http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siderodromophobia and we should out them and get them in therapy asap. As well as my transit board member @ NFTA and CDTA
From the name, I presume it is a fear mainly of only the majority of steam locomotives ??? If it doesn’t have siderods, is the diagnosis still applicable ? I.e., Heislers and most turbines not included; Shays might be (depending on how you view their drive shafts/ rods); Climaxes would be, as would side-rod and / or “jack shaft” electrics and some early diesels, etc.
[:-,] What about the rest of us ? Do we suffer from the opposite malady, whatever it’s called ?
- Paul North.
So most politicians have no problem with Amtrak since it has no siderods? I don’t get the issue.
Rail fan syndrome (RFS)
Kelsey Seybold will have a pill out next year, I am sure…
I think the word is misspelled:
I think it should be
Siderodomorphobia
Sider = steel
rodo = road
morph = shape
phobia = fear
Clearly the elements are run together.
Some of these words are still used in Italian so I assume it is supposed to be latin, which I haven’t studied in 52 years.
M636C
The Medical and Surgical Reporter, June 21, 1879
Siderodromophobia
This big word is derived from the modern Greek “siderodromos,” railroad, and “phobos,” fear, and is applied by Dr. Johannes Rigler, a German railway surgeon of long experience, to a peculiar mental affection of railroad employees. Dr. R states that, as the result of their occupation, railway-engine mechanics become the subjects of an altered nerve condition, which he calls “irritation of the nerve-centres.” It is the perpetual jarring, and shaking, and noise, which lead by degrees to this change, and which, under the influence of some unexpected shock, as in an accident, still further or more completely upset the nervous equilibrium, which ends, so to speak, in the condition known as “railway spine.” This mental condition he names “Siderodromophobia,” and defines it as “a more or less intense spinal irritation, coupled with a hysterical condition and a morbid disinclination for work, which, as the result of shock, occurs among railway employes, who, in consequence of their occupation, are specially predisposed to it.” The author is unable to state whether this irritation is sim
No. “It’s all Greek to me.”
Sidero = ‘iron’ (I think with overtones of ‘meteoric iron’; consider what ‘sidereal’ means)
Dromo = combinatorial form, here with nuance of ‘track’ as a place where things run or are driven (hippodrome = horse track, velodrome = bicycle track, aerodrome = place where aircraft run, etc.)
Phobia = fear or avoidance.
Remember – I think it was Lucius Beebe’s – “stenosiderohippologist” as someone who studies narrow-gauge steam locomotives… ?
(And no to PDN, ‘siderod’ is only incidental… and as schlimm might note, the ‘opposite’ conditions would be ‘siderodromophilia’)
Having read “The Difference Engine”, I am now delighted to find out that ‘railway spine’ was an actual named condition!
[quote user=“wanswheel”]
The Medical and Surgical Reporter, June 21, 1879
Siderodromophobia
This big word is derived from the modern Greek “siderodromos,” railroad, and “phobos,” fear, and is applied by Dr. Johannes Rigler, a German railway surgeon of long experience, to a peculiar mental affection of railroad employees. Dr. R states that, as the result of their occupation, railway-engine mechanics become the subjects of an altered nerve condition, which he calls “irritation of the nerve-centres.” It is the perpetual jarring, and shaking, and noise, which lead by degrees to this change, and which, under the influence of some unexpected shock, as in an accident, still further or more completely upset the nervous equilibrium, which ends, so to speak, in the condition known as “railway spine.” This mental condition he names “Siderodromophobia,” and defines it as “a more or less intense spinal irritation, coupled with a hysterical condition and a morbid disinclination for work, which, as the result of shock, occurs among railway employes, who, i
This talk of non-siderod locomotives reminds me of when I was somewhere between 9 and 12 years old some railfan group’s slideshow was on logging railroads. “Here are several of their Shays. They have only 1 Climax”. The adults laughed, I didn’t understand the joke.
As for the “rest of us”, doesn’t the rest of the world just consider us crazy without specifying any specific malady?
Oh, that way of traveling certainly has its ups and downs!
But what about siderodromophilia? Is there a cure for it?
But, who having become afflicted with it would want to be cured?
Just admitting that you have a problem is the important first step.
http://www.cato.org/people/randal-otoole is the chief of Sidrodomophobia get this string tie man into a court ordered 12 step program.
But it is not a problem!