Stupid Railroad names

[oltmannd]

A long time ago, railroads tended to have names that described where they went, or their service area. e.g. Pennsylvania, New York Central, Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe, Illinois Central, Southern, Norfolk and Western. Many out grew their descriptive names, but the names still tended to be geography based. Then we got into the post WWII merger era and the new names tended to be conglomerations of the old names (Erie-Lackawanna, Burlington Northern, Norfolk Southern) or whole new creations (Conrail, CSX) none of which had any real tie to geography. Some are meaninly less, CSX, and some are just silly, Bulington Nothern Santa Fe (as if Burlington Iowa and Santa Fe NM are major centers of commerce?) Union Pacific might be the only exception to this, since they've kept their name intact through the merger madness, but even their name is somewhat misleading - being a "Union" states project chartered during the civil war.

So, the question is, if you could rename each of the major 4 US roads with a geographically based name, what would you chose?

My suggestion for CSX would be "The Great Lakes, Atlantic and Gulf Railroad".

[wallyworld]

That's an interesting question since myself and my comrades continually rant on about the stupidity of these silly names but have never been put in a position where someone said to us, Alright you smart guys..either put up or shut up... you think of a name!" I think the mega roads of today go so many places that it's a real challenge although your substitute name for CSX is great. I think I would choose a middle ground and avoid specific place names but do as the British have done and maybe go with something simpler yet geographically identifiable like The Great Eastern RR or the North Eastern RR but perhaps it does sound too generic. BNSF has to be the worst of the worst. How about Chicago Midwest & Pacific RR?

[Hugh Jampton]

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

...of course!

Maybe this is why they just put that big flag on the side. [;)]

[dave9999]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

Hugh,
Those acronyms would really stink.[;)] Dave

[Anonymous]

I know this isn't where you were going with this, but I still love the "Kankakee, Beaverton & Southern" railroad name...

Mark

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dave9999

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

Hugh,
Those acronyms would really stink.[;)] Dave

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:)][:p][:p][:D][:D][^]

It took me a while on that one, before I could figure out why nobody would want "POO" on the sides of all their locomotives.

[:D][:D][:D]

[Trainnut484]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

Just think about reactions if these two roads would have merged:

Illinois Central Union Pacific.

This name might also be too much to paint on the side of locomotives. The shortned version would have to do [;)]

Take care,

Russell

[dave9999]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

QUOTE: Originally posted by dave9999

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

UP could easily become: Pacific Omaha Overland
A good slogan would be: Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System

Of course this would be too much to paint on the side of a locomotive, so they'd have to use acronyms.

Hugh,
Those acronyms would really stink.[;)] Dave

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:)][:p][:p][:D][:D][^]

It took me a while on that one, before I could figure out why nobody would want "POO" on the sides of all their locomotives.

[:D][:D][:D]

Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System or "F.A.R.T.S".
"We ride through the night like the breaking wind" would make a nice slogan. [8D]Dave

[joseph2]

The BNSF doesn't even go to Sante Fe.Why not call it the Chicago & Pacific ?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE:
Illinois Central Union Pacific.

QUOTE:
Furthering America's Railroad Transportation System or "F.A.R.T.S".

Those executives have to be carefull when they're choosing names, I never thought about how if they didn't think carefully it could all blow up in their face.

[espeefoamer]

UPs new slogan could be,"Buying America one Railroad at a time.
[:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!][:(!]

[TH&B]

BNSF is probably the dumdest, Great North Central Pacific would do, or Western American Railroad. I like the name Union Pacific, it could be anything big and American. Canadian National is niether national nor Canadian but should keep the name for its heritage sake, or what would you call it? the Canadian & Mississippi RR?!?! or the Mississippi & Canadian?!?!
In the past the dumbest name was Pacific Great Eastern, it was niether great nor eastern nor even reached the Pacific.
Also the Frisco <SL&SF> didn't even go to San Fransisco, in fact it went east and soutwest of Saint Louis!
Dumb names, great railroads.

[tree68]

[2c] Agreed, Union Pacific , being the one remaining unchanged name, deserves to stay, other sentiments notwithstanding.

Many railroads, large and small, never reached one or the other of the places in their name, even though the promoters certainly wanted investors to believe they eventually would. With today's wide ranging systems, a "place to place" name just doesn't cut it. You need a regional name. If the rumors of UP+CSX ever come to fruition, you're talking coast-to-coast (the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad?)

I've tried to think of a name for CSX, still drawing a blank. NS wasn't too far off until they took on CR.

BNSF is actually the amalgamation of three RR names: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Northern Pacific, and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, with some other mergers thrown in, I think.

[UPTRAIN]

Union Pacific.......Pac Man........the yellow peril.........gobbling up poor little defenseless railroads like some giant corperate pac man........[:D] poor mo-pac "sob" [:'(]

[IRONROOSTER]

Geographic names were originally chosen so potential investors/shippers would know where the railroad ran or hoped to run. That's not so much a concern now. I think keeping links back to older names is nice touch. My only problem with BNSF is that it's bit long, but Burlinton Fe doesn't sound right either. I especially like CSX , Chessie System, with the kitten outline in the C.
Enjoy
Paul

[daveklepper]

How about this for CXS: "Chessie Expands" Dave Klepper

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 440cuin

Also the Frisco <SL&SF> didn't even go to San Fransisco, in fact it went east and soutwest of Saint Louis!
Dumb names, great railroads.

Frisco actually had land grants to build west. However during a time they were under control of Santa Fe, Santa Fe wound up with Frisco's land grants and used them to build track for Santa Fe and not Frisco. Frisco during the early 1900s had control of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad. But the early 1900s were a time of economic turmoil for many railroads due to depressions and bankruptcies. Frisco had entry into Chicago by way of C & E I, but after a bankruptcy in 1912 lost control of C & E I and entry into Chicago. Frisco also raced to be the only railroad allowed to pass through Indian Territory in Oklahoma but was edged out by M K T. And as many know Frisco became part of BN in 1980 whereby we lost another good railroad. The year 1980 was the year the Rock was lost also, two once proud railroads gone forever. [V] [:(] [:(!]

[locomutt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd

A long time ago, railroads tended to have names that described where they went, or their service area. e.g. Pennsylvania, New York Central, Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe, Illinois Central, Southern, Norfolk and Western. Many out grew their descriptive names, but the names still tended to be geography based. Then we got into the post WWII merger era and the new names tended to be conglomerations of the old names (Erie-Lackawanna, Burlington Northern, Norfolk Southern) or whole new creations (Conrail, CSX) none of which had any real tie to geography. Some are meaninly less, CSX, and some are just silly, Bulington Nothern Santa Fe (as if Burlington Iowa and Santa Fe NM are major centers of commerce?) Union Pacific might be the only exception to this, since they've kept their name intact through the merger madness, but even their name is somewhat misleading - being a "Union" states project chartered during the civil war.

So, the question is, if you could rename each of the major 4 US roads with a geographically based name, what would you chose?

My suggestion for CSX would be "The Great Lakes, Atlantic and Gulf Railroad".

[:D]I'M SUING!!!

The original name for "my" model railroad was "The Gulf & Atlantic"
It did involve the C & O,N &W ,Southern,L & N,Virginian.
It originally was set in the 40's with connections from Florida to New York!


Alas! I have to go for another name!


How's" EAGLE RIDGE RAILWAY" sound?
'Fallen Flags' where are you?

[mvlandsw]

CSX or NS could use Atlantic & Western

[espeefoamer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 440cuin

BNSF is probably the dumdest, Great North Central Pacific would do, or Western American Railroad. I like the name Union Pacific, it could be anything big and American. Canadian National is niether national nor Canadian but should keep the name for its heritage sake, or what would you call it? the Canadian & Mississippi RR?!?! or the Mississippi & Canadian?!?!
In the past the dumbest name was Pacific Great Eastern, it was niether great nor eastern nor even reached the Pacific.
Also the Frisco <SL&SF> didn't even go to San Fransisco, in fact it went east and soutwest of Saint Louis!
Dumb names, great railroads.

Maybe the best name for the Frisco would have been St Louis Southwestern.[:)]That name was already taken,though.

[espeefoamer]

CSX is a really dumb name.It isn't even a name,actually,just initals.It doesn't give a clue as to what it is or where it goes.
Conrail says what it is,Consolidated Rail,but doesn't tell where it goes.ConNortheast Rail would have been better.
CSX should have gone with Chessie Seaboard.

[dmoore74]

QUOTE:
BNSF is actually the amalgamation of three RR names: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Northern Pacific, and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, with some other mergers thrown in, I think.

440cuin

Actually Burlington Northern was an amalgation of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Northern Pacific, Great Northern and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle.
The original name proposed was Great Northern Pacific & Burlington. I'm sure all the sign painters would have loved that one.

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mvlandsw

CSX or NS could use Atlantic & Western

....and they could sell root beer on the side....

[csxengineer98]

the names of the compaines are not inteded for railfan injoyment.... and the argument that they should be named to show where they go is just stupid....
csx engineer

[UPTRAIN]

Thanks Jim...I wondered why the Frisco called themselves that...I knew there had to be some reason. [:D]

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

the names of the compaines are not inteded for railfan injoyment.... and the argument that they should be named to show where they go is just stupid....
csx engineer

Sure, they were! (Wanna trade ad hominems, huh?)

-Conrail/NS lifer

P.S. this may explain why NS is currently eating CSX's lunch. Ya think?

[Anonymous]

Calm down, boys. Next thing ya know, somebody'll show up checking spelling[banghead]

[wallyworld]

If names are not for enjoyment, now I know why my parents named me what they did.
As far as names showing where a road goes being a stupid concept...We should then formally change the UP name to Utta Petunia and CSX to Cherry Smedley Xmont and BNSF to Beaumont Nebula Swettin Farley.

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dmoore74

QUOTE:
BNSF is actually the amalgamation of three RR names: Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Northern Pacific, and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, with some other mergers thrown in, I think.

440cuin

Actually Burlington Northern was an amalgation of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Northern Pacific, Great Northern and the Spokane, Portland & Seattle.
The original name proposed was Great Northern Pacific & Burlington. I'm sure all the sign painters would have loved that one.

It's kinda funny how "Burlington" got top billing over Chicago and Quincy in CB&Q. Sort of like "Santa Fe", I suppose. Chicago is still THE RR city (at least for frt) - and nobody has it in their name, tho' we do have Burlington, Norfolk and Santa Fe represented....