I was riding the elevator up to work today. It was unusually slow with a stop at 8 in the 15-floor block of the elevator. When the last person got off with me, he said, “looks like we really caught the local.” I know him, and doubt he knows the etimology of that statemet. It got me thinking of just how many statements are out there in every day language that derive from railroad–most, people don’t even realize that they come from railroading:
In addition to “looks like we caught the local” for the elevator ride, I have heard, “looks like we got behind a real milk train.”
“He will make the grade” and “you are on the right track” are probably the most ubiquitous.
Haha! I thought we were the only ones with lousy elevators, we refer to them like subway trains, catching the “local” which stops at every floor, or catching the “express” which goes staight to your floor.
Others,
Off your trolley, (fallen off your trolley, implying head injury or other serious lapse in judgement because your out of common agreement with others, howver it could also refer to the trolley coming off the rails, as a contraction of “your trolleys gone off its rails” see below)
On the right track (self explainitory)
Coming off the rails, Gone off your rails (another trolley term where the trolley once derailed, would often continue rolling down the street often doing serious damage)
The caboose aint hooked to the engine (self explainitory)
Highballing it (driving fast, originally from when track signals used a large sphere on a pole, a “high” ball on the pole ment track clear so the train could proceed at full speed.
Elijah McCoy was a inventor from Canada who invented many devices for application on steam engines…he received almost 100 US and CA patents…the term itself comes from a lubricator he invented for crossheads…it worked so well that many patient infringers attemtped to copy it unsuccessfully and hence the term “its a real McCoy”…note the term doesnt say “the real…”…the term obiviously changed over the years as Elijah was forgotten.
Contrary to what rabble might believe, the “Real McCoy” was a term used in reference to a bearing lubricator, invented by Elijah McCoy and quite popular with locomotive shops, due to its ruggedness and serviceability.
Engineers often asked if the locomotive was equipped with “the real McCoy” lubricator.
This one I got from Wikipedia, so believe at your own risk.
In the early days of railroads, small communities didn’t have infrastructure set up to re-supply steam locomotives with water. And so the crew would stop at a nearby river and refill the tanks with buckets. This process was referred to as “jerking water”, hence the term “jerkwater town”.
I wonder how long it took to refill a locomotive by hand…
In Germany they often use the phrase, “Der Zug ist abgefahren,”/that train has departed, which means about the same as “missing the boat”. “Auf dem Abstellgleis”/on the spur refers to something becoming obsolete.
Does it count when a railfan or railroader attaches a caboose to his daughter’s train at her wedding?
Kind of backwards, but…
As for “jerkwater” (which is one notch below “tank town”), most steam locomotives could be set up to siphon the necessary water out of said stream, so bucket brigades weren’t necessary. It had better be good, pure water, though.
The “wrong side of the tracks” usually referred at one time to whichever side the prevailing winds blew toward–laundry and everything else would be soiled by steam and coal smoke.