Railroaders' Nostalgia > More 'lingo' for your Wednesday

Here's some more railroad 'lingo' that was once common and is now becoming rare, if not extinct.

DINGER---Conductor. (man who rings the bell) Freeman Hubbard was probably thinking of a streetcar conductor when he
                  constructed his list of 700 terms. I experienced 'Dingers' as yardmasters and attributed the term to describing the
                  act of ringing a bell to begin work, start and end coffee breaks, meal periods and of course when to go home; these
                  were all under the direction of the yardmaster. In conversation you might ask; 'Who's the Dinger today?' or pronounce;
                  "That Dinger's a real slave driver" or if you just got a big honk'in 'quit', "That Dinger's a great guy".

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

GO HIGH, DECORATE---Climb to the top of freight cars to receive or transmit hand signals. For decades, before the advent of hand
                                         held radios, 'decorating' was routine and the preferred way to pass hand signals from the person controlling
                                         the movement to the engineer during long shoving or pulling operations. If you do this today, even if you could
                                         find a ladder to climb to the top, you would probably receive severe discipline, if not dismissal, when observed
                                         by a supervisor. A big no no.

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. 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, sometime blackballed
                    because their tenure of stay was uncertain. Their common practice was to follow "rushes"--that is to apply
                    for seasonal jobs when and where they were most needed, when movement of seasonal crops was making railroads temporarily
                    short-handed. There are virtually no 'boomers' in North America today. When Freeman Hubbard wrote those words in 1945 America
                    was just coming out of a war-time economy and employment in the industry was at all-time highs.

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. I had read fiction and non-fiction accounts of Pocatello Yardmasters
                                                   many years ago in my pre-railroad employment years but it was not until recently seeing the term used here
                                                   on TO's that I went to Mr. Hubbard's list and found his words describing the term.
                                                    
SHACK---Brakeman, occupant of a caboose. "Shack's master"  is a conductor.

LUNG---Drawbar or air hose.

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

GUN---Torpedo, part of trainmen'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 control air brake system from rear of train.

That's all for now. (no, no---not a term)

Charlie


                                         



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/21 13:54 by cewherry.

GO HIGH, DECORATE---Climb to the top of freight
> cars to receive or transmit hand signals. For
> decades, before the advent of hand
>                                  
>        held radios, 'decorating' was routine
> and the preferred way to pass hand signals from
> the person controlling
>                                  
>        the movement to the engineer during
> long shoving or pulling operations. If you do this
> today, even if you could
>                                  
>        find a ladder to climb to the top, you
> would probably receive severe discipline, if not
> dismissal, when observed
>                                  
>        by a supervisor. A big no no.
>

Anyone else also heard of this term as "cooning" or was that a strictly rural Iowa thing?
JC

Posted from Android

I've seen "hay burner" used as a reference to a coal-fired steamer on the CPR. I don't know if there was a distinction between hand bombers and stokers, and it's likely linked to the pre-railroad days of horse power (the original hay burners!)

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

JasonCNW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> GO HIGH, DECORATE---Climb to the top of freight
> > cars to receive or transmit hand signals. For
> > decades, before the advent of hand
> >                                
>  
> >        held radios, 'decorating' was
> routine
> > and the preferred way to pass hand signals from
> > the person controlling
> >                                
>  
> >        the movement to the engineer during
> > long shoving or pulling operations. If you do
> this
> > today, even if you could
> >                                
>  
> >        find a ladder to climb to the top,
> you
> > would probably receive severe discipline, if
> not
> > dismissal, when observed
> >                                
>  
> >        by a supervisor. A big no no.
> >
>
> Anyone else also heard of this term as "cooning"
> or was that a strictly rural Iowa thing?
> JC
>
> Posted from Android

In the early days of my career in train service on the SP, I did hear the term "cooning," but it referred in going from car to car on the tops.

Brian Black
Castle Rock, CO

Would be glad to hear from anyone who can describe what made Pocatello such a difficult place to manage... Just curious.

boxcar1954 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would be glad to hear from anyone who can describe
> what made Pocatello such a difficult place to
> manage... Just curious.

The point was that it wasn't difficult, even the most inept yardmaster could keep it going. The CPR had a similar threat of demotion to "yardmaster at Manyberries" Manyberries AB is a tiny outpost on what was a third line across the southern prairies. Being in the middle of the Palliser Triangle it saw (guessing here) maybe a dozen originating carloads a year!

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

boxcar1954 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would be glad to hear from anyone who can describe
> what made Pocatello such a difficult place to
> manage... Just curious.

Having never been there I can only offer that, in my hazy recollection of reading fictional stories
in the pages of Railroad Magazine, Pocatello Yard was portrayed as a 'beehive' of activity with trains
arriving and departing throughout the night. Anyone daring to sit in the yardmasters chair would be akin
to a circus ringmaster, juggling three balls in the air while blindfolded and standing on one leg; a real superman.

Charlie
 

"GUN---Torpedo, part of trainmen'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 control air brake system from rear of train.


My understanding is that on a steam locomotive with two injectors, the one on the left side was more heavily used and was controlled by the fireman.  The right side injector was operated by the engineer. Normally, engineers would signal the fireman when it was becoming necessary to use the 2nd injector. However, some engineers with a diabolical sense of humor would sometimes try to surreptitiously "sneak" on the right side injector without the fireman noticing until steam pressure was affected.   Firemen referred to these engineers as "two Gunners".

Love the daily sampling of railroad slang.   Keep it coming!

- Norm

 

cewherry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> boxcar1954 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Would be glad to hear from anyone who can
> describe
> > what made Pocatello such a difficult place to
> > manage... Just curious.
>
> Having never been there I can only offer that, in
> my hazy recollection of reading fictional stories
> in the pages of Railroad Magazine, Pocatello Yard
> was portrayed as a 'beehive' of activity with
> trains
> arriving and departing throughout the night.
> Anyone daring to sit in the yardmasters chair
> would be akin
> to a circus ringmaster, juggling three balls in
> the air while blindfolded and standing on one
> leg; a real superman.
>
> Charlie
>

Somewhere, either in Railroad Magazine or maybe in the Railroad Avenue chapter that talks about service letters, it was said that a clerk at Pocatello would sell fake service letters that included "Night Yardmaster at Pocatello."  Whether true or not, was not explicitly said.   

57A26 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Somewhere, either in Railroad Magazine or maybe in
> the Railroad Avenue chapter that talks about
> service letters, it was said that a clerk at
> Pocatello would sell fake service letters that
> included "Night Yardmaster at Pocatello." 
> Whether true or not, was not explicitly
> said.   

Kinda like the guy at my high school that told his girlfriend he was on the football team.  Except we didn't have a football team.

mapboy