*****

“[O]ur English father…was going to beat Hell, or in his own words, ‘Balls out at full chat after third change up’…screwed up the downshift…and flew ‘arse over tip’ into the snowfilled ditch on the Northeast side of the curve.”  (Former Farmer Smith)

*****

[Last year, the writer of the letter below was involved in a game of Let's Pretend about building a 17th century colonial post & beam house.  In fact, he says, he suspects he sort of stirred it all up in the first place with a flock of emails, then there was a meeting...and cooler heads prevailed.  Like so many good ideas when it gets to the hand-in-the-buzzsaw part, it all proved to be "a crock of shit," and so Another Bright Idea Has Died The Death!  But, the following letter has its moments.... ed]

*****

1 September 2010

Dear B–

Say, for what it is worth, the Plymouth Plantation Pilgrims lived in Indian-style longhouse-looking huts for that first few years, gradually built more recognizably hovelly Renaisscence Fair-looking Jack McGowan-style History Fair dwellings.

Meanwhile, already in the first year, they sent back to England a first load of sawn lengths of house-siding; they had bills to pay and an urgent need for many sorts of goods and, so, their own serious post-and-beam house-building also waited things like the first imports of glass (expensive) and such.  One way or the other writers such as Morrison suggest that they were  1) beavering away to beat Hell, laying down trees left & right, pissing off the Indians and blaming it all on Sin & Jesus, and  2) finishing material for  a) export and  b) their needs, in that order.

Now the questions…if they shipped siding (thin tapered strips radiating from the centers of smaller trunks) so soon as 1621, did they? let the wood cure or did they wet-saw and let the stacks in reversed laps air-dry?

That’s a tough one because I don’t know enough about hard wood to know how much it “moves” in billets.  Wet or dry.  All I know is that Piss Elm in wet board-stacks wiggles around to beat Hell, the whole pile bends this way & then that!

I’m out of Eagle Lake, Mn., anyway on our Mom’s side, and we might get our chins in the soup up at the eating restaurant in public, and all that Old Shit, but Christ on a clap ward, we God damn it KNOW about Piss Elm….

*****

Anyway, in these parts the sawmill operator would gladly “buzz up” all the wet wood you could bring in and not turn a hair.  In fact, he’d wear “a grin on his face like a cat eating shit!”  But, my Uncle Emmett also said, it was because “…the cock knockers then could all whine around and piss and moan like a poison pup, and the sonsofbitches would all bellyache and cry to beat Hell about it and want MORE money!”

Particularly, wet trunks are (many times!) “heavier than Hell” to handle and so “they beat the piss out of the equipment”.  I don’t remember anything about making the rotary blades get dull any faster — one fella South of Eagle Lake had a big oldfashioned VERTICAL array of 2-3 blades (he could put on and take off to fit the job) that he’d gotten from off of Charlie Hartung (“Harding”), the oldtime sawmiller who lived North of our grandfather and had grown up with Joe Jacobson.  This younger operator would only cut Piss Elm with this heavier slower setup and so the time cost more.

Also, for what it is worth, our English father got his ass in a sling outside of Blue Earth County LeRay Township Charlie Hartung’s place in a blizzard one Winter before I was born….

*****

He was tearing along East from off of Old MN 22 (in those days still US 169, then on the East side of the Minnesota River) to where the road bends downhill and then up around from County 2 South onto 27; none of those roads were paved yet sixty-three years or so ago.  He was going to beat Hell, or in his own words, ‘Balls out at full chat after third change up’.  Then Old Man screwed up the downshift (it was some old Chevy with a bad throwout bearing you had to double-clutch I think he said) as he made the descend, was going too fast for the either-on-or-else-off-take-it-or-leave-it mechanical brakes and flew into the snowfilled ditch on the Northeast side of the curve.

He nearly crashed down on to the heads of a couple other, younger, brain halfwits who’d just pulled the same gag.

It was snowing to beat Hell, getting dark and the old man led the charge back up the hill to Hartung’s, on the South side of the curve.  No one was to home but there was a nice new Allis plainly to be seen gleaming orangely in the dusk in a new-painted red shed.  Our dad was press-on type (‘Wayfarers in distress!’ and all that) and so he got one of the farm kids to run the tractor, and they hauled each others’ cars out with Mr. Hartung’s nicely made-up welded logchains from off of a fresh shiny assortment hanging right there by the tractor on the shed wall.  Even so, they managed to bust a link for themselves, and so the old man left a note and five or ten dollars.  “Some God-damn spendthrift gladhand free giveaway wad like that!” in the money of those days, as as our Eagle Lake, Mn., Mom said disgustedly later.

*****

In short order came a letter from a Mankato lawyer:

It seems that Mr. Hartung was a prudent and careful farmer who had put his tractor up for the Winter, had not yet removed the tires before an untimely Fall snowstorm, but in any case HAD ALREADY DRAINED THE OIL as well as filling the tank with gas to prevent humidity and corrosion.  Now, Mr. Hartung wanted money and etc and was willing not to press criminal charges as the culprit had “left a note properly identifying himself”, and so forth.  Here’s the kicker….

Mom said the Old Man would have been in a whole lot of trouble, normal auto insurance of those days wouldn’t have covered it, but — Pop had AAA.  And Triple A in those long ago days actually did pay Charlie Hartung to fix up his tractor!  “Not only that,” said Uncle Emmett, “The God-damn old bastard hollered so God-damn much they gave the dirty sonofabitch even MORE money and he went to work and got himself a brand new bigger one with a heavy-duty rear end and PTO!  And any way the old tractor wasn’t hurt a God-damn bit and he kept IT to bucket shit with!”

*****

Finally, for what it is worth, twenty-eight years later I bought AAA myself on the strength of this…and, then, got my ass kicked off, O-F-F, for calling them all the time during that very first year, 1973-4.  That was just to jumpstart a bunch of times the froze-up Augsburg College handicap vans I was running for the CHR program in those pre-Reagen Miracle disco daze.  The Minneapolis AAA chapter said that using my “private” membership  for work was “against the rules.”  Be that as it may, I rejoined albeit feebly, at any rate I hadn’t actually wrecked anybody else’s property….

But plainly AAA had long since give up on the eleemosynary work of buying new tractors for everybody and their brother to be victimized by an AAA member casually passing by!

Well, B–, that’s all for now,

Former Farmer Smith

*****

[Old Uncle Crow

[copyrighted by tio cuervo

[November 21st, 2010]

5 March 2011

Dear G– Smackelphartz,

Here’s another one for your God-damn collection!

Naturally, there was — long time later! — another fiasco with sealed bearings, way after all of that hay conditioner old shit that I wrote all up before:

http://oldunclecrow.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/in-the-summer-of-58/

First of all, I see that I did not make clear in that writeup five years ago that overgreasing & popping open the rubber-gusseted sealed bearings would then let grit and dust and dirt to get picked up and be spun or wound back in by the extrudedgrease, into the race and balls, or rollers, to actually chew up the assembly.

What the Hell….

*****

Well, any way, twenty-three years later I was to forget my high school farm shop completely, and go to work and flame with propane a stainless bearing race on a cast ground-metal shaft end.  This was “to get the girl to swell up and then cool down and then just let go” so I could “just haul off and knock her BANG off the end.”

“Yep,” that should do it I said confidently to Candy, The Red-Haired Waitress, who was helping me that day.  Making “the girl swell up” and then BANG, “whamming her off the end” gave Candy a sort of foxy grin and giggles-attack, especially when I told her to hand me “that God-damn three-pound ball penIS hammer there, honey…hehehe!”

Of course it was a God-damn three-pound FORGE hammer, but it got a good laugh out of her all right!

Then Candy, herself never at all difficult in that way, looked on in puzzled wonderment as I flailed and banged and swore at the stuck proceedings.  In the end, I had to lug a small anvil, heave the combine header-augur end up on to it to prop where it stuck through the front shroud, try to hold the anvil tipped with a foot on a loose pile of two-by trim-ends to hold the scant available half-inch….

All of that was to then to try to chisel away the race and rollers and, finally, the sleeve, hammering shortly at an odd oblique angle and “not even be able to fetch as much as even one single God-damn good STROKE!”

The difference in malleabilities, the heating and cooling-rates of the two steels, had in fact “made the WHOLE God-damn dirty little bitch ALL the God-damn HARDER to get OFF!”

Finally, I caved, went around to the other side and freed the journal box opposite, so I could “really pull on the shaft” and “lay her out just where I want her!” and “get in just one clean hard shot at the dirty little handpainted bitch-girl!”  Naturally, it only made sense then to run BACK in to John Deere, get the second bearing and “let, by God, her have it TWICE!”

“If one part has already gone to Hell, better change ‘em ALL, the dirty bastards!”  Thats the rule on that one….

(Only this time I did not heat the second assembly so that “she just plain FLEW off of the end there a WHOLE Hell of lot more quick!”)

” — ….” said Candy murmurously when it was all over.  “THAT…ALL…took…a long…a Long, LONG time….”

So then we went in to the house to wash up, and things.

What the Hell….

Old Grampa Outhousespidersson

*****

[Old Uncle Crow

[copyrighted by tio cuervo

[March 5th, 2011]

[This is a letter I wrote to somebody last month that shows about my life back home "down on the farm," and what a pain in the ass it could be, especially the vehicles!  OUC]

23 February 2011

Dear John Klanck, it was either you or old Patrick Herd who said my Blog About Swearing In Rural Eagle Lake, Mn., In The 1950s is a “quagmire.”

Quagmire…Stagmire?

That takes me back….

Joe Stagmire was a young dog after WW II who bought a old Plymouth car from off of my Grandfather, Joe Outhousespidersson’s.  Our Mother said that the car from new, in 1937 or so, had a habit of stopping.  The engine would just quit.  This went on while you were driving a long and trying to go some where.  After a while it would agree to start up and keep running (for a while more, any way) and then you could go on your way some more, but there was no rhyme or reason to any of it.

That was when he got his teen age nickname, “Walking Joe” Stagmire, when that he bought that car.

I called him this when that we met up again in the Fall of’80 up at the elevator in Hairpin Lake, Mn., when that I moved home to superintend the ruin of the family farm by the IRS — he was in his fifties by then and didn’t like it, and so at a mere thirty-one I didn’t try saying that one again.  You never know when you might to borrow something.  Later, at the auction to pay for Old Reagen & All The GOP Senators Whining Around Behind David Stockman’s Back Like A Poison Pup, Joe Stagmire bought Uncle Emmett Outhousespidersson’s 1974 Ford XLT 3/4 ton pick up and fixed it all up, stock rack and all.

Pretty immediately (you guessed it!) the truck engine took to stopping, oh, at about 45-50 mph, that’s what Neighbor Jerome Copacic told me, any way, and any way I never did dare say any thing to Joe’s face about when that I did see him up at the eating restaurant, “Uncle Al’s,” there on Maindragstrasse (U.S. Hwy 14) in Eagle Lake, Mn.
 
Mrs. “Walking Joe” Stagmire was the same girl as that the one he was dating back in the Plymouth, and she was my niece’s and nephew’s kindergarten teacher in 1990 or so, and her and my sister Erika Outhousespidersson (aka Mrs. Danny Seatblister) were thicker than thieves then in spite of the age difference.

I guess those Ford distributor caps used to crack pretty often and let water in to the “sonofabitch,” that shorted the girl out for Joe Stagmire the second time around for sure, only the 1937 Plymouths didn’t use Ford distributor caps. 

I don’t think so, any way, I mean they probably didn’t.

So I just don’t know what sonofabitch is to blame for THAT one.

All of those Stagmires are gone now.

Emmett Outhousespidersson

PS:  Joe Stagmire pretty much thought that global warming was “a crock of shit” when that it first came up.  So did Neighbor Jerome Copacic.  I guess that we will all be dead and in Hell and sneezing in the sulphur and coal smoke, playing Rocky Horse on the Devil’s knee and saying, “Daddy, tell me a story!” and so we will know all about it for sure THEN.

[Old Uncle Crow

[copyrighted by tio cuervo

[March 10, 2011]

My buddy, “Shuck” B is a Norwegian bachelor farmer up there under neath Madelia, MN., or some other God-damn Hell hole like that, and who is also “shacked up” up there with some gal now, oh, Hell, for damn near twenty years it must be, well, anyway he sent me this one:

“Chew on this you paranoid fearmongers!  Big brother and that weird neighbor down the street are watching, listening and recording.  This is truly freaky! No black helicopters, cigar shaped lights or alien probings either…..

“Shuck B

“PS, btw, why don’t one of YOU brain cock knockers get a hold of this software and share.  The least we could do to fight back is spread a little fear of our own!

“…muffled voice in the background…: “Yassuh, Governor Walker…!”

*****

(“Shuck” also added on a video that showed a lady being spied on and her daughter getting talked dirty to and molested around by some party line rubberneck, “hacker” they call them nowadays.  Since the last one from “Shuck” about Nina Hartley, well, that one WAS pretty good, so I tuned in.  It seems like we’re all supposed to be scared as Hell and fiddley-fuck around ALL OF THE GOD-DAMN TIME NOW with our cell phone security.)

(To find out just WHAT, I ask you?

(Thing of it is, in real time with my kind of luck I’d have to listen in on every single sonofabitch in the county to get in on anything even remotely interesting…and then it would be just some guy had to take his teenage kid in to the Blue Earth ER for letting one of the bobby calfs suck his, the kid’s…well, you get the idea.  Jesus, for boring!  People here been hauling their boys in to the doctor for THAT one since even before the Indian Uprising!  Why would a feller even pay OUT for one of these damn cell phone thingies?

(Like they all said when Fritz Mondale was running for President from out of Elmore, MN., down there, “Where’s the beef?”  So just what IS so God-damn hot shit NEW about listening in on some OTHER asshole’s phone conversation?)

*****

It all just takes me back….

My own bachelor Uncle Emmett Jacobson even got the rubbernecking habit back then from off of his Aunt Leona Magly.  One day when she was down at the Immanual Lutheran Hospital Auxiliary Snack Bar there, in Old Mankato just a few blocks from where they hung The Indians, and shoveling 98-degree-trip-to-town-in-Grampa’s-car-trunk potato salad in to some NEW patients who had just been up to visit their predecessors, I caught Uncle Emmett hanging on the line.  He made a ssh-signal at me as I came charging in from out-of-doors to wallow down some ice cream and strawberry jam, and even over the two battling air forces of flies zooming and buzzing in the growing rotten egg-smell of the potato salad fixings-remains on the kitchen table, I could hear the cawing tones of Mrs Mae Haefner, our neighbor lady North of us and who was talking on the party line to her latest daughter-in-law, Southwest of us up there in the Eagle lake motor court.  Haefners had “a whole TRIBE of kids” as we used to say, say at least nine at the last time the lady from Squawbunion County counted, and Darold was the Haefner’s oldest duckling, just out of the Air Force and overseas duty in Turkey.  Now he was shoveling rotten soy bean mush from out of the bottom of the Honeymead bins, getting ready for Fall on his new job downtown in Mankato near by where they hung The Indians, and now Mrs Haefner was grilling her new young daughter-in-law Peggy Sue:

“So, is what it is is that what I need to know, Dear, is what it is is that are that there any, well…you know WHAT that I mean…uh — Marital Difficulties?  You can tell Mae, Dear, WHATEVER is is what it is!”

Finally, Peggy Sue, probably just to finally shut up her new husband’s mom, owned up to “…well…is what it is is there IS…just…one thing….”  I could hear it for myself as Uncle Emmett, with a grin on his face like a cat eating shit at his at-long-last-rewarded patience, turned the receiver half toward me:

“Oh!” panted Mae Haefner and who I could just see for myself in my mind’s eye a mile away there, fanning herself in HER fly-air force kitchen with the big and unusually heavy duty paper pink fan Darold had sent her from Japan:

“What’s wrong?  What’s the matter, DEAR?  I can talk to Darold…I WILL!  If what that it is is that THAT boy has done, well, ANYTHING, you just let me know.  I’m YOUR mom now, too, and….”

“Oh…Mom!”  Peggy Sue, who liked drive-in movies and had never missed on one in high school even though she’d dated lots of guys, made a kind of half-hearted wail.  “It’s not…well…you know, BAD…or NOTHING like that!  He’s just…SHY!’

“What’s that that you say?  Shy?  Just what way is it that in WHAT way is it that that he’s so — SHY?”  Mae now on account of the hotness of the late-July late afternoon audibly was puffing rather hard there a mile away, and I imagined that her flies and mine, if there hadn’t been all of the talking going on, could maybe have made a kind of FM-radio effect if I could have just had the phone receiver to myself.  Uncle Emmett hauled out his blue bandanna and stifled a rising laugh.  His eyes bulged and his face was red under his tan, but he kept his horses back; I leaned forward on the edge of Grampa’s chair at the head of the table in order not to miss a word.

“I can help, Dear…” went Mae, regrouping in the clammy hot silence and near-and-far buzz of party line flies.  “Is it that that it’s all about something that you WANT him to do and is what it is is that he WON’T?  Is THAT it?  Or…would that that you’d rather that he DIDN’T do…well…THAT — and THEN that that he just bulls AHEAD and does…THAT…anyway?  You can tell me, Dear, ALL about it…because if that THAT’S the way that it is, is what it is IS, why that I’ll just have a TALK with that….”

“Oh, Mom!” cried drive-in film-student Peggy Sue Ott Haefner, in a highschooly gush of what sounded now like real tears:

“He…he, HE…is what it is is that…that he, that HE…that that WHAT he DOES is…that heee — WON’T buy KOTEX!”

Right then at that, right smack dab on the edge of the cliff of just busting loose and just plain laughing all out loud just to beat Hell, my bachelor Uncle Emmett Jacobson whipped the dish towel ready in his other hand around the receiver, his hand and all, and then while carefully freeing his muffled hand set the receiver in the wall phone cradle without as much as a single sound:

“Christ Almighty!” he blared.  He laughed.  He laughed and laughed.  He laughed some more, and blared again:

“Christ ALL Mighty!”

He laughed some more, hard, he subsided in to chuckles and fished out a Camel cigaret to light as we stepped out of the back porch into the corn belt blast furnace of those old days more than a half-century ago.  As we stumped off to the barn to throw yesterday’s new bales around in the haymow so they wouldn’t “heat,” he laughed some more, pretty hard.  I was nine and as Uncle Emmett kind of finally wound up laughing just to beat Hell, I went:

“I don’t get it, Uncle Emmett?  What’s wrong with Kotex?  Can’t they afford…?”

“Oh, Jeezuz Christ,” said my bachelor Uncle Emmett Jacobson to me as the new gravel we’d just hauled and spread in the farmyard crunched underfoot.  “Just let THIS all be a lesson to YOU, Skipper — it’s just ANOTHER case of the God-damn Hell in EVERYTHING!”

*****

(Looking back on it all, now, I have just got to suppose that these overheard disillusionments have got to have played their part in my career; sure as Hell, I never ever even got to where I could even give not even one single hooper’s good God-damn for all them depressing marital confections of Ibsen and Strindberg in Augsburg College Scandinavian Lit.  And, so, now I don’t even WANT to own one of these fool cell phones…what would even be the point of that, even if that I did?

(Jesus Christ…Jesus Christ frying in Hell, I mean…well — just HOW God-damn dumb can you BE?

(I mean that is what it is is that I ALL READY heard EVERY thing EVERY body — and I God-damn well DO mean ALL of you OTHER dumb sonsofbitches! — has even got to say today, over and over and God-damn OVER again, on the God-damn telephone…way the Hell back THERE in July — of 1958…!)

(So…YOU can all just go roast in Hell, you postmodern, post decent, post SHITHOUSE God-damn DUMB bastards, you!)

*****

[Old Uncle Crow

[copyrighted by tio curevo

[March 5th, 2011]

These links doubtlessly will cement a reputation as racist, or anyway “insensitive,” among The Halfwits & Automatic Response-types.  But, the treasure this body of work represents to folklore and folkspeech studies CAN not be devalued by the inadequately instructed braying of jackasses!

Uncle Remus-link — 012811:
 
http://www.uncleremus.com/index.html
 
The rather obvious white man doing the Savannah Darky-reading may attest the “sunny fantasy” idea, of “happy slaves” singing on the Big House porch at sundown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cy9SAafPKo

[Old Uncle Crow
 
[all rights revert to holders
 
[February 13th, 2011]

[A true delight...and it is JUST the way we talked in Eagle Lake fifty-some years ago, too! -- OUC]
 
A little old lady from Wisconsin had worked in and around her family’s dairy farm since she was old enough to walk, with hours of hard work and little to show.
 
When canned Carnation Milk became available in grocery stores in approximately the 1920s and the Depression set in at the end of the decade, she read an advertisement offering $500 for the best slogan.  The producers wanted a rhyme beginning With “Carnation Milk is best of  all…”
 
She thought to herself, I know all about milk and dairy farms.  I can do this!  She sent in her entry, and several weeks later, a long Duesenberg limo pulled up in front of her  farmhouse.

 A man got out and said, “Carnation LOVED your  entry so much!  We are here to award you $200 even though we will not be able to use it!”

“Carnation milk is best of all,
no tits to pull, no hay to haul,
no buckets to wash, no shit to pitch,
just poke a hole in the son-of-a-bitch!”

[posted by tio cuervo

all rights revert to holders

April 26th, 2010]

[OUC]

From Railway Technical Web Pages, at:

http://www.railway-technical.com/

comes this English Steam Locomotive Glossary:
 
http://www.railway-technical.com/st-glos.shtml

[posted by tio cuervo     all rights revert to holders     August 30th, 2009]

http://www.lionel.com/

[The original may be viewed at:

http://www.lionel.com/ForTheHobbyist/Findex.cfm

[ -- OUC]

LIONEL TRAIN LINGO

Letters A-F

A.A.R.
Association of American Railroads. Trade association that represents the common interests of the railroad industry in the United States.

Abutment
A foundation which anchors and supports lateral pressure or thrust, such as the weight-bearing piers at the ends of a bridge which hold back solid ground.

AC (Alternating Current)
Electric current which repeatedly alternates (Cycles) from positive to negative a specified number of times per second (usually 60 in the U.S.). Toy train transformers typically operate on, and output, AC current to run the trains. See also, DC.

Accommodation
A local train which makes all stops along its intended route.

Alco
American Locomotive Company. Manufacturer of steam and diesel-electric locomotives.

Alley
A clear track, usually in a yard.

Ampere
A unit of measure for determining the strength of electrical flow in a circuit. Most often abbreviated as Amps. The higher the amperage, the greater the flow, or volume, of current passing through the circuit. Technically, the amount of current produced by the force of one volt acting through one ohm of resistance.

Apron
An overlapping deck between a locomotive cab and its tender; hinged cover above the locomotive and tender connection.

Arbor
Railroad wheel axle.

Arc
A spark created by the passage of electric current across a gap; also a curve.

Articulated Locomotive
A steam-powered locomotive with two separate sets of wheels and cylinderseach of which pivots on separate frames. Certain types of electrically-powered locomotives may also be articulated.

Ash Cat
Slang term for locomotive fireman.

Ash Pan
A tray-like device located under a steam locomotive’s firebox which holds the ashes that remain after coal has been burned. Ashes are removed from the ash pan at an ash pit, usually located in a service yard.

Ash Pit
A pit, customarily located below track level in a locomotive servicing area, which is intended for receiving residue coal ash and cinders from a steam locomotive’s fire box.

Aspect
One of the several possible lighted positions or indications of a signal light.

Automatic Block Signal
A trackside signal activated by the movement of trains over/past a detecting device.

Automatic Coupler
Couplers which couple and uncouple automatically through the use of uncoupling ramps, and permanent or electro-magnets; permits remote operation of couplers instead of manual coupler operation.

Auxiliary Tender
A second tender attached to the primary tender of a locomotive; permits longer runs by reducing fuel and water stops.

Baby-lifter
Slang term for a passenger train brakeman.
Bad Order Car
or Bad Order Track
A railway car which is being taken out of service for repair. Also, the yard track assigned to storage of such cars.

Bakehead
Slang term for a locomotive fireman.

Ballast
Cinders, crushed rock, or gravel placed on the roadbed to hold track ties in place and to promote uniform drainage.

Ballast Tamper
A track installation and maintenance machine used to tamp down the rock ballast used to hold the ties in position on the roadbed.

Balloon Stack
A widely-flared steam locomotive smokestack designed to prevent sparks from escaping; commonly used on 19th Century locomotives.

Balloon Track
Technical term for a reverse loop.

Bascule Bridge
A counter-balanced lift bridge, generally used where relatively low-lying railroad tracks pass over narrow waterway channels which must be used by waterborne traffic.

Belpaire Firebox
A square-topped firebox typically used on Pennsylvania and Great Northern Railroad locomotives.

Belt Line
A connecting rail line between two or more other railroads; so-called because it often encircles a city like a belt.

“Bend the rails”
To re-align or re-set the movable rails on a turnout.

Bent
One section of a model railroad trestle set. On real railroads, the evenly-spaced vertical sections of a trestle.

Big Boy
Common name for the largest steam locomotive: a 4-8-8-4 Union Pacific.

Big Hole
A quick stop.

Big Hook
Slang term for a heavy-duty derrick or crane railcar, often called a wrecking crane.

Big O
Slang term for a conductor.

Big Shot
Slang term for a yardmaster.

Big Wheel
A rotary snowplow; equipped with blades that turn in a wheel-like manner.

Bill-of-Lading
A printed form which describes freight, the charges incurred in shipping, and the freight’s point of origin and destination.

Birney A short, single-truck (4-wheel) trolley car designed for use in congested urban areas where tight track curves are required.

Bleed
To drain the air from the brake system of a railcar or string of cars.

Blind Drivers
Driving wheels without flanges which permit locomotives to negotiate sharper curves than the wheel arrangement would normally allow; widely used on narrow gauge locomotives.

Blind Siding
A railroad siding without telephone or telegraph connections to the dispatcher; no order can be received by a train on such a siding.

Block
In prototype railroading, a section of track through which rail traffic is controlled as a unit. In model railroading, commonly the designation for a length of track with an independently controlled power supply, constructed so two or more trains may operate independently on, for example, a simple oval of track.

Block Signals
A signal or series of signals, usually automatic, which control a block.

Board
A fixed signal.

Bobber
A short, four-wheel caboose.

Bobtail Haul
Early slang expression indicating that a locomotive was pulling only a few cars and a bobber caboose; a short train.

Bogie Truck
A four-wheel pilot truck on a steam locomotive. (Also used for some “Road-Railer” units.)

Boiler
That portion of a steam locomotive, usually round, where the steam is generated.

Bolster
The crosswise member of the frame of a railroad car at the truck (body bolster) or the crosswise piece at the center of a truck (truck bolster).

Boom Car
The car next in line to the wrecking crane or derrick, used to support the crane boom in transit.

Boomer
Slang term for an experienced railroad worker who moves from railroad to railroad in search of (usually) temporary employment.

Booster
In prototype railroading, a small secondary steam engine which assists and increases starting power. Some trailing trucks and tender wheels featured boosters which automatically cut off after a certain speed had been reached.

Boss
Slang term for conductor.

Box Cab
Electric or diesel locomotive with a cab shaped like a box.

Brakeman
A member of a freight or passenger train crew. His duties are to assist the conductor in any way necessary.

Branch Line
Secondary line of a railroad.

Brass Hat
Slang term for conductor; also for President or boss of a rail line. In model railroading, an advanced modeler.

Brass Buttons
Slang term for a freight conductor.

Brass Collar
Slang term for a railroad official.

Brownies
In model railroading, demerits given to members of model railroad clubs for various infractions of operating rules; a form of good-natured punishment for making a mistake.

Buggy (also Crummy, Cabin, and Hack)
Common terms for caboose.

Buggy Track
A caboose holding or storage track.

Bull
Slang term for a railroad police officer.

Bumper
A device for stopping railroad cars at the end of a spur track.

Bunker
A bin, usually elevated above track level, used for storing and dispensing coal.

Brill
A type of two-truck, 8-wheel trolley car used primarily in urban areas.

Cab
The section of the locomotive that contains the controls and where the engineer and fireman customarily ride.

Cab Control
A system for switching control of a series of blocks on a model railroad so that two or more throttles are capable of controlling operation in those blocks, depending on which locomotive is to use the blocks at any given time.

Cab-Forward
A type of steam locomotive (most commonly used by the Southern Pacific) built so the cab portion is at the front for added visibility and safety from smoke and fumes in tunnels and snowsheds.

Caboose
Car for the brakeman and other crew; office for the conductor at the rear of a freight train.

Cab Signals
Lights on a control panel in fornt of the engineer which indicate the condition of the track ahead of his train.

Caboose-Way Car
A caboose with a section for tools and equipment for track work, or a caboose with a section for hauling freight.

Call Board
Bulletin board where crew assignments are posted.

Camelback
A steam locomotive with the cab set astride the boiler. The fireman on this type of locomotive rides under a hood at the rear. Also called a “Mother Hubbard.”

Cap
A noise-emitting torpedo placed on the track for signaling purposes. The cap is activated when locomotive wheels pass over it.

Car Barn
Storage house for trolley and interurban cars.

Car-catcher
Slang term for brakeman.

Car Knocker
A car inspector; so-called because these individuals tap the wheels of cars to test for soundness.

Carry a flag
To run late or off-schedule.

Carry the mail
To travel at high speed; walk or run swiftly.

Car Toad
Slang term for a railroad car repairer.

Car Whacker
Slang term for a railroad car cleaner.

Catenary
A system of overhead wires suspended over the track to provide power for electric-type locomotives.

Cinder Pit
Same as “Ash Pit.”

Circuit Breaker
A device which interrupts an electrical circuit if a short or overload occurs.

Class
Groups into which trains are divided–usually from two to four, depending on the railroad.

Class 1 Railroad
In the United States, a railroad with operating revenue in excess of $5 million per year.

Classification Lamps
Lights (or flags) mounted on the front of a locomotive to indicate the status of the train. White lamps (or flags) indicate an “Extra,” while green indicates all sections but the final one of multi-section trains.

Classification Yard
A freight yard (or yards) where complete trains are made-up or broken-up by shifting cars with a switcher locomotive, or by means of a hump.

Clean the clock
To stop suddenly.

Clear Board
A signal indication which authorizes a train to proceed.

Clerestory Roof
Raised center portion along the length of a roof of certain passenger cars featuring “clerestory windows” along the sides to allow natural light into the car.

Climax
A type of geared steam locomotive used primarily by logging railroads. The locomotive’s twin cylinders drive a crankshaft aligned parallel with the axles; power is transmitted to the trucks through an arrangement of bevel gears and a driveshaft; rods couple the axles on each truck.

Clinker Boy
Slang term for a locomotive fireman.

Clown Wagon
Caboose.

Coaling Station
A structure for storing coal and transferring it into locomotive tenders.

Coil
In model railroading, a tightly wound “spool” of thin wire which is a component of electrical devices such as solenoids and electromagnets.

Cold Joint
In electrical work, a soldered connection in which the materials being joined were insufficiently heated to melt the solder and cause it to flow and bond.

Common Ground
In model railroading, the use of a single wire to complete a circuit for numerous track sections or accessories. Eliminates the need for a large number of “ground” wires, one for each accessory or track.

Commutator
The rotating part of an electric motor which contacts stationary carbon brushes to complete the electrical circuit.

Conductor
The senior crew member on a freight or passenger train responsible for the safe, prompt movement of the train; for the care of its cargo and equipment; and for the actions and safety of the crew. The conductor is the ranking crew member in charge of train movements and operation. Also, in model railroading and electricity, the term for any material (usually metal) that allows electrical current to flow through it.

Consist
The full set of cars which make up a train, usually used in reference to a freight train.

Contactor
In model railroading, a switch-like device that fits beneath a section of toy train track, and is activated by the weight of a train passing over it.

Continuous Rail
Rails which have been welded together to form a very long single rail, thereby eliminating rail joints which are the weakest part of the track. Also known as Welded Rail or Ribbonrail.

Control Rail
In model railroading, any rail fitted with auxiliary electrical connections that allow it to perform special electrical functions, such as the two extra rails in Lionel remote-control track sections. Also, Insulated Control Rail: wherein one of the outer, or running, rails of a section of three-rail toy train track is isolated electrically and then connected by wire to an accessory. When the metal wheels of a passing train contact this rail, an electric circuit is completed which causes the accessory to operate.

Convertor
Electrical device for changing Direct Current (DC) into Alternating Current (AC).

Cornfield Meet
A head-on collision of two trains.

Counterweight
In the context of a steam locomotive, the solid weights on the drive wheels which offset the weight of the engine’s crank pins and drive rods.

Coupler
A device at the ends of a car or locomotive used to connect that car to other cars or locomotives.

Covered Wagon
A diesel unit with a full-width (streamlined-appearing) cab, as opposed to a “Hood Unit.”

Cow and Calf
A double diesel engine unit consisting of a regular switch engine and a matching cab-less booster unit which are semi-permanently coupled together–often by a drawbar as is used to couple tenders to steam locomotives. Used mainly for heavy transfer work and yard hump service. The Calf unit itself is also sometimes referred to as a “Mule” unit.

Cowcatcher
Early term for a locomotive’s pilot. A pointed device used on the front of a locomotive to shove livestock off the track. Now used to prevent any object from going under the locomotive’s wheels.

Cradle
A gondola car.

Crankpin
Pin or screw attached to the driving wheels which holds side rods in place, while still allowing them to turn.

Crossing at Grade (also Grade Crossing)
An intersection between a road or highway and railroad tracks on the same level.

Crossing
An intersection between two tracks on the same level.

Crossover
Combination of track and switches which enable trains to cross from one parallel track to another.

Crummy
See “buggy.”

CTC (Centralized Traffic Control)
Train dispatching conducted at one location for several or all of a railroad’s designated operating divisions.

Culvert
A passageway under tracks for the drainage of water.

Cupola
A small cabin atop the caboose where the brakeman can scan ahead over the roofs of freight cars in a train.

Current
The movement or flow of electricity.

Cushion Rider
Slang term for a passenger conductor.

Cut
(1) A number of cars, coupled together, or (2) an excavated section through a hill so the tracks can remain as level as possible.

Cycles
In electricity, the alternation of the direction of current flow, generally expressed as cycles per second. In the U.S., most household current alternates at 60 cycles per second. Also known as “hertz.”

DC (Direct Current)
Electric current which flows in only one direction. Model railroad power packs for two-rail trains typically input AC (household) current, and convert (rectify) it for output as low-voltage DC current to run the trains.

Dead Man’s Control
Automatic control which an engineer must hold in an “on” position against a spring. If the engineer dies or becomes somehow disabled, the Dead Man’s Control is automatically released and stops the train.

Deadhead
(1) An empty car, or (2) a passenger (or off-duty crew member) riding free on a pass; or (3) a locomotive traveling without cars.

Departure Yard
An arrangement of yard tracks from which cars are forwarded.

Depot
A station for passengers and freight; term usually applied to a rather small facility in a town or village.

Derail
A device placed over the rail to prevent a car from rolling out of a siding (for example) and onto the main line.

Detainer
Slang term for train dispatcher.

Diamond Pusher
Slang term for locomotive fireman.

Diamond Stack
A diamond-shaped smoke stack, usually associated with 19th Century locomotives. See also, “Balloon Stack.”

Dinger
Slang term for yardmaster.

Dinky
Any small, undersized locomotive.

Dispatcher
An employee who coordinates all train movements in his assigned area (usually one division). He is authorized to issue specific orders to keep trains moving.

Division
That portion of a railroad managed by a superintendent.

Doghouse
Used on steam locomotive tenders, it is a small enclosure usually located atop the back of the tender, which provides shelter for the brakeman. Also, a slang term for caboose.

Dome
A round protrusion atop the boiler of a steam locomotive; it houses the steam controls or sand.

Doodlebug
A rail motor car.

Doubling
The process of moving a very heavy train up a hill by splitting it in half and moving one-half at a time.

Double-header
A train pulled by two locomotives, each with its own crew.

Double Stack (or Stacks)
Intermodal service characterized by shipping containers that are stacked two-high on railcars.

Draft Gear
Mechanism that connects the coupler to the frame of the car. In model railroading, the coupler mounting box is often so-named.

Drag
A slow freight.

Drawbar
The bar that connects (couples) a steam engine to its tender.

Drill
To switch cars in a yard. Also, the switch engine itself.

Driving Gear
The arrangement of rods and cranks that are used to transfer piston energy to the driving wheels.

Driving Wheels
The powered wheels of a locomotive.

Drovers’ Caboose
A long, eight-wheel caboose which contains a small passenger compartment for hauling and bedding down cattleman who are aboard to care for their cattle en route.

Drum
To switch.

Drumhead
An identification emblem attached to the last car on a railroad’s most prestigious, named passenger trains.

Dual Gauge
A mixed track gauge, often seen at interchange points between standard gauge and narrow gauge railroads.

Dynamic Brake
(1) A system on a diesel locomotive which converts its traction motors into electric generators–the resulting resistance provides a braking action to help slow a train, especially when going down a grade. (2) The protrusion on some engines which is often called the dynamic brake is really only a cooling mechanism for the heat produced by the excess energy being generated.

Eagle Eye
Slang term for locomotive engineer.

E-Unit
An electrically-activated mechanical reversing device on some model locomotives, especially those made prior to 1990. Most recent model locomotives are equipped with solid-state electronic reversing units.

Eccentric Crank
A large, forged casting attached to the main drive wheels of a steam engine which allows a rod to rotate in an elliptical path, thereby opening and closing the cylinder slide valves.

Electromagnet
A device made of a core of iron or steel wrapped in a wire coil, which attracts other ferrous metals when current is passed through the wire.

EMD
Electro-Motive Division of General Motors. Manufacturer of diesel-electric and electric-outline locomotives.

Engine
Common term applied to mean “locomotive,” but properly only the cylinders and their drivers.

Enginehouse
A building in which locomotives are serviced. See also, “Roundhouse.”

Engine Yard
A yard area in which engines are stored and serviced.

Engineer
The crew member responsible for the physical operation of a freight or passenger train and for monitoring the locomotive’s running condition.

ETD
End-of-train device. A box-like apparatus equipped with a flashing warning beacon, and often train status detectors, which is mounted on the end of the last car in a freight train. On most contemporary railroads, an ETD replaces the caboose.

Extra
A train not shown or authorized on published schedules; operates on train orders.

Facing Switch
A turnout (switch) situated with the points facing traffic.

Feeder
In model railroading, a power connection from the transformer or power pack to the track, and then on to another portion of the trackwork. Also a short branch road feeding traffic to a main line.

Firebox
The combustion chamber on a steam locomotive for generating heat which is used to convert water into steam in the engine’s boiler.

Fireman
The crew member whose job it is to keep the fire and steam up in a steam locomotive, and who is responsible for the operating condition of power units on diesel and electric engines.

Fish Plate
A bar which joins the ends of rails.

Fixed Voltage Post
In model railroading, a terminal post on a transformer or power pack which is permanently configured to provide a set amount of voltage at all times. Generally used to power accessories and lamps.

Flag
(1) To protect the rear of the train by having a brakeman walk back with a flag or lantern while it is halted; or (2) to have any person not part of the train crew to cause the train to stop by waving hands, hat, etc.

Flange
A protruding lip on a grinder or wheel; the inside edge of a railroad car wheel which guides the wheel and keeps the wheelset on the track.

Flexible Track
or
Flex-Track
In model railroading, long (about 3 feet) straight sections of track manufactured so one or more of the rails slide somewhat freely through the spikes or tieplates, thereby allowing the track section to be curved into a customized configuration.

Flimsy
A written train order.

FM
Fairbanks-Morse. Manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, especially opposed-piston types.

Foreign Car
A car belonging to a railroad (or shipper thereon) other than the one it is presently on.

Freezer
Slang term for refrigerator car; also known as a “reefer.”

Frog
The portion of a turnout which is grooved for the wheel flanges; so-named for its resemblance to a frog. 
 
Letters G-L

Gandy Dancer
Member of a track section gang–so-called because the movements and chants of early track-laying crews resembled orchestrated dancing.

G Scale
Model railroading in a scale of 1:22.5; often erroneously applied to other scales in large scale model railroading such as 1:20.3, 1:24, 1:29, and 1:32–all of which also operate on #1 gauge (45mm track). See also “Large Scale.”

Gangway
The space between the locomotive and the tender through which the crew enters and leaves.

Gas-electric
Self-propelled car powered by a gasoline engine driving a generator which supplies electric current to motors on the axles; commonly used for branchline passenger service in the 1920s and 1930s.

Gates
Turnouts.

Gauge (track)
The distance measured between the inside edges of the running rails.

Gauge (wire)
In electricity, a measure of the thickness of electrical wire, generally expressed as a number. The higher the number, the thinner the wire; e.g., 18 gauge is finer than 14 gauge.

Geep
Slang for a series of Electro-Motive Division (General Motors) road switchers designated as GP-7, GP-9, etc. (GP stands for General Purpose).

Glad Hand
The metal coupling on the end of an air hose.

“Goofy Gauge”
Contemporary slang term for the variety of large scale trains that all operate on #1 Gauge (G Gauge) track. Applied by modelers because a lack of industry standards has resulted in trains of various proportions–some representing Narrow Gauge equipment and others representing Standard Gauge equipment–all being made to operate on the same model railroad track gauge.

Goat
A small locomotive, generally a small yard engine.

Grab Irons
Handholds on the sides, ends, or roofs of railroad cars.

Grade
The degree of inclined elevation of the track’s surface over a given distance, usually expressed as a percentage.

Green Eye
Clear signal to proceed.

Ground
One of the two poles of a battery, transformer, or power pack which, in conjunction with the “hot” wire from the other pole, completes an electrical circuit.

Ground Hog
Slang term for switchman.

Hack
See “Buggy.”

Ham
Slang term for telegraph operator.

Hay Burner
A worn-out locomotive.

Head-end Cars
Express, mail, and baggage cars, usually run at the front of a passenger train consist behind the locomotives.

Heisler
Type of geared steam locomotive used by logging railroads. It has two cylinders arranged in a “V” connected to a driveshaft which, in turn, is connected to the trucks. See also, “Climax” and “Shay.”

Helper
The second or added locomotive on a double-header; or a locomotive cut-in to the consist or pushing on the end to assist the train up a grade.

Herald
Trademark on locomotives and freight cars.

Hertz
See “Cycles.”

Highball
To run at speed, or a sign to go ahead; so-called from old railroad ball signals which were hoisted on a pole.

High Iron
Main track on which travel is permitted only by schedule or orders; so-called because the rail used on this track is generally heavier than that used for sidings or yards.

Hi-Rail
or
Hi-Railer
Term commonly applied to toy train operators who prefer prototypical operations and a realistic operating environment on their model railroad–often including scale-proportioned and detailed locomotives, rolling stock and accessories–even though the track itself may have three rails or an unrealistically high profile.

HO Scale
Model railroad scale in the proportion of 1:87. Pronounced as “aich-oh.” Roughly half the size of O Scale, or Half-O. The most popular model railroading scale in use today.

Hog
Slang term for a locomotive; yard switchers are often referred to as “yard hogs.”

Hogger
Slang term for locomotive engineer.

Home Cars
Freight cars owned by the railroad which they are operating on.

Home Signal
The signal protecting the immediate block.

Hood Unit
A road switcher, so-called because of the construction of the locomotive, with the machinery covered by a hood rather than a full-width cab.

Hoop
A loop-type device used to pass orders up to a moving train.

Horsepower
The measuring unit of power; technically, the power necessary to continuously raise 550 pounds one foot in one second.

Hostler
An engine yard worker who performs a variety of tasks including moving locomotives about the yard or into and out of the servicing area.

Hot-box
An overheated journal or bearing on a freight car wheel, caused by a lack of lubrication.

Hot Wire
A wire connected to one of the two primary poles of a battery, transformer, or power pack which provides power to an electrical device (in conjunction with the Ground). A model train transformer may have several “Hot” poles–each providing a different voltage.

Hotel Power
The electrical power supplied to cars in a passenger train to run climate-control equipment, lighting, kitchens, and the like. The power is usually produced by AC generators or inverters run by the engine’s motive-power diesels, or by separate motors in the engines. It may also be provided by a separate generator car at the head end of a passenger train consist.

Hump
An elevated section of track from which free-wheeling freight cars can be coasted by gravity for classification in the yards below.

Hy-cube
A type of boxcar that is taller than a standard boxcar, and therefore has a higher cubic capacity.

Induction
In electricity, the process of creating an electrical field or electrical current in a body that is in proximity to, but not connected with, the generating force; the principal behind voltage reduction in a toy train transformer.

Insulating Track Pin
In model railroading, a small track-connecting pin made of a non-conductive material which substitutes for the metal pin(s) normally used to connect two track sections. Prevents the flow of electricity from one section to the next section.

Insulated Track Section
In model railroading, a modified section of toy train track in which one of the outside running rails is insulated from the metal track ties by fiber strips or some other non-conductive material, and which is further insulated from adjacent rails by insulating track pins; commonly used to operate accessories.

Insulated Track Section
In model railroading, a modified section of toy train track in which one of the outside running rails is insulated from the metal track ties by fiber strips or some other non-conductive material, and which is further insulated from adjacent rails by insulating track pins; commonly used to operate accessories.

Interchange
Junction of two railroads where cars may be transferred from one line to the other.

Interlocking
Mechanical or electrical system of signaling that assures that only one train at a time is permitted to move through a junction.

Intermodal
An inter-mixing of non-rail transportation equipment such as highway truck trailers and overseas shipping containers on railcars–often called “Piggyback” service.

Interurban
A streetcar/trolley-style car used for passenger service (sometimes including light freight and mail service, and often in multiple units) between cities and towns, as opposed to local streetcar service. The term applied to such transportation systems and service in general.

“In-the-hole”
Railroader’s term meaning a train is in a siding to meet or pass another train.

Jerry
A section hand.

Johnson Bar
The manual reversing lever on a steam locomotive (usually an older locomotive).

Journal
The load-bearing part of a railroad car axle. The weight of the axle is carried by the journal bearing, enclosed in the journal box.

Kar Trak
A system used to keep track of all railroad equipment, employing reflective identification labels on all rolling stock, trackside scanners, and computers.

Kettle
A locomotive.

King Pin
Slang term for conductor. Also Kingpin–the pivot on which a truck swivels (also known as a Center Pin).

Kit-bash
A term used to denote the making of a model railroad structure, car, etc., from parts of two or more ready-to-assemble kits.

Knuckle Coupler
Couplers on the ends of railroad cars and locomotives (standard in the U.S.) which, when viewed from above, resemble two hands with the fingers bent to grip one another.

Ladder Track
A track connecting a number of parallel sidings or stubs in a yard or terminal.

LCCA
Lionel Collectors Club of America. A national organization dedicated to the collecting of Lionel Trains. For membership information, write to: P.O. Box 479, LaSalle, IL 61301.

LCL
Less-than-carload lot. Any shipment of freight too small to fill an entire car.

Large Scale
Term commonly used to designate all model railroading scales in the nominal proportions of 1:24, 1:29, and 1:32 which operate on #1 Gauge (45mm) track. Also, the trade name applied to a line of such model train products produced by Lionel Trains. Term encompasses many of the largest of the commercially-available model railroading scales, exclusive of G Scale (1:22.5) which carries its own scale designation. See also, “G Scale.”

Layout
In model railroading, the term applied to an arrangement of tracks on a table or platform; also commonly applied to the complete assembly of tracks, accessories, and scenery. See also, “Pike.”

Lead Track
Trackage connecting a yard with the mainline.

Lichen
A moss-like plant which, when dried, preserved with glycerine, and dyed, is commonly used as a scenic decoration to simulate foliage, brush and undergrowth on model railroad layouts.

Lockon
A device used to connect wiring to tracks, especially on a three-rail model railroad. Allows the operator to directly connect wires from the transformer to the outside (ground) rail and inside (power) rail.

LOTS
Lionel Operating Train Society. A national organization for operators of Lionel Trains. For membership information, write to: Suite 1990, 7 W. 7th St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

Low Iron
Yard or siding tracks; anything not a part of the mainline.

LRRC
Lionel Railroaders Club. Organization of Lionel Electric Train enthusiasts sponsored by Lionel, LLC, manufacturer of Lionel Trains. For membership information, write to: P.O. Box 748, New Baltimore, MI 48047.

LRV (Light Rail Vehicle)
Term used to categorically identify railway equipment and systems such as trolleys and rapid transit cars–either electrically-powered or self-propelled.

Lump Oil
Coal.

Letters M-R

Main Line (Main Iron, Main Stream, etc.)
Through trackage; governed by rules and restricted to travel only by scheduled trains or trains operating with train orders.

Main Pin
Slang term for a railroad official.

Maintenance-of-Way Equipment
Machinery and rolling stock used to keep track and roadbed in good operating condition.

Mallet
An articulated steam locomotive named for the designer. The term is generally applied to any articulated steam locomotive.

Manifest
A listing or invoice-of-charge for a particular shipment of goods or materiel.

Markers
Lamps displayed on the rear of a train to indicate that the complete train has passed, or to serve as a warning to following trains.

Milk Train
A slow train.

Modular Layout/Modular Railroading
A type of model railroad layout in which the layout itself is comprised of portable modules constructed to specifications that permit each module to be joined to others, thereby creating a large layout limited only by space and number of modules available.

Mother Hubbard
A locomotive with the cab straddling the boiler like a saddle. See also “Camelback.”

MTY’s
Empty freight cars.

MU (Multiple Unit)
Cars or locomotives which contain their own power, but which can be controlled from the foremost car or locomotive; commonly used on commuter trains and diesel locomotives.

Mule
Slang term for brakeman.

Muzzle Loader
Any hand-fired steam locomotive.

N Scale
Model railroad scale in the proportion of 1:160. The second most popular (after HO Scale) of the model railroad scales in use today.

Narrow Gauge
Term designating railroad track having a rail spacing (gauge) of less than the North American standard of 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches–typically mining, industrial, and scenic railways which most commonly have rail spacing of either 3 feet or 2 feet. In model railroading, narrow gauge is designated by the modeling scale, followed by an “n” (narrow gauge), and then the modeled track gauge–for example, On3 or HOn2.

Nipper
Slang term for brakeman.

NMRA
National Model Railroad Association. A national organization dedicated to the advancement of model railroading in all scales. The organization instrumental in the establishment of standards for model railroading. For membership information, write to: 4121 Cromwell Road, Chattanooga, TN 37421.

Nose
Front end of a locomotive.

NRHS
National Railway Historical Society. Organization dedicated to the perpetuation of prototype railroad history. For information, write to: 1 Rich Court, HoHoKus, NJ 07423.

Number Grabber
A car checker.

Nut Splitter
Slang term for a machinist.

O Scale/O Gauge
Model railroad scale in the proportion of 1:48 (nominally, 1/4 inch = 1 foot); includes O scale, O gauge, O27 gauge, and On3 and On2 scale model trains and equipment. The standard track gauge for O/O27 measures 1-1/4 inches between the running rails.

Off-Line
When a railroad’s equipment that is normally limited to operation in home territory–locomotives and business cars, for example–is operated over the trackage of another railroad.

Ohm
In electricity, the fundamental unit of electrical resistance. It is a measurement which describes the resistance of a circuit to the flow of electricity passing through it. A greater number of Ohms indicates a higher resistance, or impediment, to current flow.

“On-the-Advertised”
Railroading term for running on time.

Open-top
or
Oil Can
Slang term for a tank car.

Open-top
or
Open-Grid Layout
A type of layout design which uses a wooden frame with joists, thereby allowing the roadbed to rise and fall beneath the top level of the frame by means of cross members and strips of wood called stringers.

O27 Gauge
Toy train track which has the same distance between the outside running rails as O Gauge (1-1/4 inches), but is lighter in weight, has a lower profile, and measures only 27 inches over the diameter of a full circle. Also, the term applied to O27 trains, which generally are shorter or somewhat smaller than their true O Gauge counterparts–made so to negotiate the smaller-radius curves.

OS
Means “entered on the sheet.” Often used as a verb to report that a train has passed the tower.

Paddle
A semaphore signal.

Palace
Caboose.

Pantograph
The collapsible, adjustable, “floating” structure which provides electrical contact with overhead wires on an electric locomotive, so-called for its pivoting capability.

Parallel Circuit
In electricity, a single electrical circuit serving several electrical devices (such as lamps), each of which is connected directly to both poles of the power source. All devices in the circuit will receive the full amount of electrical voltage available from the two poles. (See also Series Circuit).

Passing Siding
A siding intended specifically for passing complete trains in the same or opposite direction.

PCC Car
Abbreviation for “President’s Conference Committee” streamlined-style streetcars and interurbans produced from the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s.

Peddler
See “Way Freight.”

Phase
or
Phasing
In model railroading, the connection of two or more transformers in such a way that the continuous movement of alternating current (AC) in all of the transformers from positive to negative is identical. Two transformers that are “Out of Phase” can be corrected by rotating the wall plug of only one of them 180-degrees.

Pickup Roller
A device mounted on the underside of a toy train car or locomotive which contacts the third (center) rail to supply electrical power to the motor(s) or lamp(s).

Pier
A support for the center section of a bridge.

Piggyback
The movement of truck trailers on flat cars. See also, “Intermodal.”

Pike
A model railroad layout.

Pilot
Correct nomenclature for the guard structure at the front of a steam locomotive; often called a “cowcatcher.”

Pilot Truck
(Also lead or leading truck). The truck located in front of a steam locomotive’s drive wheels which, in addition to providing support, helps guide the engine into curves and turnouts. See also “Pony Truck.”

Plug
A small, local passenger train.

Polarity
In electricity, the condition of either positive or negative magnetic or electrical attraction which cause current to flow.

Pole
In electricity, each of the two opposing parts of a battery or other power source which exhibit attraction for each other, thus inducing a flow of electric current.

Poling
Moving cars on an adjoining track by using a long wooden spar placed in a socket on the car’s end beam and a socket on the locomotive’s pilot beam.

Pony Truck
A two-wheel pilot truck on a steam locomotive.

Pop Car
Motor car used by section gangs.

Pot
Locomotive.

Power Pack
In model railroading, normally a train control device configured to convert household AC current to low-voltage DC current which is used for the operation of most model trains that run on two-rail track.

Primary Coil
The lighter wire winding in the core of a toy train transformer that connects directly to the household electrical supply by means of a wall plug. See also, Secondary.

Prototype
The real, life-size object on which a scale model is based.

Pullman
A sleeping or parlor car operated by the Pullman Company; also commonly applied to any car of that same type.

“Rail”
Slang term for a model railroader.

Railfan
An individual who enjoys riding, watching, photographing, and reading about trains.

Rat
Slang term for a freight train.

RCS (Remote Control Section)
A special type of Lionel track used for uncoupling and unloading cars through activation of an electromagnet by remote control; replaced by the designation “UCS.”

RDC (Rail Diesel Car)
A lightweight, self-powered commuter and/or mail-carrying car often operated in multiple units; manufactured by the Budd Company.

Rectifier
In electricity, a device used to transform alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC). May be used with an AC-type transformer to power equipment which requires DC current. See also, Power Pack.

Red Ball
Fast freight train.

Red Eye
or
Red Board
A “stop” signal.

Reefer
Slang for a refrigerator car.

Reefer Block
Freight train consisting of refrigerator cars.

Relay
In electricity, an electrically-powered switch which, in turn, effects a change (activates other switches) in some other electrical circuit or circuits.

Resistor
In electricity, a device which impedes current flow, thereby reducing the voltage passing through a circuit; resistance is measured in ohms.

Restricted Track
A track section where train speeds are reduced by orders, often temporarily.

Retarder
A device used for decreasing speed; often used in hump yards to control the rate at which cars roll down the hump and into the classification tracks.

Rheostat
In electricity, a device for adjusting the amount of resistance in an electrical circuit, thereby varying the amount of voltage produced in that circuit.

Right-of-Way
The track, roadbed, and property alongside which is owned by the railroad.

Ringmaster
Slang term for yardmaster.

Rip Track
Track in a yard where equipment is stored while awaiting repairs, or where minor car repairs are performed.

Road Railer
A specially designed over-the-road truck trailer having a set of steel railcar-style wheels which can be lowered for running on train tracks or designed to rest on a two-axle bogie similar to a freight car truck. The front end of the trailer is supported by being hitched to the back of the one in front–literally making a train of truck trailers.

Roadbed
The surface upon which track is laid. This surface is usually raised above ground level by rocks topped with wooden or concrete ties, upon which the tracks are laid and then ballasted.

Road Engine
Locomotive used regularly for mainline passenger or freight service.

Rolling Stock
Non-powered freight and passenger cars which are pulled by a locomotive.

Roundhouse
A circular (usually) structure meant to house locomotives during servicing. The roundhouse customarily faced a turntable which was used to direct a locomotive onto and off of one of the roundhouse tracks.

RPO
Railway Post Office car. Once a common addition to passenger trains.

Runaround
A railroad switching maneuver in which the locomotive uncouples from its train, pulls ahead, backs past on an adjacent track, and moves forward to couple onto the rear of the train. Also, the track where such movements take place.

Running Board
The narrow walkway alongside the boiler of a steam engine.

Running Rails
The two outside rails of track upon which support the wheels of a locomotive or train car.

Letters S-Z

S Scale
Model railroad scale in the proportion of 1:64. Popularized by A. C. Gilbert’s American Flyer electric trains in the 1940s through the 1960s. Today, American Flyer trains continue to be produced on a limited basis by Lionel, LLC.

Sand Dome
A dome-shaped receptacle on top of a steam locomotive’s boiler; filled with sand for distribution to the rails as needed to provide greater traction for the engine’s drive wheels.

Saw-by
A maneuver in which two trains can meet and pass at a siding which is too short to hold the complete length of either train.

Scale
The ratio in size between a model and its prototype, expressed as a fraction or a proportion (for example1/48 or 1:48 for O Scale).

Schedule
That portion of a timetable that lists the class, direction, number, and movement of regular trains.

Scenicking
Slang term for the application of scenery materials of various types to a model railroad layout.

Scratch-building
In model railroading, the act of constructing scenery, buildings, rolling stock, or locomotives from raw materials by hand, rather than from a ready-to-assemble kit.

Secondary Coil
In electricity, the heavier wire winding within the core of a transformer that produces reduced voltage and which connects directly (in model railroading) to the track and accessories. See also, Primary.

Second Section
A train–usually passenger–run with the same number or name as a preceding train on the same day.

Section Hand
Track worker.

Sectional Track
In model railroading, pieces of track in any scale or gauge manufactured to specific geometric proportions, which can then be joined together in straight lines, curves, and circles.

Sectional Layout
A type of model railroad layout made up of various smaller sections that are joined together to form the larger layout; designed this way so the layout can be disassembled and/or moved without destroying any major components.

Semaphore
A trackside signal which uses a movable arm to convey track occupancy information to the train crew.

Series Circuit
In electricity, an electrical circuit serving several devices (such as lamps) wherein the current passes from one pole of the power source through each device in succession before reaching the other pole. In this type of circuit, each lamp receives only a portion of the total voltage available at the source. For example, if there are two lamps, each receives half the power; if there are three lamps, each receives one-third the power; etc. See also, Parallel.

Service Track
Track on which engines take on coal, water, and sand, as necessary.

Shanty
Slang term for a caboose.

Shay
A gear-driven steam locomotive used extensively in logging and mining operations. It has three cylinders mounted vertically on the right side of the boiler driving a crankshaft geared to all axles–sometimes including the tender’s axles, when present.

Shoo-fly
Temporary track laid around an obstruction while the primary track is under repair or being replaced.

Short Line
A small railroad, generally Class II (revenues less than $5 million per year).

Shuffle
To switch cars.

Shunt
To “shift” or “drill” cars to another path.

Side Bay
or Bay Window Caboose
A caboose with bay windows in the sides instead of a cupola on the roof.

Siding
A section of track accessed off the mainline by means of a turnout. A dead-end siding connected to the mainline by a turnout at one end only is called a “spur.” A siding connected by turnouts at both ends is called a “Passing Siding.”

Skunk
Slang term for a call boy.

Slip Switch
A piece of trackwork that combines a crossing and four turnouts to permit trains to move from one track to the other or to stay on the same track.

Slug
A motive unit with no diesel engines of its own; draws power for its traction motors from an attached regular diesel engine–a combination used primarily for heavy freight yard work.

Smoke Box
Cylindrical section at the head end of the boiler, beneath the stack.

Smokejack
a chimney on a car or building.

Snowshed
Structure built over the track in mountainous areas to protect the track from snow and avalanches.

Spacer Car
Empty cars (most commonly gondolas) placed at both ends of a car carrying an extra-heavy load for the purpose of distributing the train’s weight over bridge spans.

Spar
The wooden rod used in polling operations.

Spike
A nail-like device with a large, offset head that is driven into ties to anchor rail in place and to maintain proper track alignment.

Spine
Articulated intermodal car sets with separate load-bearing units resting on common trucks and having a body consisting solely of a steel center beam with hitches and truck trailer wheel supports.

Spotting
Placing cars in a desired location; shifting.

Spur
A divergent track (siding) having only one point of entry; a branch line over which irregular service is offered.

Standard Gauge
In model railroading, toy trains larger than O gauge that operate on track measuring 2-1/8 inches between the running rails. Standard Gauge products were introduced by the Lionel Corporation in 1906 and were commonly produced by Lionel and others up until the start of World War II. In prototype railroading in the U.S. (and in some other countries), track measuring 4 feet, 8-1/2 inches between the inside edges of the running rails.

Station, Way
A small station with a passing siding only.

Steam Chest
Box containing the valve mechanism for the cylinders of a steam locomotive.

Stinger
A trainman.

Stoker
An automatic firing device which feeds fuel to the engine. Slang term for a fireman.

Stub
A short diverging track (siding) ending in a bumper. A stub has a turnout only at one end.

Superelevation
the slight raising of the outer rail on a curve; banking.

Switcher (also Shifter)
An engine primarily used to move and position cars on different tracks, such as in a yard.

Tallow Pot
Slang term for locomotive fireman.

Tangent
Straight track.

Tank Engine
Steam locomotive that carries its fuel and water supplies in tanks hung over or placed alongside the boiler, or on a frame extension (bunker) at the rear, instead of in a tender.

TCA
Train Collector’s Association. National organization dedicated to the advancement of the collecting and operating of toy trains of all eras. For membership information, write to: P.O. Box 248, Strasburg, PA 17579.

Tea Kettle
Slang term for an old locomotive, especially a leaky steam locomotive.

Telltale
A curtain-like signal consisting of lengths of chain or free-swinging rods suspended over the tracks to warn workers on the top of moving cars of an approaching low clearance such as a bridge or a tunnel entrance.

Tender
The car immediately behind a steam locomotive which is used to store the water and fuel (wood, coal, or oil) needed for the locomotive’s operation.

Terminal
Principal point of origination or termination of trains for one or more railroads; generally located in or near major cities. Includes any station structure, turnouts, towers, associated buildings, and other equipment.

Third Rail
The center rail on Lionel-type toy train track. On prototype electric, subway, and even some scale model railroads, a third rail for electric current pickup may be located outside one of the running rails.

Throat
The entrance tracks to a terminal or yard.

Throttle
The speed control on a locomotive. In model railroading, a rheostat generally functions as the throttle by controlling the voltage which reaches the track.

Tie
A supporting cross piece–usually of wood or concrete on prototype railroads–that holds the rails of railroad track the proper distance apart (Gauge) and in proper alignment.

Tie Plate
The steel shoes in which the rails sit when they are spiked to wooden ties.

Timetable
A printed schedule of regular train movements.

Tin-Litho
Tinplate sheets which have been decorated by a printing process known as lithography. A process commonly used in the construction of toy trains in the period before World War II.

Tinplate
Stamped-steel (usually) surfaces which have been coated with a layer of tin to prevent rust and corrosion. Most toy train track is tinplated, and this term has, by extension, commonly been used to refer to all toy trains and their operators (“Tinplaters”).

Toe Boards
Running boards on the roof of a railroad car.

TOFC
Trailer-on-flatcar. (Intermodal service.)

Ton-mile
One ton of freight transported one mile.

Track Clips
Devices used to attach two ties of adjoining track sections together in a toy train layout. These are used to fasten track sections together in temporary layouts.

Track Pin
In model railroading, a short metal electrically-conductive rod that is inserted into the ends of toy train track to connect adjacent sections.

Traction
In the context of rail transportation and associated modeling, a term generally used to connote electric trolley, streetcar, and interurban lines and equipment.

Tractive Effort
The force which a locomotive can pull under controlled conditions.

Trailing Switch
A turnout or switch whose points face away from oncoming traffic.

Trailing Truck
A two- or four-wheeled truck located behind a steam locomotive’s driver wheels which helps support the rear of the engine.

Train Order
A written order on a form which gives directions for train movements that are not on the schedule. Train orders are usually issued by the dispatcher.

Trainmaster
An employee who coordinates the work of the yardmaster and the roundhouse foreman; he reports directly to the superintendent.

Train Set (also Trainset)
In real railroading, the term applied to a passenger train consist–often including the engine(s)–which customarily is not broken up except for special work on a component. In model railroading, a set of equipment usually consisting, at minimum, of a locomotive, cars, track, and transformer of power pack.

Transfer Table
A laterally-moving geared set of rails used to move a locomotive or cars from one track to another. Typically used in engine service facilities which have a rectangular engine house or shops rather than a roundhouse.

Transformer
A device for changing ( transforming) high-voltage Alternating Current (AC) into low-voltage AC.

Transition Curve
A section of track with a gradually diminishing radius between the straight track and the circular portion of the curve.

Trestle
A wooden bridge-like structure usually having all supporting members below the railway tracks.

Truss Bridge
Railroad bridges of various designs principally supported by a structure comprised of rigid steel beams.

TT Scale
Model railroad scale in the proportion of 1:120. Early competitor to HO scale and still being manufactured in limited numbers, but no longer considered a major force in scale model railroading.

TTOS
Toy Train Operating Society. National organization dedicated to promoting the collecting and operating of toy trains of all types. For membership information, write to: 25 W. Walnut St., Pasadena, CA 91103.

T.T.U.X. (also T.T.A.X.)
Nomenclature used to identify “Trailer Train” intermodal cars specially designed for transport of shipping containers and/or truck trailers by rail. The acronym, TTX, is sometimes used in reference to rail intermodal service, facilities, and operations in general.

Trolley
Name commonly given to a streetcar which receives its power from overhead electric lines. Also, the name of the pole-like device used to collect and transfer electricity from the overhead lines into the streetcar itself.

Trucks
The wheels, axles, and related assemblies on railroad rolling stock.

Turbine Locomotive
One with power supplied by a steam turbine.

Turnout
Generally regarded as the correct nomenclature for a track switch–a device configured with movable rails which allow a train to enter an alternate route.

Turntable
A large, pivoted circular apparatus which rotates in a pit and is used to turn locomotives around, or to position them for movement to a different track.

Uncoupling Track
Special section of track in tinplate railroading used to activate couplers by means of a brief electromagnetic charge sent from the transformer.

Unit Train
A consist of freight cars, usually dedicated to a single commodity and/or origin and destination, which customarily is not broken-up except for special maintenance work on a component. (For passenger trains, see “Train Set.”)

USRA
United States Railway Administration. The federal agency established during World War I to manage and coordinate the nation’s railroad industry. Subsequently, most commonly associated with the design of a variety of standardized steam locomotives produced during and after that period.

Vanderbilt Tender
A steam locomotive tender with a distinctive, rounded, tank-style compartment behind a squared-off front portion.

Variable Voltage Post
In model railroading, the terminal post on a transformer that is connected internally to a rheostat and which provides different amounts of voltage output according to the positioning of a movable control handle.

Varnish
A passenger train (wooden passenger coaches used to be given a glossy coat of varnish).

Vestibule
The enclosed area at the end of a passenger car where the side doors are located. Also, a closed cab on steam locomotives to protect the engineer and fireman from inclement weather.

Volt
A unit of electrical measurement which determines the level of force or pressure behind an electrical current. The greater the voltage, the more powerful the current. Specifically, it is the amount of pressure that will cause one ampere of current to flow through one ohm of resistance.

Washout
A “stop” signal. Also, track ballast washed away by water action.

Water Bottle
Slang term for a water-filled tank car placed directly behind a steam locomotive’s tender as an extra source of water for the locomotive’s boiler in the event that water is scarce along a given stretch of track.

Water Column
A standpipe adjacent to the track and connected to a water supply for filling steam locomotive tenders.

Watt
The unit of electrical energy expended in powering a device. This term is used to illustrate the top power capacity of an electrical device such as a transformer or light bulb.

Waybill
Freight car handling order identifying the shipper, receiver, routing, and contents of the car.

Way Car
A freight car carrying local shipments.

Way Freight
A freight train making all local stops for which shipments are carried.

Wells
Intermodal cars having a full depressed pocket between the wheels to hold shipping containers–primarily designed for double-stack service.

Whyte Classification System
The numbering system used to describe various types of steam engines by their wheel arrangement. The system uses three numbers: one for the number of wheels on the pilot; one for the number of drive wheels; and one for the number of wheels on the trailing truck. For example: 2-6-4 indicates two pilot wheels; six drive wheels; and four trailing-truck wheels.

Wildcat
A runaway locomotive.

Wire Tapper
A telegraph operator.

Worm Gear
A gear with slightly slanted teeth which are designed to meash with a “worm.” In model railroading, the worm gear is usually mounted on the driving axle.

Wye (sometimes given as “Y”)
A track system comprised of three switches and three long legs of track which enables an entire train to turn around as a unit.

Yard Geese
Workers in a yard; switchmen.

Yard Goat
A switching locomotive.

Yardmaster
Railroad employee in charge of yard operations.

Yellow Eye
“Proceed with caution” signal.

[posted by tio cuervo     all rights revert to original holders     August 30th, 2009]

[For the sake of online information redundancy, I have taken the liberty of reproducing the following 1945 RR lexicon from the end of the last steam age -- the original may be viewed at:

http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/glossry1.Html

[ -- OUC]

This Glossary of Railroad Lingo is from:
Railroad Avenue, by Freeman H. Hubbard, 1945
* Designates Contributed by BW Allen…BNSF Locomotive Engineer
# Designates Contributed by FW Smoter…Web Master Johnstown Flood Page

AGE—Seniority, length of service

AIR MONKEY—Air-brake repairman

* ALL DARKIE, NO SPARKY—(Hi-Ball on a roll by)

ALLEY—Clear track in railroad yard

ANCHOR THEM—Set hand brakes on still cars; the opposite is release anchors

ARMSTRONG—Old-style equipment operated by muscular effort, such as hand-brakes, some turntables, engines without automatic stokers, etc.

ARTIST—Man who is particularly adept, usually with prefix such as brake, pin, speed, etc.

ASHCAT—Locomotive fireman

BACK TO THE FARM—Laid off on account of slack business. When a man is discharged he is given six months twice a year

BAD ORDER—Crippled car or locomotive, often called cripple. Must be marked at night by a blue light when men are working around it

BAIL IT IN—Feed the locomotive firebox

BAKE HEAD—Locomotive fireman. Also called bell ringer, blackie, and many other names scattered throughout this glossary

BALING-WIRE MECHANIC—A man of little mechanical ability

BALL OF FIRE—Fast run

BALLAST—Turkey or chicken dressing

BALLAST SCORCHER—Speedy engineer

BAND WAGON—Pay car or pay train from which wages were handed out to railroad employees

BANJO—Fireman’s shovel; old-style banjo-shaped signal

BAREFOOT—Car or engine without brakes. (Many locomotives built in the 1860′s and 1870′s were not equipped with brakes except on the tank)

BARN—Locomotive roundhouse, so-called from the building in which streetcars are housed

BAT THE STACK OFF OF HER—Make fast time, work an engine at full stroke

BATTING ‘EM OUT—Used generally by switchmen when a yard engine is switching a string of cars

BATTLESHIP—Large freight engine or interurban car, or a coal car. Also a formidable female, such as the landlady or a henpecked man’s wife

BEANERY—Railroad eating house. Beanery queen is a waitress

BEANS—Meet orders; lunch period

BEAT ‘ER ON THE BACK—Make fast time; work an engine at full stroke

BEEHIVE—Railroad yard office

BELL RINGER—Locomotive fireman

BEND THE IRON—Change the position of the rust a switch. Also called bend or bend the rail

BIG BOYS—Special trains for officials

BIG E—Engineer, so called from the large initial on membership buttons of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

BIG FOUR—The four operating Brotherhoods: Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Order of Railway Conductors, Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, and Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers

BIG HOLE—Emergency application of air-brake valve, causing a quick stop. Big-holing her, the same as wiping the clock, is making an emergency stop

BIG HOOK—Wrecking crane

BIG O—Conductor; so named from first initial in Order of Railway Conductors. Sometimes called big ox and less complimentary terms

BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAINS—Hobo’s paradise, as described in song by Harry K. McClintock. (See Indian Valley Line)

BINDERS—Hand brakes

BINDLE STIFF or BLANKET STIFF—Hobo who totes a blanket and uses it wherever night finds him. (Bindle is a corruption of “bundle”)

BIRD CAGE—Brakeman’s or switchman’s lantern

BLACK DIAMONDS—Company coal. Diamond cracker is a locomotive fireman

BLACK HOLE—Tunnel

BLACK ONES—Railway Express refrigerator or boxcars having no interior illumination pressed into mail service during the Christmas rush

BLACK SNAKE—Solid train of loaded coal cars

BLACKBALLED—black-listed, boycotted

BLACKJACKS—Fifty-ton Santa Fe coal cars painted black

BLAZER—Hot journal with packings afire

BLEED—Drain air from. Bleeder is valve by which air is bled from auxiliary reservoir of a car

BLIND BAGGAGE—Hobo riding head end of baggage car next to tender, where no door is placed; commonly called riding the blinds

BLIZZARD LIGHTS—Originally the lights on either side of the headlight that served in emergency when the oil-burning headlight blew out. Now they indicate the train is nonschedule or extra

BLOOD—Old-time engine built by Manchester Locomotive Works. Mr. Aretas Blood being the builder’s name

BLOW ‘ER DOWN—Reduce water in a locomotive boiler when carrying too much

BLOW SMOKE—Brag

BLOW UP—Use the blower to increase draft on the fire and thereby raise the steam pressure in the boiler. Also quit a job suddenly

‘BO—Hobo. ‘Bo chaser is freight brakeman or railroad policeman

BOARD—Fixed signal regulating railroad traffic, usually referred to as slow board., order board., clear board (for clear tracks) or red board (stop). Do not confuse this with extra board or spare board, colloquially known as slow board or starvation list, usually containing names of qualified train or enginemen not in regular active service who are called to work in emergencies. These names are listed in order of seniority, the man hired most recently being the last one called to service

BOBTAIL—Switch engine

BOILER ASCENSION—Boiler explosion

BOILER HEADER—Man riding in engine cab

BOILER WASH—A high-water engineer

BOOK OF RULES—Examination based on facts in rulebook

BOOKKEEPER—Trainman who makes out reports; flagman

BOOTLEGGER—Train that runs over more than one railroad

BOOMER—Drifter who went from one railroad job to another, staying but a short time on each job or each road. This term dates back to pioneer days when men followed boom camps. The opposite is home guard. Boomers should not be confused with tramps, although they occasionally became tramps. Boomers were railroad workers often in big demand because of their wide experience, sometimes blackballed because their tenure of stay was uncertain. Their common practice was to follow the “rushes”-that is, to apply for seasonal jobs when and where they were most needed, when the movement of strawberry crops, watermelons, grain, etc., was making the railroads temporarily short-handed. There are virtually no boomers in North America today. When men are needed for seasonal jobs they are called from the extra board

BOUNCER—Caboose

BOWLING ALLEY—Hand-fired coal-burning locomotive. (A fireman throwing in the lumps of coal goes through motions that resemble bowling)

BOXCAR TOURIST—Hobo

BRAIN PLATE—Trainman’s cap or hat badge

BRAINS or THE BRAINS—Conductor; sometimes called brainless wonder, a term also applied to any train or engineman or official who does things his fellows consider queer

BRAKE CLUB—Three-foot hickory stick used by freight trainmen to tighten hand brakes. Sometimes called sap or staff of ignorance

BRASS—A babbitt-lined blank of bronze that forms the bearing upon which the car rests. To brass a car is to replace one of those bearings

BRASS BUTTONS—Passenger conductor on railroad or streetcar line

BRASS COLLAR or BRASS HAT—Railroad official. Term may have originated from gold-braided collar of conductor’s uniform and brass plate on his cap

BRASS POUNDER—Telegraph operator

BREEZE—Service air

BRIDGE HOG—Bridge and building carpenter of the old school antedating steel and concrete

BROKEN KNUCKLES—Railroad sleeping quarters

BROWNIES—Demerits. This system is traced back to George R. Brown, general superintendent of the Fall Brook Railway (now part of the New York Central) in 1885. He thought the then current practice of suspending men for breaking rules was unfair to their families and substituted a system of demerit marks. Too many demerits in a given period resulted in dismissal. The Brown system, with many variations, has since been widely adopted by the railroad industry. A superintendent’s private car is called brownie box or brownie wagon

BUCK THE BOARD—Working the extra board. (See board)

BUCKLE THE RUBBERS—Connect air, steam, or signal hose

BUG—Telegraph instrument or trainman’s or switchman’s light, which is also called bug torch. Bug may also be a three-wheeled electric truck that carries mail and baggage around terminals

BUG LINE—Telephone connection between engine house and yard or telegraph office

BUG SLINGER—Switchman or brakeman

BUGGY—Caboose; rarely applied to other cars

BULL—Railroad policeman. Also called flatfoot or gumshoe, but the distinctive railroad terms are cinder dick and ‘bo chaser

BULL PEN—Crew room

BULLGINE—Steam locomotive

BULLNOSE—Front drawbar of a locomotive

BUMP—Obtain another man’s position by exercising seniority. When a crew is deprived of its assignment, as when a train is removed from the timetable, its members select the jobs they wish from those held by others with less whiskers

BUMPER—Post at end of spur track, placed there to stop rolling stock from running onto the ground

BUNCH OF THIEVES—Wrecking crew

BUST UP A CUT—To separate the cars in a train, removing some that have reached their destination, assigning others to through trains, etc.

BUTTERFLY—Note thrown (or handed) from train by an official to a section foreman or other employee, so called because it may flutter along the track, although it is usually weighted down when thrown from a car

BUZZARDS’ ROOST—Yard office

CABOOSE BOUNCE, CABOOSE HOP—Early term for a train composed only of an engine and caboose

CAGE—Caboose

CALLER—One whose duty is to summon train or engine crews or announce trains

CALLIOPE—Steam locomotive

CAMEL or CAMELBACK—Engine with control cab built over middle of boiler, suggesting camel’s hump. Also called Mother Hubbard type

CAN—Tank car

CANNED—Taken out of service

CAPTAIN—Conductor; often called skipper. This title dates from Civil War days when some railroads were run by the Army and the conductor was in many cases a captain

CAR-CATCHER—Rear brakeman

CAR KNOCKER—Car inspector or car repairer-from the early custom of tapping the wheels to detect flaws. Also called car whacker; and car toad (because he squats while inspecting), car tink, and car tonk

CAR-SEAL HAWK—Railroad policeman

CARD—Credentials showing Brotherhood or Union membership

CARHOUSE CAR—Covered cement car

CARRY A WHITE FEATHER—Show a plume of steam over the safety valves of the engine

CARRYING GREEN—Train whose engine displays green flags by day or green lights by night to indicate that a second section is following closely. Carrying white in the same manner signifies an extra train

CARRYING THE BANNER—Flagging. Also wearing ostentatious Brotherhood emblems, frequently done by ‘bos in working the main stem for a handout

CARRYING THE MAIL—Bringing train orders

CASEY JONES—Any locomotive engineer, especially a fast one. Name derived from John Luther (Casey) Jones

CATWALK—Plank walk on top of boxcars; sometimes called the deck from which comes the word deckorate

CHAIN GANG—Crew assigned to pool service, working first in, first out

CHAMBERMAID—Machinist in roundhouse

CHARIOT—Caboose, or general manager’s car

CHASING THE RED—Flagman going back with red flag or light to protect his train

CHECKER—A company spy, particularly one checking up on loss of materials or of the receipts of an agent or conductor

CHERRY PICKER—Switchman, so called because of red lights on switch stands. Also any railroad man who is always figuring on the best jobs and sidestepping undesirable ones (based on the old allusion, “Life is a bowl of cherries”)

CHEW CINDERS—Engines do this when reversed while running and while working quite a bit of steam

CHIP PIES—Narrow-gauge cars

CINDER CRUNCHER—Switchman or flagman. Cinder skipper is yard clerk

CINDER DICK—Railroad policeman or detective

CINDER SNAPPER—Passenger who rides open platforms on observation car

CIRCUS—Railroad

CLAW—Clinker hook used by fireman

CLEARANCE CARD—Authority to use main line

CLOCK—Steam gauge. (See wiping the clock; don’t confuse with Dutch clock). Also fare register

CLOWN—Switchman or yard brakeman. Clown wagon is caboose

CLUB—Same as brake club. Club winder is switchman or brakeman. A brakeman’s club was usually his only weapon of defense against hoboes

COAL HEAVER—Fireman, sometimes called stoker

COCK-LOFT—Cupola of a caboose. Also called crow’s nest

COFFEE—Respite period enjoyed by baggagemen while awaiting arrival of the next train. Also called spot

COFFEEPOT—Little, old, steam locomotive

COLLAR AND ELBOW JOINT—Boardinghouse. (There isn’t too much room at dinner table)

COLOR-BLIND—Employee who can’t distinguish between his own money and the company’s

COMPANY BIBLE—Book of rules

COMPANY JEWELRY—Trainman’s hat, badge, and switch keys

COMPANY NOTCH or WALL STREET NOTCH—Forward corner of the reverse gear quadrant. It is called the company notch because an engine exerts full pulling power when worked with a full stroke

CONDUCER—Conductor

CONSIST—Contents or equipment of a train. Report form sent ahead so yardmaster can make plans for switching the train. The report is usually dropped off to an operator; this is dropping the consist

COOL A SPINDLE—Cool a hotbox by replacing the brass or putting water on the bearing

COON IT—Crawl

CORNERED—When a car, not in the clear on a siding, is struck by a train or engine

CORNFIELD MEET—Head-on collision or one that is narrowly averted

COULDN’T PULL A SETTING HEN OFF HER NEST—Derogatory description of old-fashioned locomotive

COUNTING THE TIES—Reducing speed

COW CAGE—Stock car. Also called cow crate

COWCATCHER—Pilot. The old term was discarded by railroad officials, probably because it was a butt for jokesters. You’ve often heard about the passenger on a slow local train complaining to the conductor, “I don’t understand why you have the cowcatcher on the front of the engine. This train can never overtake a cow. But if you’d attach it to the rear of the train it might at least discourage cows from climbing into the last car and annoying the passengers”

CRADLE—Gondola or other open-top car

CRIB—Caboose

CRIPPLE—See bad order

CROAKER—Company doctor

CROWNING HIM—Coupling a caboose on a freight train when it is made up

CRUMB BOSS—Man in charge of camp cars

CRUMMY—Caboose. Also called crum box, crib and many other names. Innumerable poems have been written about “the little red caboose behind the train”

CUPOLA—Observation tower on caboose

CUSHIONS—Passenger cars. Cushion rider may be either a passenger or member of passenger-train crew. (See varnished cars)

CUT—Several cars attached to an engine or coupled together by themselves. Also that part of the right-of-way which is excavated out of a hill or mountain instead of running up over it or being tunneled through it

CUT THE BOARD—Lay off the most recently hired men on the extra list. (See board)

DANCING ON THE CARPET—Called to an official’s office for investigation or discipline

DEADBEAT— is defined by Webster as “one who persistently fails to pay his debts or way.” The word was coined in the late 1800′s when railroad workers noticed that loaded freight cars made a different beat over the track-joints than cars that weren’t carrying a load. The empty cars made a “dead beat” which meant they weren’t paying their way. By the beginning of the 20th century “deadbeat” came to encompassed people who failed to carry their share of the load also.

DEAD IRON and LIVE IRON—The two sets of tracks on a scale

DEAD MAN’S HOLE—Method of righting an overturned engine or car. A six-foot hole is dug about forty feet from the engine or car, long enough to hold a large solid-oak plank. A trench is then dug up to the engine and heavy ropes laid in it, with a four-sheave block, or pulley, at the lower end of the engine and a three-sheave block at the top of the boiler. Chains are fastened to the underside of the engine and hooked to the three-sheave block. The free end of the rope is then hooked to the drawbar of a road engine. The hole is filled-packed hard to hold the “dead man” down against the coming pull. When the engine moves up the track she pulls ropes over the top of the boiler of the overturned locomotive on the chains that are fastened to the lower part, rolling the engine over sidewise and onto her wheels again

DEAD MAN’S THROTTLE—Throttle that requires pressure of operator’s hand or foot to prevent power shut-off and application of brakes. An engine so equipped would stop instantly if the operator fell dead. Also called dead man’s button

DEADHEAD—Employee riding on a pass; any nonpaying passenger. Also fireman’s derisive term for head brakeman who rides engine cab. Also a locomotive being hauled “dead” on a train

DECK—Front part of engine cab. Also catwalk on roofs of boxcars

DECKORATE—Get out on top of freight cars to set hand brakes or receive or transmit signals. Derived from deck

DEHORNED—Demoted or discharged

DETAINER or DELAYER—Train dispatcher

DIAMOND—Railroad crossover. Black diamonds is coal

DIAMOND CRACKER or DIAMOND PUSHER—Locomotive fireman

* DICK SCRATCHER—Dispatcher

DIE GAME—Stall on a hill

DING-DONG—Gas or gas-electric coach, usually used on small roads or branch lines not important enough to support regular trains; name derived from sound of its bell. Sometimes called doodlebug

DINGER—Conductor (man who rings the bell)

DINKY—Switch engine without tender, used around back shop and roundhouse, or any small locomotive. Alsoa four-wheel trolleycar

DIPLOMA—Clearance or service letter; fake service letter

DIRTY CAR—Storage car containing a varied assortment of mail and parcels that demand extra work in separating

DISHWASHERS—Engine wipers at roundhouse

DITCH—That part of the right-of-way that is lower than the roadbed. A derailed train is “in the ditch”

DOGCATCHERS—Crew sent out to relieve another that has been outlawed-that is, overtaken on the road by the sixteen-hour law, which is variously known as dog law, hog law, and pure-food law

DOGHOUSE—Caboose or its cupola

DONEGAN—Old car, with wheels removed, used as residence or office. Originated about 1900, when a Jersey Central carpenter and two foremen, all named Donegan, occupied three shacks in the same vicinity. People were directed to the Donegans so often that the shacks themselves came to be known by that name. The name stuck, even after the men had passed on and the shacks had been replaced by converted old cars

DONKEY—Derisive term for section man; small auxiliary engine

DOODLEBUG—Rail motorcar used by section men, linemen, etc. Also called ding dong

DOPE—Order, official instructions, explanation. Also a composition for cooling hot journals

DOPE IT—Use compound in the water to keep it from boiling when working an engine hard

DOPE MONKEY—Car inspector

DOUBLE—In going up a hill, to cut the train in half and take each section up separately

DOUBLE-HEADER—Train hauled by two engines

DOUSE THE GLIM—Extinguish a lantern, especially by a sudden upward movement

DRAG—Heavy train of “dead” freight; any slow freight train, as contrasted with manifest or hotshot

DRAWBAR FLAGGING—Flagman leaning against the drawbar on the caboose, or standing near the caboose, to protect the rear end of his train, instead of going back “a sufficient distance” as rules require. Such a man is taking a chance, due maybe to laziness, exhaustion, severe cold, fear of the train leaving without him, etc.

DRIFTING THROTTLE—Running with steam throttle cracked open to keep air and dust from being sucked into steam cylinders

DRILL CREW—Yard crew. (See yard)

DRINK—Water for locomotive

DRONE CAGE—Private car

DROP—Switching movement in which cars are cut off from an engine and allowed to coast to their places. (See hump)

DROP A LITTLE RUN-FAST—Oil the engine

DROP ‘ER DOWN—Pull reverse lever forward. Drop ‘er in the corner means to make fast time, figuratively dropping the Johnson bar in one corner of the cab

DROPPER—Switchman riding a car on a hump

DROWNING IT OUT—Cooling an overheated journal

DRUMMER—Yard conductor

DRUNKARD—Late Saturday-night passenger train

DUCATS—Passenger conductor’s hat checks

DUDE—Passenger conductor

DUDE WRANGLER—Passenger brakeman

DUMMY—Employees’ train. Dummy locomotive is a switcher type having the boiler and running gear entirely housed, used occasionally for service in public streets

DUST-RAISER—Fireman (shoveling coal into firebox)

DUSTING HER OUT—Putting sand through the firedoor of an oil burner while working the engine hard; this cuts out the soot in the flues and makes the locomotive steam. Also known as giving the old girl a dose of salts

DUTCH CLOCK—Speed recorder

DUTCH DROP—Rarely used method of bringing a car onto the main line from a spur. The engine heads into the spur, couples head-on to the car, and backs out. When the car is moving fast enough the engine is cut off, speeds up to get back on the main line before the car, then moves forward ahead of the junction between the main line and the spur so the car rolls out behind the engine

DYNAMITER—Car on which defective mechanism sends the brakes into full emergency when only a service application is made by the engineer. Also, a quick-action triple valve

EAGLE-EYE—Locomotive engineer

EASY SIGN—Signal indicating the train is to move slowly

END MAN—Rear brakeman on freight train

ELECTRIC OWL—Night operator

ELEPHANT CAR—Special car coupled behind locomotive to accommodate head brakeman

EXTRA BOARD—See board

EYE—Trackside signal

FAMILY DISTURBER—Pay car or pay train

FAN—Blower on a locomotive boiler

FIELD—Classification yard

FIELDER or FIELD MAN—Yard brakeman

FIGUREHEAD—Timekeeper

FIRE BOY—Locomotive fireman

FIRST READER—Conductor’s train book

FISH WAGON—Gas-electric car or other motorcar equipped with an air horn (which sounds like a fishmonger’s horn)

FISHTAIL—Semaphore blade, so called from its peculiar shape

FIST—Telegraph operator’s handwriting. This script, in the days before telephones, typewriters, and teletypes, was characterized by its swiftness, its bold flowing curves which connected one word with another, and its legibility. Ops were proud of their penmanship

FIXED MAN—Switchman in a hump yard assigned to one certain post from which he rides cars being humped

FIXED SIGNAL—Derisive term for a student brakeman standing on a boxcar with his lamp out and a cinder in his eye

FLAG—Assumed name. Many a boomer worked under a flag when his own name was black-listed

FLAT—Flatcar. Also called car with the top blowed off

FLAT WHEEL—Car wheel that has flat spots on the tread. Also applied to an employee who limps

FLIMSY—Train order. (Standard practice is to issue these on tissue paper to facilitate the making of carbon copies)

FLIP—To board a moving train. The word accurately suggests the motion used

FLOATER—Same as boomer

FLY LIGHT—Miss a meal. Boomers often did that; hoboes still do

FLYING SWITCH—Switching technique in which the engine pulls away from a car or cars she has started rolling, permitting them to be switched onto a track other than that taken by the engine. The switch is thrown instantly after the engine has passed it and just before the cars reach it. This procedure, common in bygone days, is now frowned upon by officials

FOG—Steam

FOOTBOARD—The step on the rear and front ends of switch or freight engines. Many casualties were caused in the “good old days” by switchmen missing these steps on dark slippery nights

FOOTBOARD YARD MASTER—Conductor who acts as yardmaster in a small yard

FOREIGN CAR—Car running over any railroad other than one that owns it

FOUNTAIN—That part of a locomotive where steam issues from the boiler and flows into pipes for lubrication, injection, etc.

FREEZE A HOB or A BLAZER—Cool a heated journal

FREEZER—Refrigerator car. Also reefer or riff

FROG—Implement for rerailing cars or engines. Also an X-shaped plate where two tracks cross

FUSEE—Red flare used for flagging purposes. Its sharp point is driven into the right-of-way and no following train may pass as long as it is burning, although on some roads it is permissible to stop, extinguish the fusee, and proceed with caution in automatic block-signal limits

GALLOPER—Locomotive, the iron horse

GALLOPING GOOSE—A shaky section car

GALVANIZER—Car inspector

GANDY DANCER—Track laborer. Name may have originated from the gander-like tremulations of a man tamping ties, or from the old Gandy Manufacturing Company of Chicago, which made tamping bars, claw bars, picks, and shovels

GANGWAY—Space between the rear cab post of a locomotive and her tender

GARDEN—See yard

GAS HOUSE—Yard office

GATE—Switch

GAY CAT—Tramp held in contempt by fellow vagrants because he is willing to work if a job comes along

GENERAL—Yardmaster, abbreviated Y.M.

GET THE ROCKING CHAIR—Retire on a pension

GET YOUR HEAD CUT IN—Boomer slang for “wise up”

GIRL or OLD GIRL—Affectionate term for steam engine. The locomotive, like the sailing ship, is often called “she” instead of “it”

GIVE HER THE GRIT—Use sand

GLASS CARS—Passenger cars

GLIM—Switchman’s or trainman’s lantern

GLIMMER—Locomotive headlight

GLORY—String of empty cars. Also death, especially by accident

GLORY HUNTER—Reckless, fast-running engineer

GLORY ROAD—Sentimental term for railroad

GOAT—Yard engine. (See yard)

GOAT FEEDER—Yard fireman

GO HIGH—Same as deckorate

G.M. —General manager. G.Y.M. is general yardmaster

GODS OF IRON—Huge, powerful locomotives

GON—Gondola, or steel-sided, flat-bottom coal car

GONE FISHING—Laid off

GOO-GOO EYE—Locomotive with two firedoors

GOOSE—To make an emergency stop

GOOSE HER—Reverse a locomotive that is under headway

GO-TO-HELL SIGNAL—Signal given with violent motion of hand or lantern

GRAB IRON—Steel bar attached to cars and engines as a hand bold

GRABBER—Conductor of a passenger train. (He grabs tickets)

GRAMOPHONE—Obsolete term for telephone

GRASS WAGON—Tourist car. (Tourists like scenery)

GRASSHOPPER—Old type of locomotive with vertical boiler and cylinders

GRAVE-DIGGER—Section man

GRAVEYARD—Siding occupied by obsolete and disused engines and cars; scrap pile

GRAVEYARD WATCH—12.01 A.M. to 8 A.M., or any midnight shift, so called because that shift includes the quietest hours of the day

GRAZING TICKET—Meal book

GREASE MONKEY—Car oiler

GREASE THE PIG—Oil the engine. (See hog)

GREASY SPOON—Railroad eating house. Bill of fare is colloquially known as switch list, fork is hook, butter is grease pot, hotcakes are blind gaskets, and beans are torpedoes

GREENBACKS—Frogs for rerailing engines or cars

GREENBALL FREIGHT—Fruit or vegetables

GREEN EYE—Clear signal. (At the time Cy Warman wrote his celebrated poem, “I Hope the Lights Are White,” the clear signal was white and green meant caution. This was changed years ago because of the fact that when a red or green signal lens broke or fell out it exposed a white, thus giving a clear board to engineers even though the signal itself was set to stop or go slow)

GREETINGS FROM THE DS—Train orders from the dispatcher

GRIEVER—Spokesman on grievance committee; Brotherhood or Union representative at an official investigation

GRIND—Shay-geared engine

GROUNDHOG—Brakeman, yardmaster, or switch engine

GRUNT—Locomotive engineer. Traveling grunt is road foreman of engines (hogs). Grunt may also be a lineman’s ground helper; grunting is working as a lineman’s helper

GUN—Torpedo, part of trainman’s equipment; it is placed on the track as a signal to the engineer. Also the injector on the locomotive that forces water from tank to boiler. To gun means to control air-brake system from rear of train

GUNBOAT—Large steel car

GUT—Air hose. Guts is drawbar

HACK—Caboose

HALF—Period of two weeks

HAM—Poor telegrapher or student

HAND BOMBER or HAND GRENADE—Engine without automatic stoker, which is hand-fired

HAND-ON—Train order or company mail caught with the hoop or without stopping

HANGING UP THE CLOCK—Boomer term that meant hocking your railroad watch

HARNESS—Passenger trainman’s uniform

HASH HOUSE—Railroad restaurant or lunch stand

HAT—Ineffectual railroad man. (All he uses his head for is a hat rack)

HAY—Sleep on the job; any kind of sleep. Caboose was sometimes called hay wagon

HAY BURNER—Hand oil lantern, inspection torch. Also a horse used in railroad or streetcar service

HEAD-END REVENUE—Money which railroads receive for hauling mail, express, baggage, newspapers, and milk in cans, usually transported in cars nearest the locomotive, these commodities or shipments being known as head-end traffic

HEAD IN—Take a sidetrack when meeting an opposing train

HEAD MAN—Front brakeman on a freight train who rides the engine cab. Also called head pin

HEARSE—Caboose

HEEL—Cars on end of tracks with brakes applied

HERDER—Man who couples engines and takes them off upon arrival and departure of trains

HIGHBALL—Signal made by waving hand or lamp in a high, wide semicircle, meaning “Come ahead” or “Leave town” or “Pick up full speed.” Verb highball or phrase ‘ball the jack means to make a fast run. Word highball originated from old-time ball signal on post, raised aloft by pulley when track was clear. A very few of these are still in service, in New England and elsewhere

HIGHBALL ARTIST—A locomotive engineer known for fast running

HIGH-DADDY—Flying switch

HIGH IRON—Main line or high-speed track (which is laid with heavier rail than that used on unimportant branches or spurs)

HIGH LINER—Main-line fast passenger train

HIGH-WHEELER—Passenger engine or fast passenger train. Also highball artist

HIKER—A lineman who “hikes sticks” instead of prosaically climbing poles

HIT ‘ER—Work an engine harder. (Probably a variation of “hit the ball,” which means “Get busy-no more fooling!”)

HIT THE GRIT or GRAVEL—Fall off a car or locomotive or get kicked off

HOBO—Tramp. Term is said to have originated on Burlington Route as a corruption of “Hello, boy!” which construction workers used in greeting one another

HOG—Any large locomotive, usually freight. An engineer may be called a hogger, hoghead, hogmaster, hoggineer, hog jockey, hog eye, grunt, pig-mauler, etc. Some few engineers object to such designations as disrespectful, which they rarely are. For meaning of hog law see dogcatchers. Hoghead is said to have originated on the Denver & Rio Grande in 1887, being used to label a brakeman’s caricature of an engineer

HOLDING HER AGAINST THE BRASS—Running electric car at full speed

HOLE—Passing track where one train pulls in to meet another

HOME GUARD—Employee who stays with one railroad, as contrasted with boomer. A homesteader is a boomer who gets married and settles down

HOOK—Wrecking crane or auxiliary

HOOK ‘ER UP AND PULL HER TAIL—To set the reverse lever up on the quadrant and pull the throttle well out for high speed

HOPPER—Steel-sided car with a bottom that opens to allow unloading of coal, gravel, etc.

HOPTOAD—Derail

HORSE ‘ER OVER—Reverse the engine. This is done by compressed air on modern locomotives, but in early days, manually operated reversing equipment required considerable jockeying to reverse an engine while in motion

HOSE COUPLER—Brakeman who handles trains by himself with the road engine around a big passenger terminal

HOSTLER—Any employee (usually a fireman) who services engines, especially at division points and terminals. Also called ashpit engineer

HOT—Having plenty of steam pressure (applied to locomotives)

HOT-FOOTER—Engineer or conductor in switching service who is always in a hurry

HOT JEWEL—Same as hotbox

HOT-WATER BOTTLE—Elesco feed water heater

HOT WORKER—Boilermaker who repairs leaks in the firebox or flue sheet while there is pressure in the boiler

HOTBOX—Overheated journal or bearing. Also called hub. This was a frequent cause of delay in the old days but is virtually nonexistent on trains that are completely equipped with ball-bearings. Trainmen are sometimes called hotbox detectors

HOTSHOT—Fast train; frequently a freight made up of merchandise and perishables. Often called a manifest or redball run

HOW MANY EMS HAVE YOU GOT? —How many thousand pounds of tonnage is your engine pulling? (M stands for 1,000)

HUMP—Artificial knoll at end of classification yard over which cars are pushed so that they can roll on their own momentum to separate tracks. (See drop.) Also the summit of a hill division or the top of a prominent grade. Boomers generally referred to the Continental Divide as the Hump

HUMPBACK JOB—Local freight run. (Conductor spends much time in caboose bending over his wheel reports)

HUT—Brakeman’s shelter just back of the coal bunkers on the tender tank of engines operating through Moffat Tunnel. May also refer to caboose, locomotive cab, switchman’s shanty, or crossing watchman’s shelter

IDLER—An unloaded flatcar placed before or after a car from which oversize machinery, pipe, or other material projects

IN—A trainman who is at the home terminal and off duty is in

IN THE CLEAR—A train is in the clear when it has passed over a switch and frog so far that another train can pass without damage

IN THE COLOR—Train standing in the signal block waiting for a clear board

IN THE DITCH—Wrecked or derailed

IN THE HOLE—On a siding. (See hole.) Also in the lower berth of a Pullman, as contrasted with on the tot, in the upper berth

INDIAN VALLEY LINE—An imaginary railroad “at the end of the rainbow,” on which you could always find a good job and ideal working conditions. (Does not refer to the former twenty-one-mile railroad of that name between Paxton and Engels, Calif.) Boomers resigning or being fired would say they were going to the Indian Valley. The term is sometimes used to mean death or the railroader’s Heaven. (See Big Rock Candy Mountains)

IND ICATORS—Illuminated signs on the engine and caboose that display the number of the train

IRON or RAIL—Track. Single iron means single track
IRON HORSE—Academic slang for locomotive

IRON SKULL—Boilermaker. (Jim Jeffries, one-time champion prize fighter, worked as an iron skull for years)

JACK—Locomotive. (A term often confused with the lifting device, hence seldom used)

JACKPOT—Miscellaneous assortment of mail and parcels piled in the aisle of a baggage car and requiring removal before the mail in the stalls can be “worked”

JAILHOUSE SPUDS—Waffled potatoes

JAM BUSTER—Assistant yardmaster

JAM NUTS—Doughnuts

JANNEY—To couple; derived from the Janney automatic coupler

JAWBONE SHACK—Switch shanty

JAY ROD—Clinker hook

JERK A DRINK—Take water from track pan without stopping train. From this came the word jerkwater, which usually means a locality serving only to supply water to the engines of passing trains; a Place other than a regular stop, hence of minor importance as jerkwater town, jerkwater college, etc.

JERK-BY—See flying switch

JERK SOUP—Same as jerk a drink

JERRY—Section worker; sometimes applied to other laborers

JEWEL—Journal brass

JIGGER—Full tonnage of “dead” freight

JIMMIES—Four-wheel coal or ore cars

JITNEY—Four-wheel electric truck that carries baggage around inside a terminal. Also unregulated private automobile that carried passengers on public highways for 5-cent fare in direct competition with trolley cars

JOHNSON BAR—Reverse lever on a locomotive. (See drop ‘er down)

JOIN THE BIRDS—Jump from moving engine or car, usually when a wreck is imminent

JOINT—A length of rail, generally 33 or 39 feet. Riding to a joint is bringing cars together so that they couple

JOKER—In dependent or locomotive brake, part of E-T (engine-train) equipment

JUGGLER—Member of way-freight crew who loads and unloads LCL freight at station stops

JUGGLING THE CIRCLE—Missing a train-order hoop

JUICE—Electricity. Juice fan is one who makes a hobby out of electric railways (juice lines)

JUNK PILE—Old worn-out locomotive that is still in service.

KANGAROO COURT—An official hearing or investigation, so named because it may be held wherever most convenient, anywhere along the road, jumping around like a kangaroo, to act on main-line mixups or other urgent problems

KEELEY—Water can for hot journals or bearings. Nickname derived from “Keeley cure” for liquor habit

KETTLE—Any small locomotive, especially an old, leaky one. Also called teakettle and coffeepot

KEY—Telegraph instrument

KICK—See drop

KICKER—Triple valve in defective order, which throws air brakes into emergency when only a service application is intended, or sometimes by a bump of the train

KING—Freight conductor or yardmaster. King snipe is foreman of track gang. King pin is conductor

KITCHEN—Caboose; engine cab. Firebox is kitchen stove

* KNOCK HER IN THE HEAD—Slow Down

KNOCKOUT—Same as bump

KNOWLEDGE BOX—Yardmaster’s office; president of the road

LADDER—Main track of yard from which individual tracks lead off. Also called a lead. (See yard)

LAPLANDER—Passenger jostled into someone else’s lap in crowded car

LAST CALL, LAST TERMINAL, etc—Death

LAY-BY—Passing track, sidetrack. Layed out is delayed

LAY OVER—Time spent waiting for connection with other train

LCL—Less than carload lots of freight

LETTERS—Service letters given to men who resign or are discharged. Applicants for railroad jobs are usually asked to present letters proving previous employment. In the old days, when these were too unfavorable, many boomers used faked letters or would work under a flag on somebody else’s certificates

LEVER JERKER—Interlocker lever man

LIBRARY—Cupola of caboose. Trainman occupying it was sometimes known as a librarian

LIFT TRANSPORTATION—Collect tickets

LIGHT ENGINE—An engine moving outside the yard without cars attached

LIGHTNING SLINGER—Telegraph operator

LINER—Passenger train

LINK AND PIN—Old-time type of coupler; used to denote oldfashioned methods of railroading

LIZARD SCORCHER—Dining-car chef

LOADS—Loaded freight cars

LOCAL LOAD—A truckload of mail in sacks and parcels sent from the storage car direct to a car on a local train, containing mail for towns along the route of the train

LOUSE CAGE—Caboose

LUNAR WHITE—The color of white used on all switches except on main line

LUNCH HOOKS—Your two hands

LUNG—Drawbar or air hose

LUNG DOCTOR—Locomotive engineer who pulls out drawbars. Also lung specialist

MADHOUSE—Engine foreman; scene of unusual activity or confusion MAIN IRON-Main track. Also called main stem MAIN PIN-An official MAKE A JOINT-Couple cars MANIFEST-Same as hotshot MARKERS-Signals on rear of train, flags by day and lamps by night MASTER MANIAC-Master mechanic, often abbreviated M.M. Oil is called master mechanic’s blood

MASTER MIND—An official

MATCHING DIALS—Comparing time

MAUL—Work an ‘engine with full stroke and full throttle

MEAT RUN—Fast run of perishable freight, hotshot

MEET ORDER—Train order specifying a definite location where two or more trains will meet on a single track, one on a siding, the others on the high iron

MERRY-GO-ROUND—Turntable

MIDDLE MAN, MIDDLE SWING—Second brakeman on freight train

MIKE—Mikado-type engine (2-8-2), so named because first of this type were built for Imperial Railways of Japan. (Because of the war with Japan, some railroads rechristened this type MacArthur)

MILEAGE HOG—Engineer or conductor, paid on mileage basis, who uses his seniority to the limit in getting good runs, which younger men resent

MILK TRUCK—Large hand truck with high cast-iron wheels used to transfer milk cans around in a terminal

MILL—Steam locomotive, or typewriter

MIXED LOAD—Truckload of mail sacks and parcels for many destinations sent from storage car to the yard (an outside platform) for further separation before forwarding

MONKEY—When a crew has been on duty sixteen hours and is caught out on the road, the monkey gets them and they are required by ICC rules to tie -up until a new crew comes. (See dogcatchers)

MONKEY MONEY—The pass of a passenger who is riding free

MONKEY MOTION—Walschaert or Baker valve gear on locomotive. Monkey house is caboose. Monkey suit is passenger trainman’s uniform or any other smart-looking uniform. Monkey tail is back-up hose

MOONLIGHT MECHANIC—Night roundhouse foreman

MOPPING OFF—Refers to escaping steam

MOTHER HUBBARD—See Camelback

MOTOR—Electric locomotive

MOUNTAIN PAY—Overtime

MOVING DIRT—Fireman shoveling coal into firebox

MOVING SPIRIT—Train dispatcher, more often called DS

MTYS—Empty cars

MUCKERS—Excavators in construction work

MUD CHICKENS—Surveyor. Mudhop is yard clerk, mudshop his office

MUD SUCKER—A nonlifting injector

MUDHEN—A saturated locomotive, one that is not superheated

MULE SKINNER—Driver of mule cart

MUSIC MASTER—Paymaster

MUTT AND JEFF PUMP—Denver & Rio Grande locomotive with big air pump on right and small one on left

MUZZLE LOADER—Hand-fired locomotive

NEWS BUTCHER—Peddler who sells magazines, candy, fruit, ‘etc., in trains. Usually employed nowadays by Union News Co. Thomas A. Edison, the inventor, was a news butcher in his youth and became deaf when a conductor boxed his ears for accidentally starting a fire while experimenting in a baggage car near Smith Creek, Mich.

NICKEL GRABBER—Streetcar conductor

NIGGERHEAD—Turret at top of locomotive boiler, over crown sheet, from which saturated steam is taken for operation of pumps, stoker, injectors, and headlight turbine

19 ORDER—Train order that does not have to be signed for. Operator can hand it on a hoop or delivery fork as the train slows down. (See 31 order)

99—Failure to protect your train or to flag it

NO-BILL—Nonunion or nonbrotherhood railroad worker. Also called nonair

NOSE ON—Couple on with head end of engine

NOSEBAG—Lunch carried to work. Put on the nosebag means to eat a meal

NUMBER DUMMY—Yard clerk or car clerk; also called number grabber

NUT SPLITTER or NUT BUSTER—Machinist

OILCAN—Tank car

OLD GIRL—Affectionate term for steam engine

OLD HAND—Experienced railroader. Also called old head

* OLD HEAD—Lots of Seniority

OLD MAN—Superintendent or general manager

OLE HOSS—Salvage warehouse, or freight on hand

ON THE ADVERTISED—According to schedule; right on time. Often called on the card (timecard) and sometimes on the cat hop

ON THE CARPET—Commoner version of dancing on the carpet

ON THE GROUND—On the ties, as a derailed train

ON THE SPOT—See spot

OP—Telegraph operator

OPEN-AIR NAVIGATOR—Hobo riding freight on top

OPEN THE GATE—Switch a train onto or off a siding. Close the gate means to close the switch after the train has passed it

O.R.C. —Conductor. (See big O)

ORDER BOARD—See board

OS—On (train) sheet; to report a train by to dispatcher

OUT—When a trainman is at a point other than his home terminal, either on or off duty, he is out

OUTLAWED—See dogcatchers

OVER THE KNOLL—Getting up the hill

OVERLAP—Where two block signals control the same stretch of track OWL-Streetcar or train that runs late at night; almost anything having to do with night

PADDLE—Semaphore signal

PADDLE WHEEL—Narrow-gauge locomotive with driving boxes outside of the wheels

PAIR OF PLIERS—Conductor’s punch

PALACE—Caboose

PAPER CAR—Baggage car for the transportation of newspapers exclusively

PAPERWEIGHT—Railroad clerk, office worker. Also called pencil pusher

PARLOR—Caboose. Parlor man or parlor maid is hind brakeman or flagman on freight train

PASSING THE CROAKER—Being examined by company doctor

PEAKED END—Head end of train. Also pointed or sharp end

PEANUT ROASTER—Any small steam engine

PECK—Twenty minutes allowed for lunch

PEDDLE—To set out freight cars

PEDDLER—Local way-freight train

PELICAN POND—Place outside a roundhouse (down South) where there is much ooze and slime, caused by the fact that many locomotives are run thirty days without the boilers being washed out. The boilers are kept clean by blowing them out with blowoff cocks

PENNSYLVANIA—Coal

PERSUADER—Blower (for locomotive fire)

PETTICOAT—Portion of the exhaust stack that guides exhausted steam into the stack proper. When this becomes displaced, the spent steam goes back through the flues, cutting off the draft from the fire

PIE-CARD—Meal ticket. Also called grazing ticket

PIG—Locomotive. Pig-mauler is locomotive engineer; pigpen locomotive roundhouse. (See hog)

PIKE—Railroad

PIN AHEAD AND PICK UP TWO BEHIND ONE—Cut off the engine, pick up three cars from siding, put two on the train, and set the first one back on the siding

PIN FOR HOME—Go home for the day

PINHEAD—Brakeman. Pin-lifter is yard brakeman. Pinner is a switchman that follows. Pin-puller is a switchman that cuts off cars from a train. The old-style link-and-pin coupler (now rarely used) was called Lincoln pin

PINK—Caution card or rush telegram

PLANT—Interlocking system

PLUG—”One-horse” passenger train. Also throttle of old-style locomotive; hence engineers were known as plug-pullers. Plugging her means using the reverse lever as a brake instead of the air. Local passenger trains are sometimes referred to as Plug runs

PLUSH RUN—Passenger train

POCATELLO YARDMASTER—Derisive term for boomers, all of whom presumably claimed to have held, at some time, the tough job of night yardmaster at Pocatello, Idaho

POLE—To run light. (See light)

POLE PIN—Superintendent of telegraph

POP—To let safety valve on boiler release, causing waste of steam, making a loud noise, and, when engine is working hard, raising water in boiler, thereby causing locomotive to work water

POP CAR—Gasoline car or speeder, used by section men, linemen, etc.; so called because of the put-put noise of its motor exhaust

POPS—Retainers

POSITIVE BLOCK—Locomotive engineer

POSSUM BELLY—Toolbox under a caboose or under some wrecking cars

POUND HER—Work a locomotive to its full capacity

POUNDING THEIR EARS—Sleeping, making hay

PUD—Pick up and delivery service

PULLER—Switch engine hauling cars from one yard to another at the same terminal. Also the operator of an electric truck that transfers baggage and mail around a terminal

PULL FREIGHT—To leave or to give up a job

PULL THE AIR—Set brakes by opening conductor’s valve or angle cock

PULL THE CALF’S TAIL—Yank the whistle cord

PULL THE PIN—Uncouple a car by pulling up the coupling pin. A boomer expression meaning to resign or quit a job

PURE-FOOD LAW—See dogcatchers

PUSHER—Extra engine on rear of train, usually placed there to assist in climbing a grade

PUSSYFOOTER—Railroad policeman

PUT ‘ER ON—Make a reduction in air in the train’s braking system. Put ‘er all on means apply emergency brake, more commonly described as big-holing her

PUT ON THE NOSEBAG—Eat a meal

QUILL—Whistle (term used especially in the South)

QUILLING—Personalized technique of blowing a locomotive whistle, applicable only in the days before the whistles became standardized

RABBIT—A derail; an arrangement for preventing serious wrecks by sidetracking runaway trains, cars, or locomotives on a downgrade. Unlike regular sidetracks, the derail ends relatively abruptly on flat trackless land instead of curving back onto the main line. The term rabbit is applied to this device because of the timidity involved

RACE TRACK—Straight and flat stretch of track upon which an engineer can safely make unusually high speed. Also parallel stretches of track of two competing railroads upon which rival trains race one another (contrary to company rules but much to the delight of enginemen, trainmen, and passengers, and perhaps to the secret delight of some officials)

RAG-WAVER—Flagman

RAIL—Any railroad employee

RAILFAN—Anyone who makes a hobby of railroading

RAP THE STACK—Give your locomotive a wide-open throttle, make more speed. Rapper is an engineer who works his engine too hard

RATTLE HER HOCKS—Get speed out of an engine
RATTLER—Freight train

RAWHIDER—Official, or any employee, who is especially hard on men or equipment, or both, with which he works. A rawhider, or slave driver, delights in causing someone to do more than his share of work. Running too fast when picking up a man on the footboard, or making a quick stop just short of him when he is expecting to step on, so that he has to walk back, are two ways it is done; but there are almost as many ways of rawhiding as there are different situations

REAL ESTATE—Poor coal mixed with dirt or slag. When mixed with sand it is called seashore

RED BOARD—Stop signal

REDBALL, BALL OF FIRE—Fast freight train,

REDCAP—Station porter. Term coined about 1900 by George H. Daniels, New York Central publicist

RED EYE—Same as red board; also liquor

RED ONION—Eating house or sleeping quarters for railroad men

REEFER or RIFF—Refrigerator car

REPTILE—See snake

RETAINER—Small valve located near brake wheel for drawing off and holding air on cars. (Retainers often figure prominently in true tales and fiction stories about runaway cars on trains)

RIDIN’ ‘EM HIGH—Traveling on tops of boxcars

RIDIN’ THE RODS—An old-time hobo practice, now virtually obsolete. The hobo would place a board across truss rods under a car and ride on it. This was very dangerous even in pleasant weather, and the possibility was ever present that you might doze, get careless, become too cramped, or lose your nerve-and roll under the wheels

RIDING THE POINT—Riding a locomotive, point referring to shape of pilot

RIGHT-HAND SIDE—Engineer’s side of cab (on nearly all North American roads). Left-hand side is fireman’s side. When a fireman is promoted he is set up to the right-hand side

RINGMASTER—Yardmaster

RIPRAP—Loose pieces of heavy stone or masonry used in some places to protect roadbeds from water erosion

RIP-TRACK—Minor repair track or car-repair department. RIP means repair

RIVET BUSTER—Boilermaker

ROAD HOG—Any large motor vehicle on a highway, especially intercity trailer trucks and busses that cut into railroad freight and passenger revenue

ROOFED—Caught in close clearance

ROOF GARDEN—Mallet-type locomotive or any helper engine on a mountain job. Sometimes called sacred ox

ROUGHNECK—Freight brakeman

RUBBERNECK CAR—Observation car

RULE G—”The use of intoxicants or narcotics is prohibited”—one of twelve general rules in standard code adopted by Association of American Railroads, based upon previous regulations made by individual companies. Countless thousands of railroad men, especially boomers, have been discharged for violation of Rule G; not because of railroads’ objection to liquor itself but because a man under the influence of liquor is not to be trusted in a job involving human lives and property

RUN—The train to which a man is assigned is his run

RUN-AROUND—If it is a man’s turn to work and he is not called, he may claim pay for the work he missed. He has been given the run-around

RUN-IN—A collision; an argument or fight

RUN LIGHT—For an engine to run on the tracks without any cars

RUNNER—Locomotive engineer

RUNT—Dwarf signal

RUST or STREAK O’ RUST—Railroad

RUST PILE—Old locomotive

RUSTLING THE BUMS—Searching a freight train for hobos. In bygone days it was common practice for trainmen to collect money from freight-riding ‘bos, often at the rate of a dollar a division

SADDLE—First stop of freight car, under the lowest grab iron

SANDHOG—Laborer who works in a caisson tunneling under a river, boring either a railroad tunnel, subway, or highway tunnel

SAP—Same as brake club; also called the staff of ignorance. To set hand brakes is to sap up some binders

SAWBONES—Company doctor

SAW BY—Slow complicated operation whereby one train passes another on a single-track railroad when the other is on a siding too short to hold the entire train. Saw by is applied to any move through switches or through connecting switches that is necessitated by one train passing another
SCAB—Nonunion workman; also car not equipped with automatic air system. (See nonair)

SCIZZOR-BILL—Uncomplimentary term referring to yard or road brakemen and students in train service

SCOOP—Fireman’s shovel. Also the step on front and rear ends of switch engines

SCOOT—Shuttle train

SCRAP PILE—Worn-out locomotive that is still in service

SEAT HOG—Passenger who monopolizes more than one seat in a car or station waiting room while others are standing. Such pests usually spread luggage, packages, or lunch over adjacent seats

SEASHORE—Sand used in sand dome. Also applied to coal that is mixed with sand

SECRET WORKS—Automatic air-brake application. Also the draft timbers and drawbar of a car, when extracted by force. If only the drawbar is pulled out, you say, “We got a lung,” but if the draft timbers comewith it, you say, “We got the whole damn secret works”

SENIORITY GRABBER—Railroad employee who is glad when someone above him dies, gets killed, is fired, or resigns, so he can move up the seniority list to a better job
SEPARATION—The sorting of mail sacks and parcels within the storage car before transferring to trucks

SERVICE APPLICATION—Gradual speed reduction, as contrasted with emergency stop caused by wiping the clock

SETTING UP—Loading a baggage car with mail and parcels according to a prearranged plan to facilitate rapid unloading at various stations along the line

SETUP—Four to six hand trucks placed in formation beside the door of a storage car to facilitate the separation of the mail and parcels being unloaded. Each truck is loaded with matter to be transferred to other trains or to the R.P.O. (Railway Post Office) terminal office

SHACK—Brakeman, occupant of caboose. Shacks master is a conductor SHAKE ‘EM UP-Switching

SHAKING THE TRAIN—Putting on air brakes in emergency

SHANTY—Caboose

SHINER—Brakeman’s or switchman’s lantern

SHINING TIME—Starting time (probably from old Negro spiritual “Rise and Shine”)

SHOO-FLY—Temporary track, usually built around a flooded area, a wreck, or other obstacle; sometimes built merely to facilitate a rerailing

SHORT FLAGGING—Flagman not far enough from his train to protect it. (See drawbar flagging)

SHORT LOADS—Cars consigned to points between division points and set out on sidings at their destinations. Also called shorts

SHORT-TIME CREW—Crew working overtime but not yet affected by the sixteen-hour law. (See dogcatchers)

SHUFFLE THE DECK—Switch cars onto house tracks at every station you pass on your run

SHUNTING BOILER—Switch engine

SIDE-DOOR PULLMAN—Boxcar used by hobos in stealing rides

SKATE—Shoe placed on rail in hump yard to stop cars with defective brakes

SKIN YOUR EYE—Engineer’s warning to man on left side of cab when approaching curve

SKIPPER—Conductor

SKYROCKETS—Red-hot cinders from smokestack

SLAVE DRIVER—Yardmaster. Also any rawhider

SLING MORSE—Work as telegraph operator

SLIPS, CAR OR TRAIN OF—Car or train of bananas

SLOW BOARD—See board

SLUG—Heavy fire in locomotive firebox

SLUGS—A shipment of magazines, catalogues, or automobile-license plates in small mail sacks weighing approximately 100 pounds each

SMART ALECK—Passenger conductor

SMOKE or SMOKE AGENT—Locomotive fireman. Smoker is engine or firebox. Smoking ‘em or running on smoke orders is a dangerous method, now obsolete, of running a train from one station or siding to another without orders from the dispatcher. You moved cautiously, continually watching for the smoke of any train that might be approaching you on the same track

SNAKE—Switchman, so named from the large serpentine letter S on membership pins of the Switchman’s Union of North America. Sometimes called reptile or serpent

SNAKEHEAD—A rail that comes loose from the ties and pierces the floor of a car; a fairly common accident with the strap-iron rails of a century ago

SNAP—Push or pull with another engine. Snapper is the engine that does the pulling

SNIPE—Track laborer. His boss is a king snipe

SNOOZER—Pullman sleeping car

SNUFF DIPPERS—Coal-burning engines that burn lignite (which, on the Missouri Pacific at least, is the same color as snuff)

SOAK—Saturated locomotive

SODA JERKER—Locomotive fireman

SOFT BELLIES—Wooden frame cars

SOFT-DIAMOND SPECIAL—Coal train

SOFT PLUG—Fusible plug in crown sheet of locomotive that is supposed to drop when water gets below top of sheet

SOLID CAR—A completely filled storage car containing sixty feet of mail and parcels, equal to a 100 per cent load

SOLID TRACK—Track full of cars

SPAR—Pole used to shove cars into the clear when switching. (See stake)

SPEED GAUGER—Locomotive engineer

SPEEDER—Same as pop car

SPEEDY—Callboy

SPIKE A TORCH—Throw a fusee

SPOT—To place a car in a designated position. Also sleep, rest, or lunch period on company time. On the spot means an opportunity for railroad men to “chew the rag” or swap experiences. Unlike the same underworld term, on the spot has no sinister implication in railroad slang

SPOTBOARD—Guide used by section men in surfacing or ballasting track in order to obtain an even bed.

SPOTTER—Spy, company man assigned to snoop around and check on employees

SQUEEZERS—Car-retarding system used in some railroad yards

SQUIRRELING—Climbing a car

STACK O’ RUST—A locomotive that has seen better days

STAKE—Pole used in dangerous and now rare method of switching. A cut of cars was shoved by a stake attached to the car immediately in front of the engine. This method was supposed to be superior to the ordinary method of “batting them out” because there was less wear and tear on drawbars and less damage to freight; but the human casualties that resulted gave more than one yard the nickname “slaughterhouse.” Another meaning of stake is the money a boomer saved on a job so he could resign and continue eating regularly while looking for another job

STAKE DRIVER—Any engineering-department man

STALL—Space inside a mail or baggage car containing mail or parcels consigned to a certain destination and separated from other shipments by removable steel posts

STARGAZER—Brakeman who fails to see signals

STARVATION DIET—See board

STEM—Track or right-of-way

STEM-WINDER—Climax type of geared locomotive. Also applied to trolley car without brakes because of the motion of its brake handle

STICK—Staff used on certain stretches of track to control the block. It is carried by engine crews from one station to another. Now rare

STIFF BUGGY—Specially designed four-wheel truck used for transferring coffins and rough boxes inside a station

STINGER—Brakeman. Derived from initial B(ee) of Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, or perhaps from some brakemen’s habit of arousing hobos by applying a brake club to the soles of their shoes

STINK BUGGY—Bus

STINKER—Hotbox

STIRRUP—First step of freight car, under the lowest grab iron

STOCK PEN—Yard office

STOCKHOLDER—Any employee who is always looking out for the company’s interests

STOPPER PULLER—Member of the crew that follows the engine in switching

STORAGE CAR—Baggage car or (in rush periods) Railway Express car containing a mixed shipment of parcels and mail sacks consigned to a certain terminal for sorting and rerouting to various destinations via other trains

STRAW BOSS—Foreman of small gang or acting foreman

STRAW-HAT BOYS—Railroad men who work only in pleasant weather

STRAWBERRY PATCH—Rear end of caboose by night; also railroad yard studded with red lights

STRETCH ‘EM OUT—Take out slack in couplings and drawbars of train

STRING—Several cars coupled together; also a telegraph wire

STRUGGLE FOR LIFE—Existence in railroad boardinghouse

STUDE TALLOW—Student fireman

STUDENT—Learner in either telegraph, train, or engine service; an apprentice

SUCK IT BY—Make a flying switch

SUGAR—Sand

SUPER—Superintendent

SWELLHEAD—Conductor or locomotive engineer

SWING A BUG—Make a good job of braking. (See bug)

SWING MAN—Same as middle man

SWITCH LIST—Bill of fare at railroad eating house

SWITCH MONKEY—Switchman

TAIL OVER HER BACK—Engine with full head of steam, with plume resembling a squirrel’s tail from her safety valve

TAKE THE RUBBER OUT OF THEM—Disconnect the air hoses on a train

TAKING YOUR MINUTES—Stopping for lunch

TALLOWPOT—Locomotive fireman, so called from melted tallow used to lubricate valves and shine the engine

TANK—Locomotive tender. Tanker is tank car used in hauling oil, water, milk, chemicals or some other liquid

TEAKETTLE—See kettle

TEASE THE BRUTE—Follow the engine

TELLTALES—Any device that serves as a warning. Specifically the row of strips hanging down a short distance in front of a tunnel or low bridge to inform trainmen who are riding car tops that they’d better duck

* TEMPLE OF KNOWLEGE—Term for caboose

TERMINAL—Railway Post Office unit, usually at or near the railroad station, where mail is removed from sacks, sorted, and forwarded to its ultimate destination

TERMINAL LOAD—A shipment of mail consigned to a certain R.P.O. terminal office for sorting and reshipment in other sacks

THE BISCUITS HANG HIGH—There’s a scarcity of food handouts in that locality

THIRTY—Telegraphic term for “that’s all-no more”

31 ORDER—Train order that must be signed for; the train must stop to pick it up. (See 19 order)

THOUSAND-MILER—Black satin or blue percale shirt worn by railroaders, expected to last 1,000 miles between washings. (The usual basis of a day’s work was about 10 0 miles, so two shirts could easily last from one pay day to the next)

THREE-BAGGER—Train pushed or pulled by three engines. (No doubt originated by a baseball fan)

THROTTLE-JERKER—Engineer

* THROTTLE GOD—Loc.Engineer)

THROW AWAY THE DIAMONDS—Term applied to locomotive fireman missing the firedoor with a shovelful of coal and spilling some

* THROW OUT THE ANCHOR—Done for the Day

TIE ‘EM DOWN—Set handbrakes

TIE ON—Couple on. Tie ‘em together is to couple cars

TIE UP—Stop for a meal or for rest

TIER—Pile of mail sacks or parcels occupying the full width at each end of a car

TIMKENIZED—Equipped with Timken roller bearings

TIN LIZARD—Streamlined train

TING-A-LING—Small engine with “tinny” bell

TISSUE—Train order. (See flimsy)

TOAD—Derail. (See rabbit)

TOEPATH or TOWPATH—Running board of locomotive or catwalk on top of boxcars, or that part of railroad embankment lying between end of ties and shoulders of fill

TONK—Car repairer

TONNAGE HOUND—Trainmaster or other official who insists upon longer or heavier trains than the crew and motive power can handle efficiently

TOP DRESSER DRAWER—Upper bunk in caboose

TOWER BUFF—Railfan so zealous that he disregards signs such as “Private,” “No Admittance” and “Stay Out” on interlocking towers and other railroad structures

TRAIN LINE—Pipe that carries compressed air to operate air brakes

TRAMPIFIED—The way a boomer looked after being out of work a long time. His clothes were “ragged as a barrel of sauerkraut” and he needed a “dime’s worth of decency” (shave)

TRAVELING CARD—Card given by a railroad Brotherhood to a man in search of employment. Also an empty slip bill

TRAVELING GRUNT—Road foreman of engines, traveling engineer. Sometimes called traveling man

TRICK—Shift, hours of duty

TRIMMER—Engine working in hump yard that goes down into yard and picks out misdirected cars and shoves them to clear. (See yard and hump)

TWO-WHEELER—Two-wheeled hand truck for transferring baggage and mail around in a station

UNCLE SAM—Railway Post Office clerk
UNDER THE TABLE—Just as a man who “can’t take his liquor” is sometimes actually under the table, so, figuratively, is a telegraph operator when messages are being sent to him faster than he can receive

UNDERGROUND HOG—Chief engineer

UNLOAD—Get off train hurriedly

VARNISH—Passenger train. Also called varnished shot, varnished job, varnished boxes, string of varnish, varnished wagons, etc. These nicknames are rarely applied to modern streamliners

VASELINE—Oil

* VOODOO BARGE—Updated Heavy,Slow Freight

WABASH—To hit cars going into adjacent tracks. (See cornered) Also refers to the officially frowned-upon practice of slowing up for a stop signal at a crossing with another railroad instead of stopping. The engineer would look up and down to make sure everything is safe, then start up again, having saved several minutes by not stopping entirely. Wabash may also mean a heavy fire in the locomotive firebox

WAGON—Railroad car. (English term)

WALK THE DOG—Wheel a freight so fast as to make cars sway from side to side

WALK UP AGAINST THE GUN—Ascend a steep grade with the injector on
WALL STREET NOTCH—Forward corner of reverse lever quadrant in engine cab (more commonly called company notch). Called Wall Street notch because engine pays dividends when heaviness of train requires engine to be worked that way

WASHOUT—Stop signal, waved violently by using both arms and swinging them in downward arc by day, or swinging lamp in wide low semicircle across tracks at night

WATCH YOUR PINS—Be careful around stacks of ties, rails, etc.

WAY CAR—Caboose, or car of local freight

WEARING THE BLUE—Delayed by car inspectors. A blue flag or blue light is placed on cars thus delayed and being worked on

WEARING THE GREEN—Carrying green signals. When trains run in more than one section, all except the last must display two green flags

WEED BENDER—Railroaders’ derisive term for cowboy, other such terms being hay shaker, clover picker, and plow jockey. Commonest term for cowboy is cowpuncher, which is of railroad origin. Cowboys riding stock trains prod the cattle

* WEED WEASEL—Company Official Spying on Crews

WESTINGHOUSE—Air brake, also called windjammer

WET MULE IN THE FIREBOX—Bad job of firing a locomotive

WHALE BELLY—Steel car, or type of coal car with drop bottom. Also called sow belly

WHEEL ‘EM—Let a train run without braking. Wheeling means carrying or hauling at good speed; also called highballing. You say wheeling the berries when you mean hauling the berry crop at high speed

WHEEL MONKEY—Car inspector

WHEN DO YOU SHINE? —What time were you called for?

WHISKERS—Quite a bit of seniority

WHISTLE OUT A FLAG—Engineer blows one long and three short blasts for the brakeman to protect rear of train

WHITE FEATHER—Plume of steam over safety valves, indicating high boiler pressure

WHITE RIBBONS—White flags (an extra train)

WHITEWASH—Milk

WIDEN ON HER—Open the throttle, increase speed

WIGWAG—A grade-crossing signal

WILLIE—Waybill for loaded car

WIND—Air brakes

WING HER—Set brakes on moving train

WISE GUY—Station agent

WOLF or LONE WOLF—Nonbrotherhood man

WORKING A CAR—Unloading a storage mail car

WORKING MAIL—Mail in sacks and pouches consigned to R.P.O. (Railway Post Office) cars to be “worked” or sorted in transit

WORK WATER—Some old-time engineers preferred to work the water (operate the injector and watch the water glass or gauge cocks). On most roads the fireman now works the water

WRECKING CREW—Relief crew. Derogatory term derived from the difficulty regular men sometimes experience in rearranging a car after it has been used by relief men

WRONG IRON—Main track on which the current of traffic is in the opposite direction

WYE—Tracks running off the main line or lead, forming a letter Y; used for turning cars and engines where no urntable is available

X—Empty car

XXX—Same as bad order

YARD—System of tracks for making up trains or storing cars. (Boomer’s version: “System of rust surrounded y fence and inhabited by a dumb bunch of natives who will not let a train in or out.”) Also called garden and ield. Yard geese are yard switchmen. Y.M. is yardmaster. Yard goat is switching engine

ZOO KEEPER—Gate tender at passenger station

ZULU—Emigrant family with its household goods and farm equipment traveling by rail; sometimes included even livestock crowded into the same boxcar. Zulu can mean only the car, or the car and all its contents. This ethod of travel was not uncommon in homesteading days on Western prairies. Origin of term is obscure. May have some connection with the fact that British homesteaders in Africa fled in overfilled farm wagons before Zulu marauders

posted by tio cuervo      all rights revert to original holders     June 12th, 2009