Need help here people -
Trains Magazine gave me an idea…
This needs to be simple - simple minds you know.
Engineers - hogheads - why? (how did the name originate?)
Car Inspectors - car knockers - ditto
now it is up to you to complete my list - real name, slang name and why…
I am off looking for my mirror and keys to the SD70MAC, but as Ahnold said - “Ah’ll be bock”…
Head engineer - Mookie - It is easy to spell
Mook
There is no lighted make-up mirror on the engines. ( the keys to my mac ha ha ha) a good laugh today thanks .
aughhhh but do they have seperate restrooms for the “hes” and “shes” [:D]
Ya know the shes do like to powder their nose and some of them take a while to do it. [:o)] Wouldn’t want to have to stand cross-legged waiting ya know. [:p]
mudchickens, panel parties, cinder dicks, bulls, maniacs, gandys (chorus line license and all), quick checks, lineal spiders, light bulb changers, ground monkeys, black thumb, weed weasels, clucks in the bullpen, …
That type of stuff?
Yeah - you get the point! But now you have to give an explanation and how it originated if you know -
You told me about mudchicken - surveyors - and if I remember right - which I don’t always do - their chicken scratch writing.
Bulls - aren’t they the same as cinder dicks - railroad police and I probably don’t want to know or use the sanitized version - detectives.
Your turn!
Mookie
OK: Car-knockers. If I remember this right, they used to inspect wheels with a hammer…the sound of the ring could point to a defect. I don’t think it works now; this could have been back in the days of either iron or cast steel wheels.
How about cabeese?
Cabs - C&O
Cabins or cabin cars - Pennsylvania RR
Buggy - Boston and Maine
work safe
Yard snake, thats me.
We “snake” through all the twisted and convoluted tracks in a yard to get to and switch cars.
Car knocker are carmen, they used to carry a billy club, and would tap the wheel sets on cars.
A sharp ring meant the wheel was sound, a dull or flat sound meant that wheel had a crack or defect.
So they were know know as knockers, because the knocked the wheels.
Weed weasel, a nicer name for a trainmaster, who, in the name of “safety testing”, like a weasel, hides in the weeds to see if he can catch you breaking any rules.
Crummie, any caboose that hasnt been kept up, most look and ride as if they are falling apart, which they are.
Filithy, dirty, smelly and generaly not worth the time, about the only thing that works on them are the wheels still roll, some times.
Rock pounder, a switchman in a yard, working the field, he pounds rocks all day long, running from switch to switch.
Ok, Mudchicken, your turn!
Keno and zardoz1 need to jump in here too, we have a few younger and new members who need to hear the old names…
Ed[:D]
I think Fe Feathers is out making eggs, not sure where the rest of them are - but I did get a couple on my own: Ashcat is a fireman - I think the derivation is obvious. And one that I liked - Steam engines are “Girls” - because they had jackets, aprons, a lap, shoes, pumps and hose! Hog is any large locomotive - hence the Hoghead!
Well, this is a Mookie first! I submit a question, write my own answers with a little help from my friends and google and now I gotta go start a war, so someone will talk to me!
Mookie Ann!
And…
Vans-Canada
Sorry mooks…will fill in some of the blanks here shortly…Mudchicken has to go back out and plant more trees (2" x 2" x 18" with pointed ends) for the yellow peril at Utah Junction.
MC
[}:)] I owe, I owe, so off to work I go?
OK - Back from planting trees on the yellow peril. Concerned to see that Mookie is talking to herself again (Yes, have to work to eat and keep my critters in Kibble)…Here goes the obvious:
Panel Party = Derailment requiring the use of track panels (major track damage)
Elephant Tracker = special agent ( from “can’t find a female elephant in an open field with fresh snow” - cleaned up a little bit for forum use)
Maniac = Motorcar/master mechanic (abbreviation mnc.)
Gandy = (gandy dancer) track laborer, caniballized “Jim Dandy”, or gander/ dance-like motion with a gang lining track with lining bars by hand
Quick Checks = claim agent
lineal spider = signal lineman
light bulb changer = signal maintainer
ground monkey = switchman on a yard lead, yard pilot for a yard cleaner at work
bridge monkey = steel bridge inspector
black thumb = weed sprayer (If it grows, it must die!)
clucks = female clerks (anybody remember “Music Man”?)
bullpen = clerks concentrated outside the supt.s office
real estate= bad, low BTU coal
boob = tie shear
bull *** = drift pin / punch
old alibi = roadmonster = roadmaster
Gaffer = track foreman
Go Devil = track handcar
gun = snooze alarm = track torpedo
hoptoad = flop-over derail
mud shop = mudchicken’s office (What’s an Oreck?)
porcupine = bamboo peacock = clearance car
snipe = track dog = trackman
lizzard scorcher = cook on a wrecker dining car
bad guess = dispatcher
cornfield meet = you are supposed to meet in a siding, not in the middle of farmer Jones’ cornfield
roman candle = boutet weld charge
alligator = switch point derail (visual)
launching pad = visitors chairs in front of trainmaster
Hey Mud! I got two more for you from this modern age: “Rug Rat” and “Ground Hog”…they both are remote control operators.
Thoroughly Modern Mookie will appreciate that! (hadn’t heard those yet, but then again, I don’t run the trains, I just supply the steering)
Mudchicken
[quote]
QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken
OK - Back from planting trees on the yellow peril. Concerned to see that Mookie is talking to herself again (Yes, have to work to eat and keep my critters in Kibble)…Here goes the obvious:
Panel Party = Derailment requiring the use of track panels (major track damage)
Elephant Tracker = special agent ( from “can’t find a female elephant in an open field with fresh snow” - cleaned up a little bit for forum use)
Maniac = Motorcar/master mechanic (abbreviation mnc.)
Gandy = (gandy dancer) track laborer, caniballized “Jim Dandy”, or gander/ dance-like motion with a gang lining track with lining bars by hand
Quick Checks = claim agent
lineal spider = signal lineman
light bulb changer = signal maintainer
ground monkey = switchman on a yard lead, yard pilot for a yard cleaner at work
bridge monkey = steel bridge inspector
black thumb = weed sprayer (If it grows, it must die!)
clucks = female clerks (anybody remember “Music Man”?)
bullpen = clerks concentrated outside the supt.s office
real estate= bad, low BTU coal
boob = tie shear
bull *** = drift pin / punch
old alibi = roadmonster = roadmaster
Gaffer = track foreman
Go Devil = track handcar
gun = snooze alarm = track torpedo
hoptoad = flop-over derail
mud shop = mudchicken’s office (What’s an Oreck?)
porcupine = bamboo peacock = clearance car
snipe = track dog = trackman
lizzard scorcher = cook on a wrecker dining car
bad guess = dispatcher
cornfield meet = you are supposed to meet in a siding, not in the middle of farmer Jones’ cornfield
roman candle = boutet weld charge
alligator = switch point derail (visual)
flop over derail-a device attached to the track that flips over the rail and can be locked to keep cars in a siding.
clearence car a car used to check hights in tunnels and on overpasses to make sure trains can go through or underneath.
stay safe
Joe
Drift pin is a steep pin, used to hold parts together, like a handle to a shaft. A drift pin punch is a steel punch, looks like a big screwdriver, with a round profile nad blunt nose, used with a hammer to punch or “drift” these pins out of the hole.
Track panels, just what the name implies, a panel of track, pre made or pre fabricated, they are shipped in gons or flat cars, the track and ties are pre assembled, you just pick it up and put it in place, almost like model railroading in real 1 to 1 scale.
Switches, turnouts and crossover are made this way, it cheaper and quicker.
Stay Frosty,
Ed
Joe you are almost right on the derail. it is not intended to keep cars in siding it is intended to derail them this is to keep them from rolling out onto the main. it is not on siding but spurs . if you had them in sidings you would haft to throw them at both ends and replace them at both ends when leaving a siding.
Wabash:
Some sidings out here come with derails, especially in ABS and dark territory…usually when shorter sidings get used to store long cuts of grain cars etc…spur to me implies only one switch. (Difference in terminology???)
Mooks: Tried to send attached photos offline, but your ISP would always kick-em back.
Have we answered your question?
Mudchicken
ps: World War 7 (pheasant season) started Saturday morning. Not safe for birds or surveyors!