I grew up in a railroad family and I can’t recall ever hearing about a “consist.” I remember my uncle was a “hogger” and a cousin a “gandy dancer” but I can’t recall “consist” being a part of the jargon. Is a consist, then, the locomotion, the rail cars, or is it the entire train? Thanks
When a railroader speaks of a consist it doesen’t just mean the engines, but the whole train. Paper work is written up listing all the componets of a particular train or the consist. When we as model railroaders use the term consisting, we are most likely refering to running one engine with other engines. Not unlike the term “turnout” in model railroading used to mean switch, but to differentiate it from an electrical switch, terms used in mrr don’t always translate to the prototype.
From wikipedia.com:
“In American railway terminology, a consist is used to describe the group of rail vehicles which make up a train.”
Don Z.
The train consists of…
I’ve seen the word in magazines going back at least to the 50s but couldn’t say whether it is RR originated or media… or railfan.
Is there a US equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary… you’d need the big version that covers specialised and slang usages.
I’m glad you asked because for the last couple of weeks I’ve been wracking my brain cell to recall the (jargon) word used for the lash-up of locos hauling a train. “Lash-up” being itself a jargon term… where did that come from?
Someone will point us to the Trains glossary with a bit of luck… they’re probably all in there…[^]
Anyone got any other weird and wonderful terms that may have migrated from the media or raiolfans to real RR use?
We have a wonderful way of giving things letter clusters (sometimes acronyms) and then getting so used to the letters that we forget what the letters originally meant. The BEEB did a documentary about some bits of the railway… the guys kept using a letter cluster… when asked what it meant they could point at the equipment but had completely forgotten what the letters stood for. At about the same time in the programme a manager opened a lineside phone case which promptly fell off the post… I think that 99% of railway workers just loved that! (Come to hink of it I’ve never seen a phone or similar bit of equipment dangling from its location in a model…)
TIA
My favorite is FRED, the item used to replace the caboose. The makers refer to it as Flashing Rear End Device, railroaders substitute other words as your imagination will allow.
In my experiance, consist can refer to two things:
A.) The locomotives assigned to a train (Locomotive Consist). This usually refers to the locomotives themselves.
B.) The make up of the train itself (Train Consist). This usually refers to the paperwork discribing the train make up - the workorder, tonnage graph, and waybills.
Nick
In non-railroad use LASH-UP means a sorta make do repair system tied together with rope or baling wire. I come from a farm in Montana and thats how it was used there. As fr as official or even non-official railroad usage I have no idea what is correct.
Isn’t “Consist” just short for ‘consisting of’… ? Ie: the makeup pf a train?
…confusing - well the first time I heard it it was. UK trains rarely go around with more than one loco at the front, even when they do we call it double-heading. So at the model railway club, to find a consist mentioned in the (then) new DCC manual we too wondered what was meant by it. Oh, the joys of American speak in DCC language!! Ian
Only confusing to modelers…When I was a brakeman there was a :
LOCOMOTIVE CONSIST
and TRAIN CONSIST.
LASHUP is ONLY used by MODELERS.
Challenger 3802, I’ve seen as many as eight Locos consisted on eastbound trains near Everett WA on their way over the cascades to the hinterland. Hope I used that right. And just in American style wanted to brag up the big deisel consumption over here.[:D]