General Patton was a notoriously poor speller.
He used to say "Look, any damn fool can spell a word the same way all the time. It takes skill and imagination to come up with different spellings at different times like I do!"
What a guy.
Firelock76I for one don't wan't any "Grammar Police" on the Forum. I'd hate to have a postential poster frightened away because his (or her) spelling, sentence structure, syntax, or grammar isn't as good as it might be.
We've had several in the past who made a real mess out of the queen's English, but they got their point across and no one hassled them for it. In some ways, it made what they had to say just a little more authentic.
My father was a horrible speller. On more than one occasion came the call from the basement (where there was a cabinet called the "secretary" - an office in a box, if you will) with Dad asking Mom how to spell this or that.
On the other hand, there are some people who manage to massacre the language in such a way that one wonders if they've had any formal education whatsoever. That on top of the fact that what they often have to offer is of little or no value (except possibly as comic relief).
But this is just one little Internet forum among many. Grammatical gaffes are of little consequence here. As offered by the OP, however, a publication which is asking for money for the privilege of reading it, and which asserts itself as a source of factual information ought to, by rights, provide said factual information correctly and in the appropriate manner.
Which, for a newspaper, has traditionally been at the fourth grade level...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Just a quick one and I'll depart.
I for one don't wan't any "Grammar Police" on the Forum. I'd hate to have a postential poster frightened away because his (or her) spelling, sentence structure, syntax, or grammar isn't as good as it might be.
There's a lot of people out there who've probably got some important things to say and I for one would like to hear from them, however they say it.
"Classic Toy Trains" has a Forum as well, and some of the posters on that one aren't too grammatical. You know what? No-one cares.
Very often (very) when I am working as conductor (in full uniform, no less) a parent will point me out and tell Junior that I'm the conductor, and that I drive the train...
Or, as I walk through a train (in full uniform), I'll be asked who's running the locomotive, if I'm back on the train...
I generally take a moment to correct them, but apparently the word isn't getting out...
Oddly, if I'm engineer that day, dressed all in denim with the requisite hat, very few will realize I'm the engineer. Some think I'm the conductor, although in this case, they're right when they say I drive the train...
Several years ago, after a rail incident here, the local emergency manager (who I know very well) sicced a reporter from the local paper on me for my comments. To the reporter's credit, he noted that I was speaking only as someone with an interest in railroads, and actually got most everything right.
We have similar problems in the fire service, where some fire chiefs hate the media, rather than using them as a resource ("a smoke detector would have lessened the damage from this fire...") The result is that reporter then gets whatever he can from whoever he can - including the proverbial gap-toothed woman in curlers who says "it was a really big far."
Sometimes the small town newspapers are really better than their big city cousins. The reporters may have a personal interest in the small town (they live there, after all), and want to get it right.
"Denning car" the car in which pets and animals are carried in comfortable cages.
"Dunning car" the car in which a collection agency does its business.
garyla schlimm ACY Mennie uv thim cant eevun spel. Thay reelie up on Spel Chek & doo knot no thu diffrents beetweene too wurds thet sowned simuler. Waddaya eggspeckt? TYom (hard to misspell that) It's not just reporters or even current educational fads. There are plenty of the over-50 crowd on here who cannot spell and misuse words over and over. Eg., dinner or dinning car for diner or dining car. The "dinner car"? Of course! That's where I go to get dinner! Where else?
schlimm ACY Mennie uv thim cant eevun spel. Thay reelie up on Spel Chek & doo knot no thu diffrents beetweene too wurds thet sowned simuler. Waddaya eggspeckt? TYom (hard to misspell that) It's not just reporters or even current educational fads. There are plenty of the over-50 crowd on here who cannot spell and misuse words over and over. Eg., dinner or dinning car for diner or dining car.
ACY Mennie uv thim cant eevun spel. Thay reelie up on Spel Chek & doo knot no thu diffrents beetweene too wurds thet sowned simuler. Waddaya eggspeckt? TYom (hard to misspell that)
Mennie uv thim cant eevun spel. Thay reelie up on Spel Chek & doo knot no thu diffrents beetweene too wurds thet sowned simuler. Waddaya eggspeckt?
TYom (hard to misspell that)
It's not just reporters or even current educational fads. There are plenty of the over-50 crowd on here who cannot spell and misuse words over and over. Eg., dinner or dinning car for diner or dining car.
The "dinner car"? Of course! That's where I go to get dinner! Where else?
Johnny
Respondents on a forum --- any forum --- are simply writing as interested amateurs. I moderate my expectations. For reporters, it's THEIR JOB to know their way around the English language.
Spelling, grammar, punctuation, agreement, usage, context, etc. are all parts of that job, as well as accuracy in reporting. Properly done, it's not an easy job. However, they did take the job and the paycheck, so it shouldn't be too much to expect a certain degree of competence.
Carelessness with the language is a red flag to me. It indicates that the writer is likely to be careless with the facts, too.
That's one thing that made Rosie Entringer great. Ask Angie.
Tom
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
zugmannschlimm Perhaps some of the trainmen and other experts should share their knowledge with the local and other media? But it's more fun and easier to ridicule. Nope. You let the PR people do that. Never talk to the media.
I once offered to discuss a subject (firearms) in which I was knowledgeable and they were not, compounded by misinformation. The responce was interesting: "No. we don'i have time and the details aren't important to anyone."
It has long seemed to me that like The New Yorker, Trains magazine goes out of its way to edit and proof what they publish. In fact, considering all the picayune details that railfans are notorious for pointing out, I think Trains has done an exemplary job over the decades. Of course, newspapers, especially local papers, can't do the same editing & proofing that a magazine with editors and proofreaders can; the budget just doesn't allow it.
Since my book on our town's main railroad was published a few years ago, and the older, more authoritative men who really knew about these matters have died, I find that now I am the guy the reporters at the local newspsaper call when they want to know what's going on as far as some railroad issue and our community is concerned, or how to accurately describe something like a derailment. Let me say that is a huge self-imposed responsibility: to be the accurate in what I tell the paper to say, as it were.
Try not to be so hard on young newspaper reporters trying to get out a story for which they have little or no background help. Tomorrow they will have to write a story about local school issues, or sewers, or airport expansion, or the county fair, or corruption at the courthouse; they can't be experts at everything. Remember, local newspapers today are like steam locomotives in 1951: Who knows how long they are going to last?
After all, these reporters write for low-budget local or regional newspapers. They're not writing for Trains magazine.
Years ago, newspapers had enought reporters on hand to allow some degree of specialization, which let them develop some basic knowledge about the subjects they covered. Today, the reporter lucky enought have a job - even in a major market - might cover a grade collision today, a tech company's IPO tomorrow morning, and a city council meeting tomorrow night. If you've follow Don Phillip's writing over the past 30 years, you can clearly see what 's happened to reporting over this period.
And, the official spokesman for the company may be like the new brass hat who noticed, in a yard, many short sections of rail with bent ends that were never touched by a wheel when any movement went over them, and suggested that they be taken up, straightened, and laid where they were of use--and he was corrected by an old head who explained to him the value of the guard rails at various locations.
schlimm And since the PR people are apparently not very well informed, why complain every time when the media gets it wrong, when they have no reliable, accurate sources and the T&E folks are either censored by the company or themselves?
And since the PR people are apparently not very well informed, why complain every time when the media gets it wrong, when they have no reliable, accurate sources and the T&E folks are either censored by the company or themselves?
I dont' complain. They can call the guy behind the throttle the sugar gum drop fairy for all I care...
Granted, the real sugar gum drop fairies may protest.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
edblysardNo way, our social media and news media protocalls forbid, in writing, any T&E employee from speaking to any media representative for any reason. Only the prescribed spokesman for my carrier can talk to a reporter.
RR Peons don't talk to the media - Those authorized to talk to the media don't do it very well as they are barely more railroad literate than the media.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
23 17 46 11
schlimm Perhaps some of the trainmen and other experts should share their knowledge with the local and other media? But it's more fun and easier to ridicule.
Perhaps some of the trainmen and other experts should share their knowledge with the local and other media? But it's more fun and easier to ridicule.
Nope. You let the PR people do that. Never talk to the media.
Norm48327Ninety percent of the "experts" they interview on TV are clueless.
Ninety percent? Where do I go to check that statement for accuracy? Wait, I read it on the Internet,so it must be true. Trains Magazine has to answer to somebody (us) for it's inaccuracies. Those who post on this site (us), do not.
I can answer your question in a single word. NOPE!
There was a day when reporters studied their subject a bit before writing. That doesn't happen any more. They wing it and are frequently wrong. You should see what they do to aviation. Ninety percent of the "experts" they interview on TV are clueless.
Norm
At least "Trains" will acknowledge their mistakes and hang their heads in shame.
The mainline media could care less.
The engineer operates the engine and the train. The conductor is in charge of the train and generally keeps the paperwork (train lists, work orders, etc.) for the train. He also is the one to get on the ground to switch cars in or out of the train as needed.
I'm sure we have all seen news items regarding the conductor operating the engine, such as the reporting of a grade crossing incident. Usually when I see something like that, it doesn't bother me. Most reporters aren't railroad employees or even railfans. They don't know any better and probably don't care about such technicalities.
So why should a caption to a photograph in a magazine get my goat? Because you would think the magazine in question would know better. Of course I'm talking about the caption on page 37 of the October 2015 Trains Magazine.
Maybe Mr. Arnold is a set-back engineer, but he clearly looks to be performing, and dressed for, the work of a conductor or brakeman. (Or their yard equivalents.) He certainly isn't an engineer on this day.
Since we're on the subject of captions. One other one in the same issue on page 46, the one of the brakeman walking on top of the narrow gauge box cars. I think the correct term for what he is carrying is a brake club. A long piece of hardwood used to help set the old time hand brakes.
Picking of nits, to be sure. Still someone is going to eventually say, "I saw it in Trains, THE magazine of railroading so it must be true."
Jeff
PS. It really didn't get my goat that much. I just thought it ironic how we pummel the general media over such things and then Trains kind of does the same thing.
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