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Why the name?

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Why the name?
Posted by BigJim on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 1:38 PM

Why are these engines named;

Lilly:
Lilly

Marlie:

Marlie

Piper:
Piper

.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 1:51 PM

Because it is what the owner wanted to do!

I suspect the may be named after his duaghters.

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Posted by StillGrande on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:03 PM

Probably a good guess.  The company president's bio says he has three children. 

Dewey "Facts are meaningless; you can use facts to prove anything that is even remotely true! Facts, schmacks!" - Homer Simpson "The problem is there are so many stupid people and nothing eats them."
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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 3:34 PM

A common enough practice - although it usually doesn't get down to such a personal level.  Cities and racehorses are among the labels I can recall.

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Posted by Ulrich on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:09 PM

Maybe ex wives?

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Posted by route_rock on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:23 PM

  Ex wives? Yeah I have paid out enough to them to buy a locomotive lol. Ours are named after cities on the line. The Rock did some for people,but I have never heard of naming them for kids. That would be awesome if its the case.

Yes we are on time but this is yesterdays train

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Posted by desertdog on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:50 PM
There's an entire railroad in Oklahoma named for the owner's children: AT&L stands for "Austin," "Todd" and "Ladd" if I recall correctly. John Timm
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Posted by ButchKnouse on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:52 PM

The DM&E's locomotives are all named after cities along the tracks, as in City of Lake Preston, City of Brookings, etc.

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Posted by zardoz on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 7:56 PM

I used to have some names for certain locomotives; however, I don't think the railroad would have appreciated my putting those names on the units.

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Posted by samfp1943 on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 8:18 PM

zardoz

I used to have some names for certain locomotives; however, I don't think the railroad would have appreciated my putting those names on the units.

Zardoz, 

        Ex'es or girlfriends?  Mischief    LaughLaughLaughLaugh

OR you can name your SW-10 "BUBBA"-linked hereSmile,Wink, & Grin     

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=876751

 

 

 


 

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Posted by zardoz on Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:28 AM

samfp1943

zardoz

I used to have some names for certain locomotives; however, I don't think the railroad would have appreciated my putting those names on the units.

Zardoz, 

        Ex'es or girlfriends?  Mischief    LaughLaughLaughLaugh

I was thinking more along the lines of:

Piece of Crap

Piece of S___

Useless Junk

Cheap & Nothing Works

...and other such utterances and exclamations of frustrating non-operating locomotives.

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Posted by wjstix on Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:40 AM

In the US naming of locomotives pretty much died out by about 1900. In Britain it continued on well into the diesel era. However some railroads do it still today; I believe DM&E named some engines after cities on their line, and Minnesota Commercial has a few named engines too, including "Crocodile G-E", a GE unit originally built for service in Australia.

Stix
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Posted by StillGrande on Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:24 AM

Doesn't CSX have The Spirit of Miami, The Spirit of Tampa, and the Spirit of Grafton? 

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Posted by desertdog on Thursday, January 28, 2010 2:33 PM

ButchKnouse

The DM&E's locomotives are all named after cities along the tracks, as in City of Lake Preston, City of Brookings, etc.

 

Your post reminded me that one of the more obvious examples in the midwest is Metra which names its locomotives for the cities along its various routes.

 John Timm

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Posted by CShaveRR on Thursday, January 28, 2010 3:26 PM
And how could anyone forget the story behind what arguably is Metra's most famous locomotive? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/4/173554/4787

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Posted by BaltACD on Thursday, January 28, 2010 4:44 PM

StillGrande

Doesn't CSX have The Spirit of Miami, The Spirit of Tampa, and the Spirit of Grafton? 

Yes.  CSX has named several engines in honor of on line cities.

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Posted by jeffhergert on Thursday, January 28, 2010 10:42 PM

route_rock

  Ex wives? Yeah I have paid out enough to them to buy a locomotive lol. Ours are named after cities on the line. The Rock did some for people,but I have never heard of naming them for kids. That would be awesome if its the case.

The RI did indeed name some locomotives (mostly the first batch of GP38-2 but some others that had been rebuilt) for people, cities, states, and groups along the RI lines.  Here's a link to one of the GP38-2 that's most appropriate for the Trains forums.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/ri/ri4315ads.jpg

I couldn't find picture of the RI 4310 in my limited on-line search, but it's name was "The American Railfan."  

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Posted by route_rock on Thursday, January 28, 2010 11:21 PM

  I always wondered about the Ivan the Terrible one. Till I finally heard the story it was a nickname to a grain elevator guy. One was also named after DPM.

  Zardoz I have a few names like that for the DME and CP junk we have been giving.But seeings this is a family forum Ill just shout them at random while going down the road.

 

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Friday, January 29, 2010 12:04 AM

Going back to the age of superpower steam, the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac had its, "Governors," and, 'Generals.'

Long before that, locomotive names were common.  Think of the great locomotive chase between the General and the Texas, or the named (as well as numbered) locomotives of the Virginia and Truckee and the Central Pacific...

Chuck

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Friday, January 29, 2010 10:16 AM

Illinois Central applied names to its GP38-2's (9600-9639) when they were purchased.  The people named all had ties of some sort to the Illinois Central and included Casey Jones, Sim Webb, Samuel Clemens, Abraham Lincoln and others.

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Posted by eolafan on Friday, January 29, 2010 10:39 AM

CShaveRR
And how could anyone forget the story behind what arguably is Metra's most famous locomotive? http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/4/4/173554/4787

May God bless and keep little Ollie for eternity!  Sorry, I just can't help getting a emotional when I read stories like this.  I will always shed a little tear and crack a smile when I see this Metra unit blast past me on the BNSF triple track line to Aurora. Thanks for making me aware of this story Carl!
Eolafan (a.k.a. Jim)

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