Here’s a thread that I hope won’t be found to be controversial.
As a kid in Cleveland I sometimes passed by a large old factory called Cleveland Frog & Crossing. I have always liked the musical alliteration of that name. Later, in college, my buddy told me about Union Switch & Signal. Another musical name!
What are some other railroad-related companies with nice, old-fashioned, alliterative names? Anyone? Anyone?
And does anyone know what’s become of the above two companies?
Western Cullen Hayes
Can’t forget WABCO.
Which is now largely WABTEC
LC
Orion!
Cleveland Frog on Crossing manufacturer of rail was located on Bessemer Ave., eventually became known as Pettibone, I believe they went out of business late 1990.
US&S merged with Ansaldo STS in 1996, manufacturing basically the same type equipment.
NKP guy,
Well, I’m now the big 70, and can remember several of the former class I’s. I had the privilege of riding the Cannonball from St. Louis to Detroit in the early sixties. Steam would have been great but my trip was behind diesel. Wabash was still king then. That was my last and most memorable railroad trip. I clocked the train with my stpowatch at a steady eighty MPH. I couldn’t have asked for better back then.
I live about forty miles away from Milan, MI, and when I visit with NS crews there we all have fond remembrances of days gone by. They are a good bunch or railroaders…
Adlake Locks…
Star Lanterns (and beacons). Not as musical as Adlake… but, cmon… STAR
Nope: Emerged from the ashes as Cleveland Track Material (CTM - Resurected by Bill Willoughby and Ch. Engr. Carl Axthelm ) …now a division of Vossloh. Main plant is still on Bessemer Avenue…
I’ve been in the plant. (still recycles railcar axles into angle bars.)
-Racor Duweld & Ramapo add to the list
IT’d add Conely Frog & Switch on E. Bodley Ave. in Memphis,Tn. IIRC
About 1990 they purchased a big chunck of railroad business from Bethelem Steel ( Steelton, Pa.(?) [%-)]
I’m not 100% sure on the last part, I know at about that time tere were some articles in the Memphis newspaper about it. [X-)]
Maybe, Paul North can confirm/deny the last part. That’s up in his neck of the woods. [:-^]
And Adlake is a contraction of Adams and Westlake…
Of course the classic was Conrail, from Consolodate Railroad, still alive as Conrail Shared Assets, still in Blue too!
And the Soo Line. Someone else spell out the full name.
Laural Line for Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley, another interurban that should be running today and partly does! May the rest be restored, soon!
And the Katy.
And didn’t was aways call the MP the Mopack? (But not the Upack, NoPack, nor SouPack.)
My candidate for most musical of all railroad names: Erie Lackawanna.
Also the best name to ever come out of a RR merger!
I agree wholeheartedly. DPM had a soft spot for Alabama Great Southern (part of Southern/NS). Another favorite of mine is Missouri & Illinois Bridge & Belt (part of BNSF).
…just WUMPS…the sound a flat wheel makes going down the track
The “Hojack” - that portion of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburgh that ran from Oswego to Niagara Falls.
How about the Pee Dee River Railway. It’s part of the Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad which name has always fascinated me for some reason.
…O&W Old Woman
The Horny Toad - AQ to El Paso on ATSF
Bow & Arrow Country - CRIP branch lines in Iowa
CRANDIC in Hanel’s backyard
I thought that “Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific” had a nice lyrical sound to it. Come to think of it, “New York, New Haven & Hartford” did too.
Yes - but I believe what Conley agreed to buy in late 1992 was only BSCo’s trackwork fabrication operation = “Frog & Switch Division” at Steelton, PA. See "Conley agrees to buy Bethlehem business - Conley Frog and Switch Co. acquisition of Bethlehem Steel’s railroad track business - Brief Article