Does railroaders refer to themselves as "Rails" ?

Calling one a “rail” or not; caboose, waycar, van, cabin car, dog house, shack, etc.,; actually this list of lists could go on forever. Railroad lingo was parochial by road, by division, by yard, by state, by region, by time, by indiviudals. One term was used in Portaland, Maine but not in Portland, Oregon and niether ever heard in San Antonio or Chicago. It was always heard in 1880’s but never after 1900, or at least rarely. Nor are today’s terms germain to thi history of railroading: a warrent was a paper issued for your arrest and not giving you permission to stray freely on the property. Freeman Hubbard, once proud editor of Railroad Magazine, kept vernacular, the lingo, alive with heroic and romantic tales of railroading over the century before. David P. Morgan turned his typewriter to the ledgendary machines giving them personalities and romanticizing railroads in a different way. Ordinary people lent a hand with names like Toonerville Trolley, a cartoon creation, being applied to any electric train, and later any train, that plied tracks in the hinterland, a rattler if it was hauled by a steam locomotive. Names for jobs, jobs performed, nicknames for equipment, names for just about anything and everything were always changing by the calendar, the milepost, and the people involved. Part of the fun of the hobby when sorting through the past is sorting through the lexicon of railroaders and their trains. Most of it is of a time gone by. Just look at all the new names, nicknames, terms and termonologies invented in the last five years and watch for new ones in the coming weeks, months, and years.

I am friends with some MOW personnel in Michigan and have never heard them refer to themselves as ‘rails’.

They are hard working people, and are modest about their occupation.

Don’t know much about engineers and conductors.

We try not to work too hard and brag a lot.

—just kidding–

We try not to work the engineers too hard, they brag a lot when you do…[;)]

In reality, what happens is the T&E guys simply get used to what we do every day.

The first year you are out here, you get pretty amazed, after all, your engineer, using just his conductors voice on the radio and his own skill, can stop a loaded 120 car coal train within 24 inches of where you want him to.

At first, you’re pretty jazzed about that, but after 10 or 15 years, you come to expect it.

For an outsider to see it up close for the first time would blow them away, they would brag to all their buddies about it, but to us, it’s simply part of the job, done several times every day we go to work…so it’s not really modesty, but simply the norm for us.

Your MOW guys see what they do as the normal course of their job, never realizing how to an outsider, the ability to build and maintain something as complex as a railroad tracks is awesome.

It looks simple, but it truly isn’t, a lot of skill, above and beyond brute force and strength is needed to make track work right.

I knew several railroaders who referred to themselves and others as rails, usually used in phrases such as, “He’s a good rail”, or “He’s no rail”. The last one I knew who said things like this on a regular basis retired several years ago. In keeping with the falcons theme, these fellows were primarily from the Route of High Speed Service.

Many terms have disappeared over the years, just like many hand signals that designated things as car counts and what track to use or set cars in have disappeared, modern communications changed things tremendously

From my experience around railroaders present and past…what they call themselves and each other are unprintable here and very personal.

[:-^] [?] Does anyone remember the infamous " Cornfield Meet" ???

Jim

Real ones or staged ones? Time was medicine showmen and other types of emprasarios, and even very hungary railroad managements, would stage such events, charging the spectators to view the collision and explosions. Opposing trains…junker engines and scrapable cars…were let loose at each other under full steam, usually aiming to butt headlights somewhere along a straight stretch of track in the wide open spaces so that the crowds could see and feel the crush; engineer would open 'em up and jump as soon as it got underway. After a few fatalties, the spectacle was stopped. However, some real life cornfield meets are legendary. One that comes to my mind was the summer of '57 on the Erie at Sloatsburg, NY. There was trackwork on the westbound main so all traffic was on track 2. The operator, I think at Sloatsburg, allowed a westbound to go forgetting that an eastbound from Port Jervis was due and had not cleared. He gave the westbound the high ball and the opposing trains met at speed a few miles north. I don’t believe train orders were involved, only bulliten orders and movements under the guidence of the local operators. Quite a few killed including the crews of both engines. I think I’ve got the ICC report here someplace but it is also on line. As I said, th