Eastern Railroad Discussion > Names Given To Non Passenger Trains

Within America's class 1 railroads you will find that there are some pretty unique names that these trains have acquired over the years. This is especially the case with passenger trains with names like: Southwest Chief, Capitol Limited, Crescent, Sunset Limited, Silver Star etc. that have been around for decades and many operated with these names long before Amtrak.

What I am interested in is the names railroaders have given to freight revenue trains.
For example: On the CSX, Q026 (JAX, FLA - BEDFORD PARK, IL) was given the name “Prince Of Darkness” by Fitzgerald Sub 2nd trick dispatcher John McLemore many years ago. And it's counterpart Q025 is often called the same.

Knowing there are several current and former railroad employee's that are TO members lets hear from you on the names given to mainline and locals that have evolved over the years. Please include the road and assigned symbol. Not looking for the name of the individual as per the example above. Just the train symbol and name most often called.

In advance Thanks!!!
NSSpike

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

11J on NS used to be referred to often as "All-Day 11J"
The Reading had a dedicated train from Harrisvurg to serve Bethlehem Steel and return called "The Star"
I am sure there are more, will update as I think of them.
Dan

Probably the best example here in the Tampa Bay area was the “Truck Eliminator”. The symbol for this train was O825, which designated it as a Florida Business Unit local. Although a local, this train was a railfan favorite for those in the area, mainly due to its dependable daily schedule. It was a staple during the early afternoon hours through Plant City, squeezing around the schedules of Amtrak and the Tropicana Juice train. This train was a turn from the Port of Tampa to Mosaic’s Plant City refinery (aka “Central” on CSX). This train hauled tank cars of anhydrous ammonia loads and also empty covered hoppers to Central. Within a few hours, it returned to Tampa with empty tank cars and loaded hoppers of refined phosphate / fertilizer. The train was usually short, averaging 15-25 cars. A GP motor and a Road Slug was the usual power. The “Truck Eliminator” had been running for decades until last year when Mosaic idled the Plant City refinery. It was sad to see it go.

Andrew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 07:02 by florida581.

The Winchester & Western train between Winchester and the sand mine at Gore, Va has
been called the Sandman for years

Boy, there are so many that come to mind. I remember a Conrail Local out of Suffern,NY. WJSF-38 that ran on the ex-Erie that they called the "Hay Shaker" which I was told was the name of that local back in steam days. D&H ran an intermodal train between Oak Island,NJ. and Lacolle,PQ. The OILC became known as the "Oil Can". The Phila.Bethlehem and New England (Beth. Steel's in house road at Bethlehem,PA.)had a job that worked the Coke Works called the "Coke Monkey". The Terminal Drill in Allentown,PA. turned into the "Terrible Drill". Conrail ran a local out of Allentown,PA. over to Phillipsburg,NJ. and up the ex-DL&W. On Sundays they would run all the way up to Dover,NJ.,turn and try to make it back to Allentown before the clock ran out. This was known as the "Dover Dash". Hope this is what you were looking for.I'll probably come up with a few more.Good Topic!

The Q352 when it ran from Willard to Cumberland nicknamed “ The Bomber” (B-52) and because after 12 hours that train you felt you got hit a bomb. Also have call Amtrak the Silver Suppository cause it’s usually a pain in the butt!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 08:43 by OICU812.

Don't forget the Salad Bowl Express (priority train of refrigerator cars), which originated in California (SP) and finished up in NYC (Conrail).

Also, I remember the Central Vermont had one called "The Rocket" for a time.

Ray



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 09:09 by Ray_Murphy.

In steam days there was lots of official freight train branding. New Haven's Speed Witch was the flagship of its freight operation, but there were others on that road including the southbound perishables train The Fish and its northbound counterpart The Alligator. But New Haven employees also had informal names for some of its lowly drags, including the Inch Worm and the Midnight Horror.

C&O's westbound time freight out of Virginia was known as The Speedwest - this I've learned from participating in a prototype-faithful C&O model layout set in 1965. Southern had The Spark Plug for southbound automotive traffic out of Cincinnati and I'll bet there were other Spark Plugs as well. More recently, CSX even repurposed Orange Blossom Special for the Q191 intermodal shooter south out of Baltimore (connecting there from Conrail). And of course Cotton Belt/Southern Pacific had the legendary Blue Streak Merchandise.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 09:30 by toledopatch.

PRR's AST-2 was called the Astronaut. B&O had the Chicagoan, Detroiter, Detroit Steel, Piker and others.

OICU812 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Q352 when it ran from Willard to Cumberland
> nicknamed “ The Bomber” (B-52) and because
> after 12 hours that train you felt you got hit a
> bomb. Also have call Amtrak the Silver Suppository
> cause it’s usually a pain in the butt!

Love the Silver Suppository, that came from a freight railroad dispatcher , I am sure.

gmojim

The Pennsy had a bunch of "named" freights, but these were long ago.

Look here: http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/Frtsched/names.html

These 2 N&W U-boats sitting at Croxton yard, Secaucus, N.J. are off the "East Coast Expediter".
October, 1973.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 10:25 by overniteman.

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"Super C" piggyback train on the Santa Fe in the late 1960's into the mid 1970's. "Trailer Jets" on the Baltimore & Ohio also around the same time. "Blue Streak Merchandise" on the Southern Pacific. There are more but I don't have time to list.

SantaFeRuss

Don’t forget the Southern Railway’s Sparkplug and Rabbit between Cincinnati and Atlanta.

Didn't C&O/B&O have official names for a number of trains, besides the Trailer Jets, during the Chessie era?

Also, I read the 1970s-era IM trains AJ-1 and AJ-2, that ran on the D&H and N&W as competition for Conrail, were called "Alpha Jets."

SAL had official names for some of their freights as far as I know.

The BN's fast piggyback train from Chicago to Seattle was named "The Pacific Zip". Likewise, the hot BN to UP connection out of Chicago was named "The Bullet".

The Milwaukee Road's "Ford Fast" lived up to it's name hauling new Fords out of Chicago for the Pacific Northwest.

There was some railroad out east that ran unit trains of salt named "The Saltshaker".

On the Southern Pacific in the San Francisco Bay Area (Northern California), and beyond were locals powered by SW1500’s in the 80’s and 90’s. I would hear on the scanner references to the Crockett Rocket, Lombard Rocket, and while railfanning near Roseville Calif was the Rocklin Rocket.

⅂ɐɹɹʎ

It seems that Locals and Drills picked up more nick names from the railroaders. On the Lehigh Valley the Florence Drill in Bethlehem,PA. was known as "The Grind". Some LV Locals picked up names that made them sound like important symbol freights. Allentown,PA.-Flemington,NJ. Local was "The Flemington Flyer". Coxton,PA.-Crestwood,PA. job became "The Crestwood Comet". As far as mainline freights went on the Lehigh Valley, they called eastbound extras "Klondikers" on the Wyoming Division between Coxton,PA. and Packerton,PA.

On the D&H, RW6 and WR7 between Rouses Point, NY and Wilkes-Barre (later Harrisburg), PA were known as the Paper Trains.
Before K740 was eliminated by EHH on CSX, it was called the Juice Train.
The L&N used to call its extra dog freights on the Birmingham Div. "Chain Gangs."
And the CNJ men used to call JH-7, a maid-of-all work from Jersey City to Phillipsburg "the Maybe" (maybe she'll make it - maybe she won't).
Andy

perklocal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember a Conrail Local out of Suffern,NY.
> WJSF-38 that ran on the ex-Erie that they called
> the "Hay Shaker" which I was told was the name of
> that local back in steam days.

"Hay Shaker" was the name of the local that ran on the NY&NJ todays Pascack Valley line. The name does date back to Erie control of NY&NJ and lasted into EL times and may have lasted into CR times, no freight on the line now. DH ran the Apollo with NW from Chicago to Oak Island, EL had the Cannonball they ran with NW from St Louis to Croxton (DERECO timeframe). EL also had a train called the Flying Saucer but I can't remember its terminals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/18 13:14 by pal77.