Rereading some of my old Kalmbach how-to books from the 60s. They refer to a layout as a pike.
From a quick google search one answer: Just as pikes were the original toll roads, railroads were also named pikes since you had to pay to ride.
I don’t understand how pike made the jump to a model railroad. I do like the term. “I’m building a pike in my basement”. Sounds kind of cool.
Becareful what you call your train table
Language evolves over time. There are a lot expressions and words from when I was a kid that we never hear anymore.
I believe that there are a lot of four letter words that we can use when referring to our layouts. ‘Pike’ is one that you can use when you are in a good mood. Sorry, I can’t print the four letter words that you can (and will) use when things aren’t going so smoothly! It goes something like this:“…[:(!][banghead][soapbox][|(]…”
[swg][(-D][(-D][(-D]
Regards,
Dave
Building a pike in the basement beats catching one there…
(Apologies and condolences to those adversely affected by the ongoing high water events around the country.)
For that matter, doesn’t pike live on in some product names?
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in the garage, no basement)
Seems to me on this forum (or the old Atlas one?) a few years ago there was a long discussion of “pike” in model railroad terminology. Anyway, a “pike” is a sharp metal piece, like the pikes carried by medieval soldiers (basically like a spear). The part of a belt buckle that sticks into the holes in the belt are also “pikes”. In olden days, pikes were set up as a barrier to keep you from going onto a toll road unless you paid. Once you paid, the guard turned the pointed part of the pike so you could go through…hence “turnpike”.
Pike came to be used to refer to a railroad later, and as you note, became a common term early model railroaders used for their layouts or the free-lance railroads they had created. It was still used now and then when I started reading MR back in 1971, but seemed to die out by the eighties…I think John Armstrong used it in one of his books in the early eighties, that was about the last time I saw it used.
It is funny how phrases change and get recycled. When phonograph records were only 78 RPM 10" disks, you could only get about 4 minutes on each side, so one song on each side. If you really liked an artist, you could buy a collection of three or four 78s sold together in sort of a big notebook type deal with places for each record. Since they resembled photo albums, they were called “record albums”. Later when 33-1/2 LP (Long Playing) 12" records came out, since they had multiple songs on them, they were called “albums” too, even though there normally was only one record in each package.
I remember a column in one of the magazines that was called “Along The Pike” IIRC it discussed modeling trends and general hobby information.
Anybody recall that?
I started rail hobby magazines instead of comics at a early age
As Chuck points out, our use of the word lives on in “Pikestuff”
Dave Nelson
“Pike,” along with “loco,” is one of the words Andy Sperandeo banished from the pages of MR when he took over as editor. He may be gone now, but we still follow his style rule.
Oh? Well I much prefer the word “pike” to the word “build”. Where did “the build” come from and what does it mean? Some new fangled yuppie word to confuse us old folks, just like “hashtag”. No, it’s a pound sign, darn it!
The term “pike” can also mean “pike sized trains”.
Maxman,
LOL…[bow]
I caught My first Northern Pike in 1957 and My first ‘‘pike’’ at home was a 4x8 started in 1950…
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
“Hash (sign)” dates to at least the late 60s and probably later. Its not a “pound sign” in the rest of the English speaking world, because “pound sign” is a funny L looking thing that I don’t know how to make on a keyboard in America. Hashtag is a new term that involves tagging something with a hash, but the actual symbol is a hash.
Build as a noun is so old I can’t even find a date for it.
It appears Maxman is correct…with ‘‘hashtag’’:
http://blog.dictionary.com/octothorpe/
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
Pike with a side of hash makes a great shore lunch.
I like the term “Pike” as it fits my age, unlike the new language that bores me too tears.
oh crap, I Just realized I’m an old fart!
I started to use ‘Layout’ many years ago. Yeah, loco can also go as I never used it anyway.
As far back as I can remember (not always that far) that “pound” was known as a number sign. Perhaps a shorter shortform for “number” than “no.”. Of course, it makes me wonder from where the “o” came, as it’s certainly not in “number”…shoulda been “nu.” perhaps?
As for the real pound sign, press the NUMBER LOCK key then hold down the ALT key and type, on the number pad, 0163 - when you release the the ALT key, £ will appear.
Wayne
Oh yea, pike, as I know it as northern pike, and even my grandpa called walleyes, the walleyed pike.
I never did understand the term as used for a railroad, so maybe I’ll learn something in this thread !
Keep talking guys, I’m “listening”.
Mike.
There have been some other vocabulary changes in recent years. What we used to call outside braced boxcars we now call single-sheathed (as opposed to double-sheathed). What were roofwalks are now running boards. Even way back I don’t think many modelers referred to “cow catchers” but they are surely all “pilots” now. Clever ideas were called “kinks” and MR had a column, “Kinks.”
The “dress code” has changed as well. Guys used to put on the old fashioned striped “engineers caps” at operating sessions. Those caps were made by Kromer which was in the same building 1027 N 7th as Kalmbach. They probably sold more to modelers than to real railroaders by the 1950s. Many caps had Al Kalmbach’s slogan “Model Railroading is Fun” on the front - even RMC’s Hal Carstens was photographed in such a hat. At NMRA conventions guys would walk around wearing vests covered with railroad patches, or would have hats covered with railroad pins. Almost as strange as the fishing hats covered with artificial lures. And when you’d meet a fellow “model rail” you’d exchange passes, the back of which would have various funny “rules” (maybe it is “funny” that should be in quotes since as a rule the same jokey rules were on everyone’s passes). And yeah, you’d talk about your pikes or your latest loco. Complain about the darned Baker or Mantua couplers, swap insights as to the best way to dye sawdust for scenery, and brag about the great deal you got on carbon tetrachloride for (brass) track cleaning, or shredded asbestos for mountains. [Other topics: prices are too high, nobody is a “real” modeler anymore, and so on and so on. Well OK, not everything has changed …]
For actual railfanning however, guys dressed surprisingly nicely, so
Anyone else remember This Could Be Your Pike about John Allen’s Gorre & Daphetid?