Thought it would be cool if some railroad employees could give some examples of today's railroad slang. Are there deferences depending on which railroad you work for? Thanks in advance
You got a good point here, Drew, some of the slang is diferent between steam days and today, but like when you are standing in "the gauge", you are standing in between the rails, see? You will hear one guy ask another, "What's on your plate?". He isn't asking about the guy's food, he wants to know what orders the guy has been called for. Some other roads would refer to it as your sheet, but they aren't going to bed, see? There are a lot of codes, and the guys will fill you in on the ones they can, like "Watch for those 707's", and " did you splat the Chick?"
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by watash: " did you splat the Chick?" <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Could someone explain this one? I have a few ideas in my sick little mind, none of which should be shared in this forum D6
I know when I hired out it was like learning a whole different language. I started hearing stuff like, "Well, lets run the 6 aroung the y, pull 1, shove back to 3, cut off the dangs, pick up 5, kick 2 back to 1, grab the siding and pull down for the grips and the marker." Or "Permission to open up and cross over 2 to 1 at Liberty for the middle and waive the 5, ok to accept the signal with multiple reverse moves in the plant as needed and ok to proceed from where you stand when lined and locked normal, call on the move. Over." I worried more about figuring out what everybody was talking about than anything else.
No NO Deep6! That was an example of local slang on the T&P back when the hot rod or street rod craze was in full swing. The hot rodders would stop on the tracks and play chicken with on coming traffic, trucks, trains and even eachother. Several were hit and I know of one that was killed. The idea was for two or more of them to line up abrest how ever many could fit across the street and wait for the light to change. As the approaching vehicle came toward them, they would rev up their engines then see who could wait the longest before dashing foreward and get out of the way without getting hit. Late at night, they would park agross the tracks and tempt an oncoming train too, pulling on across just in the nick of time. Because I always took a newspaper over to the T&P Cafe on south First Street to give to the engine crew while they ate breakfast, I got to know them and hear the slang, and about any "news". The enginemen referred to the rodders as; like a brood of chickens, because the kids would run like chickens when the engine got close. After awhile, they got to where they just blew the crossing whistle and didn't even go to emergency and word went around that someone would get one of the kids sometime. One guy's girlfriend got hurt pretty baddly when the guy's rearend got clipped, but he wasn't scratched. They broke up and he had another girl the next week end. A semi got another, just T-boned him good, but there was nothing in the paper about it. The guy who got killed was alone this time when a white flag came through at express speed after midnight and he missjudged its speed. He and his car was scattered along the track between Abilene and almost to Tye, Tx. It didn't hurt the 2-10-4 a bit except splatter blood brains and eye balls on the front. His car was in small pieces, and it even broke the motor block into small pieces. They never did find all his fingers. He knew what hit him though! The incident was hushed so it would not get notariety. After that some of the enginmen would ask eachother, "Did you splat the Chick?". No one had to own up publicly to it, even though they could have found out who was the engineer that was called for the express special. None of them had any sympathy for the kid, he was quite a show off and caused other trouble too, so was no big loss. My guess is he must have killed his motor, or just got frozen and couldn't pop his clutch, so he sat there and took the final bite out of the coupler. There were no more crossings until a couple of miles where there is one dirt road into a field, then nothing until Tye, about nine miles out all told. There were three big church colleges there then, so news of something like that would have been bad for enrollment, and that is how that town got its money, a really dead town. That sorta died down and the guys got to racing on back country roads after that.
Here is some slang that we commonly use "That stick has failed" or "The stick is all on or off" Ok anyone other than Gats know what that means?
[QB]OK Rule 281, so you had to show off all that fancy lingo. Now ya gotta translate it Who said I understood it?
Drew, sometimes, like on a curve, with box cars on the track to your right, the engineer could not see the signals back along his train, so commands were relayed by his fireman. You might hear, Get ready to kick the Monkey!" This was to back up gainning some good speed for a 100 feet or so, then shut her down, to a stop suddenly. This action would "Kick" or allow the "Monkey" to uncouple from the train coasting on along the track. The Monkey Wagon was another term for a Conductor's Caboose. Caboose is also called a Crummy. It may have started because the Conductor or brakeman cooked meals in the caboose, and sometimes there were crums all over from coupling up cars. They were also called Bobbers and Brain Buckets. If you heard, "Shove the hook, blow 3, grab 2 and 4, make Raton, slip 2, and side the pass." That is an urgent call! It was an emergency up on Raton Pass, probably a wreck, push the Big Crane in front of you, blow the 3 short whistle blasts that alert everyone to come running, couple up to the Cars on track #2, (crew cars), then the cars on track #4, MOW (parts, lights, and tool cars). Haul A** (run rather quickly) to the town of Raton, New Mexico, and set out the cars you picked up from track #2, proceed up toward the Pass and leave the Crane at a wreck site, then take the rest of the train to the nearest siding and wait further orders. Working a wreck was very serious business!
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Colonel: Here is some slang that we commonly use "That stick has failed" or "The stick is all on or off" Ok anyone other than Gats know what that means? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Ok here in sydney the term "stick" means a signal all on means the signal is back at stop and all off means the signal is clear
Slang? You say you want slang? The Railroad Retirement Board has a very full page of slang and definitions, You can take a look at: <A HREF="http://www.rrb.gov/funfacts3.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.rrb.gov/funfacts3.html Roger Roger Hensley - rhensley@anderson.cioe.com == http://madisonrails.railfan.net/</A> == == Railroads of Madison County (Indiana) ==
Did you notice that the Railroad Retirement Board just updated its masthead from a Great Northern 2-6-6-2 to an Alco PA? Wonder when they'll use an AC6000 or SD90? 2050????
On the METRA commuter trains, "pickin' up shorts" does not mean reclaiming your undergarments. It means to board passengers who only ride a few stops and/or board at a station other than the end terminals. BTW RULE 281, "The City of New Orleans" is one of my favorite RR tunes. While it is true that Arlo Guthrie sang it, I believe it was written by Steve Goodman. I had a recording of Stevie singing the song, but the CD's were stolen from my truck last summer. Also we use the term "jammer" to denote the Independent Brake valve on the locomotive. "Guzzler" is the term we use for the Fireman's side emergency brake valve.
Go Metra! Finally someone who works on the line that I live less than a mile from! If you wanna talk sometime, email me at NSBrakeman@aol.com. See yah. Dave
not too much to tell you about METRA except they are the moneybag. I work for the BNSF we are a contract carrier for them. They own the rolling stock and motive power. They do have their own operating dept employees and they make more $ than we do, but their work rules are somewhat different and they dont work with as many crew as we do. Dealing with the public is easy for me, since I have done it most of my life. I get frustrated and upset with people at times, but it is just part of the job. Right now I am working as a brakeman. I have an engineers card, but not enough seniority to hold an engineer job. The great thing about being with a contract carrier is that if I get too upset with passenger service, I can always go to the yard or a freight job if one is open(and yard jobs usually are)
