Origins of the term "Shoofly" track....?

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I’ve been absorbed [:p][:)] studying the photos of the trains rolling through the new Reno Trench in the March '06 edition of Trains Mag.

Article mentions the use of a shoofly track beside the trench to keep traffic moving during construction. I understand the application, but wonder where the name comes from? [:I] At first glance, one wouldn’t know straight up what shoofly was referring to…well…me at least…[:I]…maybe it’s an “up over” term?

Kozzie[:)]

2

Since you tell flys to “shoo”…maybe they call it that because the tracks sort of “shoo” away and around the work area, like a construction or rehab site, or even a derailment or other mishap site.

3

A shoo-fly was an electric device with arms that rotated slowly like a helicopter. From the arms were strung pieces of fabric, hanging down like small flags. The purpose was exactly what the name implies – it was placed in the middle of a food serving table to shoo the flies away from the vittles. Mostly seen Southern US.

Or, more liberally, any device used to shag insects away from farm animals, food, etc. Some companies also made hand-held shoo-flies from horses’ tail hair – which may be the original shoo-fly.

4

Zach - that’s what I’ve been thinking too, but appreciate any confirmation on that…

Dave

5

I knew it had to have been a southern origin…I hear the phrase pretty often here, lol.

6

I don’t think that’s the origin.

The term shoo-fly dates to at least a popular song of 1870. The word has no derivation; it was a “fad word” that was attached to many things in the 1870s.

7

I was looking for a pic of one of those. Saw one recently on “Antiques Roadshow” although the only difference was they said they were used in the South “in the days before electricity” although I couldn’t figure out how they could operate without a little juice…[%-)]
Most of the shoo-fly pics I found were quilt designs, but here’s a good railroad one: http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/05-06-30_ST_LOUIS_TRIP/UP-Alton-Shoo-Fly.html

8

I remember seeing things like that – sort of a horizontal fan – that wound up with clockwork, so it could have been pre electric — similar to the toy that was popular in the early 1960s that rotated a piece of wire around that you were supposed to jump over – sort of an armless jump rope.

Reasoning backwards a shoofly is purely temporary slow speed track that is rather casually constructed but in a great hurry. I assume it was an annoyance to engine crews and track crews alike – that might explain the name
Dave Nelson
Dave Nelson