Folklore: Railroad Nicknames

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

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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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,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: 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: 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: 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: 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: synbyn
Date: 19 Dec 10 - 06:40 AM

Arriva was appropriate in that it never quite got there...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 06:45 AM

It's been gone a good while, but the Missouri and North Arkansas (M&NA) was affectionately?? known as the May Never Arrive. Currently there is an unrelated freight railroad doing business as the MNA

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 05:21 AM

Since privatisation, Merseyrail has been known as Mysery Rail.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 04:58 AM

OK, as this thread has resurfaced, how about the UK's Great Eastern Railway - the "Swedey"?

I always thought GWR stood for Great Way Round (because Brunel's original billiard table was not very direct). Incidentally I read somewhere that right up to the 1960s, the Western Region board of British Railways were known as the Broad Gauge Blokes.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 18 Dec 10 - 02:59 AM

In the very early days in England, railways were more often referred to as Rail Roads, which is probably how the title caught on in the USA.

Also in England, the South Eastern & Chatham was known as the Slow, Easy & Comfortable, and the Manchester, Sheffield & Linconshire was known as the Mucky, Slow & Lazy. The London, Chatham & Dover is more usually quoted as being nicknamed The London, Smash'em & Turnover.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 01 Nov 00 - 08:19 AM

Art,
I love puns and word games. I can't believe I missed the connection.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 06:38 PM

Robby,

I doubt that the Erie Lackawanna (EL) was ever really called that. It was a joke that Utah Phillips told me once---a play on words. "The Strange Absense Of Desire" translates to "The Eerie Lack-of-want-to Railroad". Just a small witticism that gets diluted in cyberspace. I know it's a bad pun. That's why I love it. Utah too.

The other reference to the "L" train referred to chicago's "L-evated train. That's what it's called in the city.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 11:52 AM

BTW, and just out of curiousity, does anyone know if there were any nicknames for the Delaware & Hudson (D&H), the Lehigh Valley (LV) or the Reading (RDG)?

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 31 Oct 00 - 07:45 AM

Is that any indication of the mental state of the train's operators?

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Snuffy
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 08:45 PM

We normally use railway, but when they first started (about 1830) they were called rail-ways, and had loco-motives.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,John Leeder
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 06:16 PM

At the risk of thread creep:

Has anyone else noticed that Americans tend to use the term "railroad" and Canadians tend to use "railway"? What do the Brits use?

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 03:44 PM

Dave,
That's a real howler! *LOL*

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: NH Dave
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 03:37 PM

Regarding slow trains, John Gould, a Maine humorist set down a tale of a man seeking the fastest hound dog in the state of Maine, in a small book of the same name. Being an admirer of those small editions of a Shakespeare play where the play takes up about 30% of the book and the annotations ABOUT the play take up the other 70%, he used a similar technique in this book.

This gentleman was seeking a fast dog to catch hare that grazed on seaweed washed up in the Bay of Fundy, which has some of the fastest tides in the world. The hare are purpose-built for this task, being equipped with very large hind legs in order to beat the tide up the tidal bore.

After a number of humorous comments about his quest for the dog, he actually purchases it, intending to take it back home on the train with him. Unfortunately the Bangor and Witopitlock Railway only allows crated dogs in the baggage car; a point an officious conductor is quick to make to him.

The solution seems to be to tie the dog to the railing of the rear car of the train, to run along behind. A small wager developes about the dog's ability to keep up, and the two men make frequent trips to the rear of the train to check on things. The end up is, after several trips back, and the train actually picking up a bit of speed, they both go back to find the dog nowhere to be seen. As the conductor falls all over himself trying to claim the bet, the owner looks up, first one side of the train, and then the other, to discover the dog running along on three legs, wetting down a hotbox.*

* Hotbox is the railway name for an inadequately lubricated journal bearing - the bearing where the end of the wheel's axle runs - a real hazard in the old days when the oily waste packed therein could catch fire from friction and set the entire rail car on fire. Today with better roller nearings this is no longer a problem.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 02:13 PM

Art,

I used to ride the old EL's Phoebe Snow and, until reading your post, had no idea that there was any nickname for that road.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 02:10 PM

I've thought about the "trailer" problem for the last few days, and will make one final attempt to explain (clarify) my original question, which was: "If an over-the-road tractor pulls a semi-trailer, what does a whole trailer look like?".

Think of the question in terms of a George Carlinism: If a trucker pulls a semi ( or one-half of a trailer), would a whole trailer be twice as big?

Kindda loses something in the translation, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Bert
Date: 30 Oct 00 - 01:46 PM

When I was a kid there was a train that ran between Marlow (Bucks, England) and Bourne End that was known affectionately as 'The Marlow Donkey'

And the old British Rail logo of rails with arrows pointing each way was interpreted as "we don't know which way we're going"

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 29 Oct 00 - 11:20 PM

Both my grandads and my Dad and his brothers worked for the L&N,but I never heard any nickname for it.The Hell and Grin?

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Art Thieme
Date: 29 Oct 00 - 10:41 PM

Yes, the cows were boarding the trains from the rear platform and trampeling passengers. Luckily, it was so hot that day that the corn was popping on the stalk. Those cows thought it was snow, and they froze to death.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Sourdough
Date: 28 Oct 00 - 10:43 PM

I remember one Mark Twain tale in which he suggested that the cow catcher be moved to the rear of the train since there was absolutely no chance they would ever catch up to a cow but a real danger that they might be overtaken by one.

Sourdough

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Art Thieme
Date: 28 Oct 00 - 05:13 PM

The Erie "or Eerie" Lackawanna called sometimes

The Strange Absense of Desire Railroad.

art thieme
(sheepishly -- but proud)

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Rollo
Date: 28 Oct 00 - 04:46 PM

for we have only one big Railroad company in germany, there is no need to invent funny nicks. But the following happening describes our "Deutsche Bahn" perfectly...

My mother was asking a clerk for a connection in a small country station. When she heard she had only ten minutes to get the express train when arriving in bremen, she protested: the train was normally five minutes late when arriving in bremen, that would leave her not enough time to reach the express. with disguise the clerk stated: "Madam, the train from hamburg to bremen comes hardly ever too late!" But he had to give in one minute later, for all the other waiting passengers overheard this and broke out in terrific laughter at once...

But "Deutsche Bahn" has found a perfect strategy to avoid further delays... they have made every train category from suburb trains to long distance trains "Express" now, from "city express" to "Inter City Express".

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Harold W
Date: 28 Oct 00 - 02:52 PM

BlueJay, there is a nickname for the Denver & Rio Grande Western, "Dangerous & Rapidly Growing Worse."

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 06:06 PM

ANd then there's always the "Long Island Snailroad"!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:18 PM

I rode Jersey Central's aptly named "North Jersey Coast" line for a number of years.

Rob-o

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 12:12 PM

Since many of the nicknames mentioned above refer to the alleged slowness of trains, I thought this would be as good a place as any to insert a couple of slow-train jokes:

(1). I was riding on a train that came to a dead stop in the middle of nowhere. I asked the conductor what was wrong. He said, "There's a cow on the tracks."

After fifteen minutes, the train started up again. A half-hour later, it stopped again. I asked the conductor what was wrong this time. He said, "We caught up with the cow again."

(2). Everyone was complaining that the train was slow. The conductor got mad and said, "If you don't like it, you can get off and walk."

An old lady answered, "I would, only my folks aren't expecting me till the train gets there."

Apparently slow-train jokes and tall tales were an important part of our culture when people relied on trains for long-distance travel. There was even a best-selling joke book called "On a Slow Train Through Arkansaw [sic]: Funny Railroad Stories, Sayings of the Southern Darkies, All the Latest and Best Minstrel Jokes of The Day," by Thomas W. Jackson, originally published in 1903, and (I think) reprinted many times. I have a copy of a fairly recent reprint, which is probably where I learned the above. There is also a song in DT called "The Dummy Line" which incorporates some slow-train jokes. I have heard Michael Cooney sing it. There are more verses here.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 11:21 AM

Robby: My understanding - and this is actually an assumption - is that a "whole" trailer would be one whose weight rests entirely on its own wheels, while a semi-trailer's weight rests partly on its own wheels and partly on the truck that pulls it.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: GUEST,John Leeder
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 11:05 AM

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".

Its name is now the imaginative "British Columbia Railway".

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Snuffy
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 08:53 AM

The Great Western was also known as the "Great Way Round", and the Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway was the "Muddle & Get Nowhere"

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Robby
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 07:13 AM

DaveO, I was actually thinking of the meaning of "semi" as half, and, with that thought, just how big would whole trailer be.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: BlueJay
Date: 27 Oct 00 - 03:20 AM

Galloping Geese were used extensively here in Colorado on the Rio Grande Southern line, probably in the 1920's and 1930's. They were indeed truck chassis fitted with railroad wheels, and were apparantly quite well suited for some of the narrow gauge, high twisted mountain lines existing at that time. I don't think they hauled more than one or two cars, but were able to transport mail, passengers and provisions to a lot of mining camps in the high Rockies. There is a whole chapter about the Galloping Goose in a great book called "Silver San Juan", which chronicles the early mining and railroad history of the San Juan Mountains, in the southwest Colorado Rockies. I don't know if it is still in print, but it was a massive book with lots and lots of cool photos. It sold for 50 dollars back in the late 1970's, when I first saw it in the gift shop at Denver's Union Depot. I was working in the depot, ("switching out", or moving passsenger cars from one track to another), at the time.

I know this is thread creep, not quite the original question. Sorry. But regarding nicknames, I am known on the Mudcat as "Blueay", because that is the nickname I wound up with for seventeen years of working on the Burlington Northern, aka Big Nothing. BN was largely made up of the former Chicago, Burlington and Quincy,(Cock Bite Queer), and the Great Northern, (Jennie), railroads.

For some reason, The Denver and Rio Grande Western, now part of the Southern Pacific, never acquired a nickname that I heard, other than a shortening to "The Grand", maybe because it was such a Colorado institution. Likewise, the Colorado and Southern never really got a nickname that stuck, but it's employees did: Mud Ducks. A major flood wiped out their railroad yard in about 1965, (along with major portions of Denver), and these railroaders had to slog through the mud to for the next few months in order to keep their trains running. They eventually wore the Mud Duck label with pride, had t-shirts and hats and the whole bit. It's all been changed by mergers now, but I am sure the Mud Ducks are still there.
Forgive my rambling and getting off topic, but this thread touched a nerve. I no longer work for the railroad, but I am quite proud of my railroad history, and fond of my memories. ("Engine 6218, where are you"? "We're all f***ed up over here". "What track are you on"? pause... "We're not THAT f***ed up"!

Thanks, BlueJay

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: ddw
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 11:14 PM

And then there's a small trailer linked behind a semi that's called a "pup" trailer.

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 05:02 PM

Robby, the alternative to a semi-trailer is a road trailer. It has all its weight on its own wheels, with only a "wagon tongue" to the tractor, whereas a semi-trailer rests part of its weight on the tractor.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Railroad Nicknames
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 Oct 00 - 04:57 PM

Thanks Jon, I got worried there for a minute, serves me right for scanning articles quickly.