Now, please don’t think I’m ignorant, but I just don’t understand some of the slang “real” railroaders use. Could somebody translate and/or expound upon some of their meanings? For example:
Who is the “hogger” and why is he called that?
Why would you “notch out” an engine? What does this mean?
What is the difference between various freight train types such as “manifest”, “symbol”, “merchandise”, etc.?
Why do railroaders “go to beans” and what does it mean?
What is “dead-heading”?
I’d appreciate your answers, as well as any obscure slang you could think of. Thanks in advance!
Hogger is an engineman, coming from the term hog applied to locomotive. Go to beans means eat lunch. Dead heading is an employee riding a train, but not while on duty. Notch out refers to the notches on a throttle, so notch out = open throttle. There is a lot of slang and a lot of overlapping terms. Here is a big list of slang:
At the bottom of the page you are reading right now are 4 blue lines. The third one is labeled “For Newcommers:”. On the right side of that line is a link to “Railroad Glossary”. That link is to a page that has 4 links on it. The 4th one is to a glossary for “real” railroads. Most of the words you are seeking are listed there, but for “Go to beans” you have to infer that “Beanery” is the subject of the phrase.
Be aware it does have at least one error in it. Egide Walschaerts first name is misspelled (‘g’ and ‘d’ are swapped).
Hogger is usually the guy moving the locos in an nengine terminal, Hoging is usually slanf for reaching the maximum hours of service.
Diesel only have 8 notches, or “gears” if you were in a car. Notching out is topping out. Steamers have 10-12, sometimes more. Depending on the railroad. It’s ball’s out running.
Go to beans is going to eat. Dead heading is riding home on a train without pay.
Manifest and merchandise are similar meanings, I.E., general frieght/mixed freight. Thought back in the day Merchandise frieghts were prioity mixed freight. Symbols trains are scheduled trains with a number (BN #142, a Minneapollis-Eola Manifest) or alphebet-type( MPLELAM , Minneapolis-Eola Manifest) symbol to designate it, as compared to an extra, which is only known by the lead locomotives number. Althought not quite correct, are basic examples. (there was a 142, but i’m not sure what BNSF symbols for it are now, it was an example.) Their are as many "slangs for similar terms as there are railroads. CB&Q called their interuban trains from Aurora to Chicago “dinkies”. Rock Island, and CNW, called them “suburbans”. Somebody, I think, MLWK,or IC called them “shuttles”. N&W called
Depends on your railroad pedigree and where you’re at…(does’t say a thing about mudchickens on those eastern lines does it? **[oops - it does!]…**or that CW/Paula is the Chief “lizard scorcher” here at DD&CS.
But we aren’t driving stakes. We’re planting trees! (little 2"x2"x18" ones with pointed ends!)
The one eveyone got wrong was dead head, and the term means traviling with out performing service but you get paid. In other words ive deadheaded in a cab and deadheaded on a train not working just riding as man power move
To move in a train, not to support its operation, but to be properly positioned for later work. Can apply to railroad employees as well as equipment.
**DEADHEAD-**Employee riding on a pass; any nonpaying passenger. Also fireman’s derisive term for head brakeman who rides engine cab. Also a locomotive being hauled “dead” on a train
It may be less a regional thing than a time difference (although there are some regionalisms, like southern railroaders calling the conductor the “captain”.) Most of the terms asked about here are old “steam era” terms. People in the 1930’s would understand referring to a small diner as a ‘beanery’ so ‘going for beans’ would make sense then. I don’t think current railroaders call diesels ‘hogs’ for example, so “hoghead” wouldn’t be obvious for an engineer.
By the way the “hog law” has to do with hours of continuous service - you could only work 16 hours (I think it’s 12 now?) in train service, then you “went dead” and had to be replaced, and you couldn’t be called back to service for 8 hours so you could (in theory) get some rest. Before there were laws controlling how long a man could work on a train, there were laws on how long pigs or other livestock could be on a train before they had to be removed from the train and given food and water. So when laws were created for railroaders, I think they combined the idea of '“hogger” for an engineer, and the existing “hog laws” regarding livestock to use the term “hog law” to refer to the engine crew time limit laws.
Just a little more on “deadhead” - ideally, an engineer would run a train from one division point to another division point, have 8+ hours of rest, and run a train back to his home division the next da
And “Hostler” is slang for the Yard Engineer, Van is Eastern Canadian for Caboose, PK means “Parting Knot” which means a wave from the cab, O.S ing means (Reporting a train by station to the train dispatcher) Good Joint means a good coupling, and so on…
The word “Hostler” came from the owner of a “Hostle” or “Hotel” taking care of a traveler’s horse when they came to stay. Thus “Hostler” became the title of the person that cares for horses, and it was a natural transferance of the occupation name to the person that cares for “Iron Horses”.
In the RR sense, the Hostler is the employee that preps an engine for work before the Road Engineer and Fireman take over. With steam locomotives it takes several hours to get the engine ready for work and that would leave too few hours for a Road crew to travel far on the road if they had to do the prep, so a different employee does it and that person is the “Hostler”.
I wonder… are there any jobs in the RR industry that still retain that 'title"? Maybe a person employed at a large engine repair terminal to just jockey the locomotives around the yard to/from the repair buildings?
The former BN side of BNSF has hostlers, and some larger ATSF yards use hostlers such as Argentine. Hostlers even today dont have to be engineers, Hostlers may move locomotives within the terminal as long as cars are not attached. Also, hostlers may not run locomotives past switching limits of a terminal on a main line (although I think there may be a few exceptions to this rule).
Hoslting crews consist of a Hostler, and a helper.
While many engineers may not like this term, I have heard RCO operators refered to as ground-hogs.