Railroaders' Nostalgia > Sunday "Slang"---Second section

My first posting regarding the vocabulary of the rails brought three comments that mentioned specific terms that 
I'd like to address before they get lost in the shuffle of what I call the brief 'shelf-life' of topics here on TO's

First, 'aehouse' commented about dwarf signals on the Delaware & Hudson being referred to as "bugs". The article
about lingo by Mr. Hubbard does not include any mention of dwarf that jumps off the pages at this reader. He does, however,
list 'BUG' as a telegraph instrument or "KEY" as well as a term for a trainman or switchman's light, which is also called
a bug torch.

I agree, Art; every location I worked that had electric signals controlling train movements, those low, close to the ground
signals were consistently called 'dwarf' signals by the operating crews even though management may have, for other
reasons been constrained from doing so. 

MDO, in his comments mentioned two terms not included in Mr. Hubbard's chapter; 'quit' and 'switch'.

'Quit' is term I heard and hopefully participated in throughout my career. A 'quit' describes the act of what most 'rails' (people who
work on the railroad), know as maximum pay for minimum effort. On a daily basis, when you go to work you know beforehand exactly
what amount of pay you will receive for your days labor and you know what pay rules apply if you, perchance must work overtime before
being released to go home by your boss or supervisor. If the needs of the company for your services are complete in say, 5 hours and 
the boss says 'tie-up'--go home' ; you do as instructed, you go home. But you will receive a full days pay, 8 hours, or whatever the "Agreement"
provisions between your union and your company are for the class of service you were called for. For that day you will receive the 
maximum amount of pay for what turned out to be the minimum amount of effort, 5 hours of your time. Volumes could be written on strategies
employed to either maximize the opportunities to get a 'quit' on an ongoing basis or, take the opposite approach; 'go for the gold'--try to
make as much overtime as possible. Entire careers are spent in these pursuits.

A 'switch' as I understand it is the act or process of providing the basic service that railroads were created to do; move a customers goods.
This act may consist of simply placing a rail car at a shippers door for loading or unloading, re-arrange rail cars within a shippers facility or
pulling car(s) from shippers facility to forward as required by the shipper. The lingo I most heard was "we're going to go 'switch' ABC" or "XYZ is
ready for their afternoon 'switch'. 

march_hare asked about "...Pushers?  Helpers? Shoves?"

I would answer, certainly both Pushers and Helpers and probably Shoves--as well.

In my relatively narrow experience, (limited to basically the West Coast), I point to an entry in a 1939 Southern Pacific employee timetable
wherein both pushers and helpers are mentioned. SP found it necessary to describe 'pushers' being used to push trains out of yards while
later in the same special instruction basically repeated the same words, substituting 'helpers' to describe the process in road train operations.
I wouldn't be surprised to find 'Shoves or Shovers' mentioned elsewhere.

Charlie




 

We often called the dwarf signals "pot" signals.  

In a fiction story, "On a fogbound night." by John Johns that appeared in Railroad Magazine, the term "bug" was used for a regular block signal.  This story is set in the early years of signalling when White was clear and Green was caution.  The author, who worked for the New York Central, wrote a few stories using the same main characters.  Although only a few real locations are named, and the railroad name is altered, the setting is the C&NW between Chicago and Clinton.    

A comment or two about "bugs."   As mentioned in previous comments, a bug is a name for a telegraph key.  Everyone is familiar with the standard telegraph key.  You see them on all of the old western or some WWII movies.  A typical telegrapher could send about 25 words per minute.  Some might even get as high as 40 words per minute, but some operators were able to copy code at much faster speeds.  Most could copy about 40 words per minute but some could copy 60 or 70 words per minute.  Even though they could copy that fast, no one could send that fast with a standard key.  The bug was invented to help telegraphers send faster.  You push the small paddle and the key sends a dash.  You want to send two dash's, you press it twice.  The advantage comes when you want to send dots, or a series of dots.  If you push long handle and it will send a series of dots, probably up to 10 or 12 of them/  The operator had to release the key to stop the repeated dots.  It could send the dots faster than an operator could send them manually.  BTW, we call the dots "dits" and the dashes are "dash."  When saying the dits and dash, the dit is a short sound and the dah is a longer sound.  A series of dots would be didididit (the letter "H").  A dot and a dash and a dot would be pronounced "didahdit."   Run it all together and you should notice that there are short sounds and long sounds.   If you said that, an older ham would recognize it at the letter "R".

  Vibroflex is a company that makes them today.  They can go up to about 60 words per minute.  (To go faster, operators use electronic keyers.)  I don't know where the term bug came from but Vibroflex uses the symbol of a bug in their logo.  Vibroflex may have originated it or may have started using it when the keys became known as bugs.

By the way, the bugs are still manufactured and cost between about $200 and $300.  Ham radio operators still use them and often exceed 40 Words per minute while talking to each other.  As for me, I used to do about 20 words per minute but I need to do a bunch of brushing up to get to that speed again.  

John

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On Santa Fe in Southern California, we used the term "give Dow a switch". In my early career as a switchman at Santa Fe's Los Angeles area Hobart yard. Guys worked certain jobs to get a "quit". Personally, I loved them and would work them often over an overtime job, if in fact I had a choice, which of course, on the railroad, you didn't.
JB

wa4umr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A comment or two about "bugs."   As mentioned in
> previous comments, a bug is a name for a telegraph
> key.  Everyone is familiar with the standard
> telegraph key.  You see them on all of the old
> western or some WWII movies.  A typical
> telegrapher could send about 25 words per
> minute.  Some might even get as high as 40 words
> per minute, but some operators were able to copy
> code at much faster speeds.  Most could copy
> about 40 words per minute but some could copy 60
> or 70 words per minute.  Even though they could
> copy that fast, no one could send that fast with a
> standard key.  The bug was invented to help
> telegraphers send faster.  You push the small
> paddle and the key sends a dash.  You want to
> send two dash's, you press it twice.  The
> advantage comes when you want to send dots, or a
> series of dots.  If you push long handle and it
> will send a series of dots, probably up to 10 or
> 12 of them/  The operator had to release the key
> to stop the repeated dots.  It could send the
> dots faster than an operator could send them
> manually.  BTW, we call the dots "dits" and the
> dashes are "dash."  When saying the dits and
> dash, the dit is a short sound and the dah is a
> longer sound.  A series of dots would be
> didididit (the letter "H").  A dot and a dash and
> a dot would be pronounced "didahdit."   Run it
> all together and you should notice that there are
> short sounds and long sounds.   If you said
> that, an older ham would recognize it at the
> letter "R".
>
>   Vibroflex is a company that makes them today. 
> They can go up to about 60 words per minute.  (To
> go faster, operators use electronic keyers.)  I
> don't know where the term bug came from but
> Vibroflex uses the symbol of a bug in their
> logo.  Vibroflex may have originated it or may
> have started using it when the keys became known
> as bugs.
>
> By the way, the bugs are still manufactured and
> cost between about $200 and $300.  Ham radio
> operators still use them and often exceed 40 Words
> per minute while talking to each other.  As for
> me, I used to do about 20 words per minute but I
> need to do a bunch of brushing up to get to that
> speed again.  
>
> John

The term "Bug" comes from the Vibroflex trademark.  When I think of Bug as relates to telegraph, the Vibroflex model comes to mind.  I saw an older model, complwtw with it's original box in an antique store about 10 years ago for $50.  I thought about buying it but didn't.  i didn't know they are still being manufacured.

On the SP locals working in and around Salinas, each conductor ('the boss') set the tone as to whether or not the job was 'running for an early quit' or aiming to 'get it all.'  If the former, the Hog head was expected to be 'a High-wheeler" or at least 'a Runner."  It involved making hot 'drops' AKA 'Hi-daddies' up hill, and switching cars into numerous tracks in one continuous shove down the lead punctuated by bumps and stretches to manipulate the slack.  These operations were always signaled by hand signs or lanterns ('hay burners') even after radios were introduced, communicating at the speed of light without eavesdroppers or interruptions. 
Great topic, Charlie.

Searat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
 >"...It involved making hot
> 'drops' AKA 'Hi-daddies' up hill,...."

Hi Mike! Glad to have your input.

"High Daddy" is one of the terms that Freeman Hubbard included in his list of 700. I must admit, it's
one that I had not heard "first-hand" in my experience. Just goes to show what PHall remarked earlier;
a lot of 'lingo' could be very localized, no pun intended. 

Charlie

 

cewherry Wrote:

> march_hare asked about "...Pushers?  Helpers? Shoves?"

> I would answer, certainly both Pushers and Helpers and probably Shoves--as well.

> In my relatively narrow experience, (limited to basically the West Coast), I point to an entry in a 1939 Southern Pacific employee timetable wherein both pushers and helpers are mentioned. SP found it necessary to describe 'pushers' being used to push trains out of yards while later in the same special instruction basically repeated the same words, substituting 'helpers' to describe the process in road train operations. I wouldn't be surprised to find 'Shoves or Shovers' mentioned elsewhere.


This is veering a bit from the topic, but in the very early years of the Southern Pacific  (until 1883), pushers weren't used.  From the Reno Evening Gazette article of Sept. 29, 1883:

"There is to be a new departure in the manner of hitching up the trains from anything ever practiced on this coast. Instead of putting all the engines ahead, they will be divided and one or two put in front and one behind. In order to do this the cabooses must be changed and have powerful buffers. The pilots of the engines are also being changed and "stub pilots," as the boys call them, are being put in, so as to let the engines get close up to the car they are coupled to. This permits the use of a link in coupling, instead of a draw bar, which might double up."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/21 15:45 by johnsweetser.

Always heard the ground signals called pot signals and half mast dwarfs