 09 - 11:24 AM

I thought this was about train announcements from the title. Current beefs (I travel a lot by train).

We are now arriving into Newcastle... Whatever happened to that short and apposite word "at"?

Be sure to uplift your luggage...    "What a nice bag you are!"   Now may I get off the train please?

These are current examples of abominations to the English language and seem to have become widespread (is there a comptroller of announcements?). I am sure I can remember a lot more from my commuting days (now happily in the past!).

Now where did I put my medications...?

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 19 May 09 - 12:03 PM

Surely the Bulleid Q1 was nicknamed the "Coffee pot"? I used to get a cab ride on one of those from Gypsy Hill to West Norwood on a regular basis. I also got brake van rides in "Dance halls" and Queen Marys'. Dance hall so called because of the size of the interior. Aparently.... ("Cor you could hold a dance in here", or similar comment I believe to get them the name) Queen Mary because the brake van was as "big as the Queen Mary". (A steamship) Used to get on at West Norwood and off at Crystal palace (Low level) early in the morning. Longest cab ride as a younster...Crystal palace to Balham. In a brake van...... Clapham Junction to Norwood junction. Never cabbed an EMU. (Electric multiple unit)

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Dave Roberts
Date: 19 May 09 - 12:11 PM

In this part of the world a 'coffee pot' was one of Fowler's (I think) 4F freight locos.
One of these, no 44155, visited Middlewich so often from Crewe that it was given the somewhat ironic title 'City Of Middlewich'.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,PeterC
Date: 19 May 09 - 04:41 PM

Definitely an incomplete list.

There is an extensive thread on the topic of rail slang at District Dave

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:20 AM

We (S.Beds) used to call Fowler 4F 0-6-0's "Duck 6's" (I don't know why) - "Duck 8's were the Bowen-Cook 7F LNWR 0-8-0's.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:31 AM

"Zen" - train announcing used to be extremely strictly controlled in BR days, as strict as the BBC were with their spoken English! But like everything else these days, we seem to be subject to "dumbing down" (the LCD - Lowest Common Denominator - syndrome)! Barry Norman was sounding off about this in TV yesterday, the BBC had to join the club to keep up with the multiplicity of digital TV channels frantically trying to fill the broadcasting hours with (often) dross!

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Phot
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:52 AM

In the distant days of my youth, DMUs were boggarts, 50s were Hoovers, 47s were Duffs, and when the distant peg(Signal) and inner home for the middle road at Taunton dropped, you knew you were in for either a Western or a Hoover at max chat(95/100mph) 13 on heading for Exeter.

Wassail!! Chris

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Jim Martin
Date: 20 May 09 - 11:01 AM

Boggarts - I thought they were bog carts!

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 20 May 09 - 11:35 AM

The signal man is often known as the "bobby" since early signalling was carried out by the police.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:16 PM

Guest:Jim Martin:
We (S.Beds) used to call Fowler 4F 0-6-0's "Duck 6's" (I don't know why) - "Duck 8's were the Bowen-Cook 7F LNWR 0-8-0's
"Duck 6s" because they are a 6 between two zeroes. Zero=duck as in cricket terminology from the score of 0. Zero looks like a duck-egg

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: irishenglish
Date: 20 May 09 - 01:35 PM

Wondering if any of you have heard the Huw Williams penned song, Travelling By Steam, which has a lot of rail jargon in it. In the liner notes to Fairport's Jewel In The Crown, they quote Huw as saying he was commissioned to write this but knew nothing about trains really, so a trip to the library brought him all this jargon which he used in the song. Not being a train expert, this might be inaccurate or outside the loop, but he mentions "pick up your traps and your tommybox, standing in the byte (sp?), and some other references I have never worked out myself!

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 20 May 09 - 02:07 PM

LMS 3F 0-6-0T - Jocko. Or Jinty. Jocko presumably because some of them were built by North British, Jinty because it's an E. Mids dialect word meaning "Wren" & by implication "small"

Bulleid Q1 - Charlie

Ground signal - Tommy Dodd

Recent unintentional funny from on-train manager or whatever they call the guard now:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now on our final approach to St. Pancras International". Hope he had the wheels down....

Nowhere near the standard of the West Indian chap somewhere in Essex years ago who announced in a stentorian voice:

"Good Mornin' everybody, this is GUARD speakin'!"

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Zen
Date: 20 May 09 - 02:30 PM

Or one from my Notwork South-East commuting days as the train slowly passed through Battersea:

We are currently cruising at eight miles per hour at an altitute of approximately six feet. ETA at Victoria is approximately 8.42 where the weather is reported to be raining...

and another, possibly from the same guard

I apologise for the delay in arriving at Victoria... we are waiting for a platform to become available. In the meantime I'd like to read you a poem I've just written...

Zen

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: GUEST,Dixiedoll
Date: 20 May 09 - 06:08 PM

British railways had a codeword for every coach and waggon that it used. These codewords were used in messages that were passed in telephone messages by railway staff. many were based on animal names. 'Train spotter' nicknames tended to be confined to local areas.'spam cans' were the MNs and Wcs down soth, 'coffee pots' were chimneys up north.

Subject: RE: BS: UK Rail Jargon
From: Paul Burke
Date: 21 May 09 - 01:59 AM

Almost the ultimate humiliation for a steam engine crew was to mismanage the boiler water so badly that the firebox crown became uncovered. The top of the firebox was then exposed to the heat of the fire without any water to cool it- there was an imminent danger of forebox collapse and boiler explosion, and the only option was to drop the fire quickly onto the track. The train would grind to a halt, and hold up traffic until it was towed away, exposing the crew to public ridicule. And the fire, now on the track, would burn the creosoted sleepers causing both damage and a dreadful smell.

Hence the phrase "dropping your box" meaning breaking wind.