Here’s a little post Thanksgiving pre-Christmas brain game. Can you come up with any uncomplimentary nicknames for fallen flags based on the railroad’s initials? To get the ball rolling:
Ontario and Western: “Off and Walk” “Old and Weary”
Denver and Rio Grande Western: “Dangerous and Rapidly Getting Worse”
C&NW: Cheap and Nothing Wasted or Cardboard and No Wheels
CGW: Cinders, Grass and Weeds
BN: Big Nothing
BNSF: Big New Super Frisco or Been Nothing Since Frisco
WSOR: We Scare Other Railroads, Winter Slows Our Railroad, Wisconsin’s School Of Railroading, William Squanders Our Resources.
There are about 100 of them for the WSOR, but some can only be told at basement slide shows.
Lance
SCL: slowboard coast line.
The old Somerset and Dorset (S&D) over in the the UK was known as Slow and Dirty.
NYC = Now your crawling, No you can’t.
W&LE = Weak & lacks enthusiasm.
I did like the pre merger painting of the SPSF.= Shouldn’t paint so fast. The merger was denied.
PC = Pin cushion, people crashing, plum crazy, please call, please care. There are many more but most can not be printed here.
D&LW = Dangerous and looks wavy, Derails & lacks wheels.
Pete
C.P.R. Sleepy R. there is another, but not politically correct.
One I heard a few weeks ago for the C&NW. Cheap and Nothing Works. This from an old head talking about something from his CNW days.
Jeff
The weary Erie.
ns-nothing special
up-under powered
cn-can not
maw-mangled and wrecked
I have others as well but we can’t post them here.
stay safe
Joe
All old standbys:
Minneapolis & St. Louis:
Misery & Short Life, Midnight & Still Later, Maimed & Still Limping
Chicago and North Western:
Cheap and Nothing Wasted
(Chicago) Great Western:
Great Weedy
Soo Line:
Slow Line
Delaware & Lackawanna Western:
Delay, Linger & Wait
Kurt hayek
Thank You.
EL: Erie Lackomoney
TP&W = Two Ponies and a Wagon
GM&O greasy, muddy and oily
Leavenworth, Kansas & Western leave Kansas & walk
SP suffering pacific
UP Onion Pacific
LaSalle & Bureau County–LSBC was Let’s Steal Box Cars (because they did from the Penn Central).
The IMRL: It’s Milwaukee Road-Like
MRL: Milwaukee Road Lives
Lance
TP&W - Totally Pathetic and Worthless
Delaware&Hudson…Delay&Hesitate
DJ Hempeler
How about a small variation on Murray’s nickname: “Eerie Lack-o’-money?”
My “Aunt Dude” commuted for years between Harlem Ave., Berwyn, and Chicago Union Station on the “Crash, Bounce & Quiver.”
And at one time the C.B.& Q. had a subsidiary operation known as the “Crummy & Slow,” the “Cream & Sugar,” or the “Cinders & S**t.”
Eventually all of these railroads folded into the “Big New Santa Fe.”
Being a former C&NW man, the best one I heard was “Can’t & Never Will.”