Hi all,
From an Australian perspective to US practice, is there a legal or semantic difference between a US Rail Road such as Pennsylvania Rail Road or Union Pacific Railroad and say a Railway such Southern Railway or Apache Railway… is it just a name? Just Interested!
Thanks for any help
Regards
Trevor www.xdford.digitalzones.com FYI
I don’t know the US law but from the land credited with inventing the things (and starting Australia) the two terms were used interchangably in the early years here but Railway rapidly became more common. This may have been to distinguish between the more elaborate/superior railway and lesser tramways… which at that point weren’t passenger carrying trams in town streets but very basic tramroads serving quarries - often in conjunction with canals.
As far as I know the US never had any significant system of tramroads (except possibly in the Eastern mining areas)? so there was never a big difference to distinguish.
As far as I can tell (and I have been reading about railways and railroads for the past 20 years) it is just part of the name of the company and totally up to the individual corporation. Often times, if a company goes out of business and is replaced by a new company, they will keep the old name and just change the “railroad” part of it to “railway” (or vice versa) to set it apart from the original company.
But as far as there being regulations (or even a convention) that says that one type of company must be called a railway and all others must be called railroads… there ain’t none!
Of course, railway does sound more European and railroad sounds more American and/or Canadian.
-George
George is right. There is a legal difference between “railway” and “railroad” but it is only to distinguish one similarly named coropration from its sucessor. Typically, this occurred druing bankruptcy or other reorganization. Another way to do this is to drop or add a city’s name to the corporation’s name. Sometimes, the same line would go through a whole variety of permutations of such “paper” name changes.
As for any other meaning, no, there is no effective difference under the law, AFAIK. It’s possible that certain states may recognize the difference between a common carrier and a private, industrial line by using this terminology to differentiate the two. But there is no such standard across the United States.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/quick/queries/railway.html The answer may lie here:
For those who can not get to the link, here is the response (FYI Railway is used more in Canada than Rail Road/Railroad):
Rail came to Middle English from the Old French term for “iron rod” (reille), which in turn is based on the Latin word for “rule” or “straight stick” (regula). Way was carted into Old English from the German and Dutch terms for “move or carry” (weg). Road is an Old English term for journey by horseback (rad), which is related to the verb “ride” (ridan).
These words have been closely tied since the 19th century, and nobody – not even journalists at CP or the CBC – can railroad you into picking one term over the other. Both news organizations prefer railway. So does the Globe and Mail’s Style Book, which boldly states that “Railway is the Canadian term.”
Oxford’s Guide to Canadian English Usage is a little less rigid:
“Canadians say both railwayand railroad, but railway is much more common, as in the company name Canadian National Railways. Railway is also preferred in Britain. Railroad is more common in the United States.”
Proper nouns can be tricky, and many news outlets warn writers to make sure they get a company’s name correct – for example, some firms use Railway, others Railroad, and still others Rail Road. So while the U.S.-based Associated Press tells its journalists to write “railroad” in all second refer
Several companies flipflopped between “railroad” and “railway” with every change of the wind (merger, bankruptcy or corporate restructuring.) One such was the Norfolk and Western.
To the many to whom “railway” suggests light, temporary or substandard construction, the Norfolk and Western Railway just doesn’t fit the picture. There was nothing light about 131 pound rail with five feet of crushed limestone ballast under it and doubleheaded Y6’s on top!
Chuck (who models a prototype called “railway” in English, written with two kanji meaning iron road)
Just to throw a monkey wrench into the discussion, consider the addition of “Southern Pacific Lines” LOL Don’t you just love the English language? jc5729
Basically from what I understand It depended on how the owners naming it felt and the two were interchangeable.Although railroad seems to be used more for American companies and railway for European companies. I guess it’s more a geographic thing.
Sorry, in Canada the preference is railWAY, Canadian Pacific Railway, (and did we get in trouble for using the term railroad) Canadian National Railway, etc. etc. ----And legally, there is a considerable difference between a railway and a railroad, it is not a random choice of words, it’s just not that simple, the courts of law made sure of that.--------- Canada is not Part of the U.S. lol
I grew up in England, so they were always Railways to me. As an middle aged adult I got back in to the hobby, but live in the USA. When the bug bit, I did several Google searches for Model Railway and was mighty dissapointed to find very few US links. For at least a week I was under the impression that this hobby did not exist in the US. Then I realized the error of my ways and have been a model railroader ever since.
Mostly just cultural convention… Several years back our councils Boy Scout Camp had an international Scout on staff from England. Among several English Scouting songs he taught us was a round that started: “There was a terrible collision on the Railway line…” He came to our camp for 3 years. 2 years after he was gone, the song was being sung: “There was a terrible collision on the Railroad line…” Culture can be hard to overcome. On the other hand our local shortline here in Geneva, NY is the Finger Lakes Railway! [;)][:D]
Imagine, if you will, Gordie Lightfoot’s voice singing the following: “There was as time, in this fair land, when the railxxxx did not run.”
Did he get it wrong?
Gordie lived most of his life in the U.S.
You make it sound as if he is dead. [:D]
Back to the topic, the Canadian government acts and regulations around transportation only reference railways, no railroads, that I could find anyway.
And another one to mess up the discussion was the Reading. It was the Reading Company, never was the Reading Railroad or Railway.
Actually, it was called “Southern Pacific Lines” because it referred to ocean-going liners, riverboats, and ferries as well as railroads. The company itself was the “Southern Pacific Railroad,” which was actually purchased by Central Pacific as a holding company because Kentucky’s laws regarding corporations were particularly lenient, which is how a Kentucky holding company came to dominate California, operated out of Sacramento and then San Francisco.