Nicknames

[Anonymous]

Got any favorite railroad nicknames? Let me give you a few of my favorites to start. D&RGW=Dangerous & Rapidly Getting Worse; M&P= Ma & Pa; NYO&W= Old Woman; and my favorite Houston East & West Texas=Hell Either Way Taken. It can be an old road long gone, or a new regional. Nearly every road has some sort of local moniker...let's hear about some of yours.

[adrianspeeder]

It's not a railroad, but me being an alco fan, I always liked to think that GM stood for Greasy Mess. Just kidding, I like EMDs just fine.

[Anonymous]

GTW crews in Michigan long ago used to call the Caseville branch (formerly Pontiac, Oxford & Northern RR) the "Pants, Overalls & Necktie." Maybe there was a mixed train with a combine or passenger coach — hence mixing the overalls with the necktie.

[Anonymous]

I attended a slide show a few months back on the Chicago & Northwestern. It was cool to see the "homemade" stuff that they would recycle. The comentator refered the CNW as " The Cheap & Nothin' Wasted.....and from what I saw I had to agree!

Icemanmike2-Milwaukee

[Anonymous]

O.K., I'll bite. here are some old time RR nicknames from Michigan.
Chicago, Kalamazoo&Saginaw: Cuss, kick, and Swear.
Grand Trunk: Grunt and Tug.
Pere Marquette: Poorly managed.
Amboy, Lansing, and Traverse Bay : Always late, and terribly bumpy.
Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw: Con job, and misguided.

[cabforward]

spikesys.com has:
regular name
car abbrev.
nickname(s)-- official and unofficial.
slogans-- official and unofficial.

[REDDYK]

May I offer my personal favorite old time nickname and the ultimate put-down, the Lake Erie and Western, fondly remembered as the LEAVE EARLY AND WALK.

[Anonymous]

From a relative of a DT&I employee:

Drunks, Thieves & Idiots

Pretty much someups railroading in the 60's.

[Anonymous]

Well, come on now. Not ALL of 'em were bad. I was only aware of a very few such individuals on the GTW/ PC RR's in my area in the mid '70's. Most of those folks had been around for 10-20 years, on the RR, so they would fall into that catagory.
Todd C.

[cabforward]

this is total fiction, but in the '60s, MR had articles on r.rs. operated by people who had been in the hobby for decades. one modeler named his line the gorre & daphetid, get the pun?

another modeler had a slogan for his line, 'going nowhere fast'. can't remember the name of his line.. anybody fill-in the details?

[BR60103]

The Great Western Railway (between England and Cornwall) was known to its detractors as the Great Way Round or the Greasy, Wet and Rusty. It's fans called it God's Wonderful Railway.
I think both LNE railways (London & North Eastern, Lehigh & New England) were called Late and Never Early.
The London Chatham and Dover (London to the Channel) was called Land 'em, Cheat 'em and Turn over.
--David

[Anonymous]

BNSF:
But Nobody Said Furlough
Big New SantaFe
Better Not Start a Family
UP:
Uncle Pete

[Anonymous]

Oh, I forgot a few.
UP:
Unclean Power
You can't spell stUPid without UP

[Anonymous]

Re, Furlough; Family...without question, the railroad man's ironic humor.

[DTomajko]

PRR= Perfect Railroad B&O= Broken and Obselete NS(new)= Nazi Southern D&H= Dangerous and Hazardous

[Anonymous]

I just remembered when SP and Santa Fe wanted to merge back in the 80's.SPSF(Shouldn't Paint So Fast).
Joe

[moelarrycurly4]

L&N=Limp Noodle

[Anonymous]

The CalTrain crews refer to the all stops local that leaves SF at 12:01 am as "The Vomit Commet," due to the number of suburbanites that can't hold their liquor on Friday nights...
Jeff

[cprted]

Pacific Great Eastern - Province's Greatest Expense, Prince George Eventually, Please Go Easy, Puff, Grunt, and Expire. All of which are very accurate descriptions of the railway.

[Anonymous]

How about the Edmonton Dunvegan & British Columbia? Due to numerous derailments, it was also known as the Ever Dangerous and Badly Constructed.

[Anonymous]

The Western Pacific (WP) was affectionately known as the Wobbly P.

I once heard an SP employee refer to his own railroad the Suffering and Pathetic.

How about UP = Utterly Pathetic.

RmC

[BRAKIE]

AT&SF Ate Tamales & Spit Fire.
Columbus & Greenfield. Cornbread & Grits.
C&NW Can't & Never Will.

B&O Beef & Onions.

C&O Cornbread & Onions.

RF&P Rich Folks & Pedigrees

PPR Poor Railroad.

SP Salt & Pepper.

NYC Not Your Choice.

GN Great Nothing.

N&W NW NO Work.

NS Nothing Special