Railroaders' Nostalgia > Sunday "Slang"

Thanks all, for your interest and comments.

Let me repeat, the inspiration for this project comes from being exposed at a very young age to the stories, both fiction and
non-fiction published in the pages of Railroad Magazine and ultimately a career in railroading where many of the terms
or 'slang' appearing in those articles were used. The chapter entitled "Vocabulary of Railroad Lingo" in Freeman Hubbard's
1945 book, Railroad Avenue, serves as a rich source of a colorful 'sub-language' once used in the industry but increasingly falling
out of favor for various reasons. It's not my purpose here to ask why this is; rather I'm simply presenting what was at one time
a daily experience on the railroad.

For starters, I re-read Mr. Hubbard's list and culled from it about 150 terms or phrases that seem, in my purely arbitrary opinion,
to hold or potentially present the most interest for readers here on TO's. In addition I will add, if appropriate, comments or newer,
post 1945 terms that are not in the original source material.

My 'favorites' are further broken down to fifty-three "Names or Titles" and ninety-five "Descriptions and Objects". Depending on 
the response, I plan to post from 5 to 10 of these per week.

Without further blathering on my part, in no particular order, here are the first 10:

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

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.

BINDERS--- Hand brakes.

ASH CAT--- Locomotive fireman.

CAGE--- Caboose. (I've also heard it referred to as an Ape Cage.)

THROTTLE JERKER--- Engineer. 

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

BRAIN or THE BRAINS--- Conductor; sometimes called brainless wonder, a term also applied to any trainman, engineman or
                                          official as conditions warrant.

PIN PULLER--- Generally a switchman in yard service who is assigned to 'follow' the engine, that is, align all switches leading
                          to and from a track where the engine is or will be working. Usually, the man with the least seniority of the
                          ground crew was assigned this position.

MUD HOP---A clerk assigned to go into a rail yard to check car numbers on tracks and report back to the yardmaster; this to aid in 
                     further switching that may need to be done.

That's all for now. Enjoy.

Charlie






 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/21 18:30 by cewherry.

Pin puller works/worked with the Forman pulling pins. Now the Forman pulls the pins and works with the Field man.

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