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Memorable company names

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Posted by The Butler on Monday, May 17, 2010 2:15 PM

How do you pronounce "Conneaut?" Confused

James


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Posted by garyla on Monday, May 17, 2010 2:19 PM

For clunky, how about that SP predecessor "Houston East & West Texas", the good old HEWT. 

 It had the memorable nickname "H-e-l-l, Either Way You Take It"!

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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, May 17, 2010 2:24 PM
Just seeing Hegewisch Paul commenting on this thread reminds me that Chicago South Shore & South Bend has to be one of the sweetest-sounding names to come along, ever.

For clunky, you can't top Seaboard Coast Line. That name came right out of the Department of Redundancy Department!

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Posted by CShaveRR on Monday, May 17, 2010 2:26 PM
The Butler

How do you pronounce "Conneaut?" Confused

I pronounce it "Coney-ought". Others might come closer to the correct pronunciation. "Connie-ought?" But if you ask her, she probably won't.

Carl

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Posted by henry6 on Monday, May 17, 2010 2:57 PM

CShaveRR

For clunky, you can't top Seaboard Coast Line. That name came right out of the Department of Redundancy Department!

Probably more from the legal or accounting departments as it was to reflect the merger of the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard.  I'm hard pressed for a better name which would still describe the route...unless something like Richmond and Southern which clashes with Southern which alread serves the south; Virginia and Florida or Florida and Virginia?  Va and Fla?  Fla and Va?  Na, na.  Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida...the Richmond Road?  Seaboard Coast Line worked I guess,,,either you were on the Seaboard or on the Coast Line as long as the money got paid to the joint account!  But you know, the Atlantic Seaboard would have been nice.

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Posted by The Butler on Monday, May 17, 2010 3:17 PM

Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe could go in either category.  For a clunker, I submit:

Doniphan Kensett & Searcy Railroad (DKS).

James


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Posted by AgentKid on Monday, May 17, 2010 3:38 PM

mudchicken
And the Soo Line.   Someone else spell out the full name.

 

Chicago, Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie.

Ste., the french abbreviation of Saint. And yet there are numerous places with french names that use the English, St. I never have figured that one out

BTW Sault is pronounced soo.

Bruce

 

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Posted by henry6 on Monday, May 17, 2010 3:43 PM

Johnny Mercer had no trouble with the Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fe...made it into a great song!

RIDEWITHMEHENRY is the name for our almost monthly day of riding trains and transit in either the NYCity or Philadelphia areas including all commuter lines, Amtrak, subways, light rail and trolleys, bus and ferries when warranted. No fees, just let us know you want to join the ride and pay your fares. Ask to be on our email list or find us on FB as RIDEWITHMEHENRY (all caps) to get descriptions of each outing.

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Posted by sandiego on Monday, May 17, 2010 4:09 PM

AgentKid

mudchicken
And the Soo Line.   Someone else spell out the full name.

 

Chicago, Minneapolis and Sault Ste. Marie.

WRONG! Full name before the 1961 merger with WC and DSSA was:

Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad

Kurt Hayek

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Posted by The Butler on Monday, May 17, 2010 4:12 PM

henry6

Johnny Mercer had no trouble with the Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fe...made it into a great song!

Big Smile Oh, I know.  I was humming that song while typing the last post.  I was surprised AT&SF had not been mentioned by page three.  I have always had problems with the t-ch, though.  My tongue gets in front of my eye-teeth and I can't see what I'm saying. Tongue

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, May 17, 2010 4:26 PM

AgentKid
Ste., the french abbreviation of Saint. And yet there are numerous places with french names that use the English, St. I never have figured that one out

As I recall, 'St.' is the masculine.  'Ste.' is the feminine.

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Posted by AgentKid on Monday, May 17, 2010 4:35 PM

tree68
'St.' is the masculine.  'Ste.' is the feminine.

 

Thanks Larry. I have always wondered about that. St. Paul, St. Louis, but who is St. Boniface, as in the town in Manitoba. I'm going to have to look into that.

I was thinking Chicago from the full name of the Milwaukee Road.

Bruce

 

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Posted by Jerry Pier on Monday, May 17, 2010 6:28 PM

Mt Jewett, Kushequa & Riterville RR

Railroad Friction Products (RFPC

Cobra Canada

Benn Iron Foundries (WABTEC)

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Posted by dakotafred on Monday, May 17, 2010 6:54 PM

Henry6 says above: "Atlantic Seaboard would have been nice."

 Bingo! Longtime Trains readers will remember DPM lamenting the redundancy of SCL and saying the logical choice would have been Atlantic Seaboard Line. The execs of that day weren't stupid ... was Seaboard the ascendant company and insistent on primacy? (My memory fails me here.)

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Posted by henry6 on Monday, May 17, 2010 6:58 PM

Yeah, I think it was Seaboard power...

'nother clunky name: Pittsburgh and Shawmut or the Shawmut.

 

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Posted by Bob-Fryml on Monday, May 17, 2010 7:06 PM

blue streak 1

daveklepper

And didn't was aways call the MP the Mopack?   (But not the Upack, NoPack, nor SouPack.)

I remember when the UP proposed merging with MP that many rails called it   "MOP-UP" as to what they would do with rest of the industry.

And let's not forget two of the roads that were consolidated into the Missouri Pacific just before the "Mop-UP" merger:  the "Mike & Ike" (Missouri-Illinois) and the "Hook and Eye" (C.& E.I./ Chicago and Eastern Illinois).

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Posted by Bob-Fryml on Monday, May 17, 2010 7:46 PM

"The Once Mighty Chicago, Milwaukee, Saint Paul and Pacific.

Ah, yes.  Everytime that phrase leaves my lips, I have a tendency to momentarily speak with a uniquely euphonious, well-modulated tone reminiscent of the cinematic emoting of that late, great vaudevillian, William Claude Dukenfield.  To the reader innocent of such an appellation, I am referring to that uniquely entertaining master of the comedic celluloid art, W.C. Fields.

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Posted by CNSF on Monday, May 17, 2010 8:20 PM

Musical?  How about Grand Trunk and Chicago Transit Authority?  They were good enough to be borrowed by bands. 

Don't you hear that whistle down the line,

I betcha that it's engine number forty-nine.

It's the only one that sounds that way

On the Atchison Topeka and the Santa Fe

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Posted by NKP guy on Monday, May 17, 2010 8:58 PM

 Memo to The Butler

re:  pronunciation of Conneaut

Conneaut, Ohio is in the northeastern-most part of Ohio's old (Connecticut) Western Reserve, but it takes its name from the creek which begins in Pennsylvania. Therefore, in Ohio we pronounce it Connie-aht.  Connie, as in Connie Mack, and aht as in yacht (accent on first syllable).

If one leaves the Western Reserve and enters deepest, darkest Western Pennsylvania, one then walks among a people who speak a language called Pittsburghese.  In this language the o sound is pronounced differently and thus their Conneaut (the creek, the lake, etc.) is pronounced Cawny-ought (as in tawney).  For example:  a man in Conneaut is named Don.  In Pittsbughese it's pronounced Dawn;  his small bed, or cot, is pronounced as caught.  A blend of Pittsburghese and English is found in the marches of Ohio's Mahoning Valley.

I go through Conneaut all the time on The Lake Shore Limited.  I have visited there a number of times and I like it.  

By the way, the names & clunky names thus far submitted are as fascinating as they are amusing!

 

 

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Posted by cudjoebob on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:11 AM
a nice flowing name is the French national railways SNCF: Societe Nacional Chemin du Fer. not positive about the spelling, but it has a nice flow to it. also, if you can get the accent down right, how about Suid-Afrikaans Sporweg. (put a good roll into the first 'r') the best sounding american name would be Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western. for clunkiness, the full name of the CNO&TP and the big 4 side of the New York Central both are too much of a mouthful. I used to work local switch jobs with Seaboard Coast Line in south florida in the '70s. (I like that name). whenever we had cars to interchange with 'that other railroad' in south florida, if the conductor was an old head he'd say "we've got some '***' to drop off"!
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Posted by erikem on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:19 AM

dakotafred

Henry6 says above: "Atlantic Seaboard would have been nice."

 Bingo! Longtime Trains readers will remember DPM lamenting the redundancy of SCL and saying the logical choice would have been Atlantic Seaboard Line. The execs of that day weren't stupid ... was Seaboard the ascendant company and insistent on primacy? (My memory fails me here.)

 

I liked "Atlantic Air Line" used as one for one of the layouts in Wescott's 101 Track Plans.

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Posted by cudjoebob on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:21 AM
well, I didn't expect to be censored, so I will have to explain my previous post: "that other railroad" in south florida is the 'Florida East Coast'. it's reporting marks are FEC. the conductor merely added an 'E' and an 'S' to the reporting marks and there you have it! because of the violent strike at the FEC in the '60s, and the fact that the management wouldn't give in to the strikers, there was a lot of hard feelings against the FEC of the '70s. some of the guys I worked with on SCL had come over from the FEC and they considered those who worked on FEC as the worst of the worst scabs!
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Posted by cudjoebob on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 12:40 AM
to dakotafred: when I hired out with SCL in '73 in miami, (former SAL territory) I asked the same question, "in the '67 merger, which was the stronger company". the answer was a safe "they were equal". because of layoffs in miami, I later moved to waycross, ga. (former ACL territory). I was asked "are you a coast line man or a seaboard man?" the guys in waycross didn't like us seaboard 'refugees' from miami coming up and seniority bumping the local coast line men! I got the feeling I was working for Atlantic Coast Line, not Seaboard Coast Line! (8 years after the merger).
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Posted by Trainrev on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 4:04 PM

 Beautiful -- Denver and Rio Grande Western

 Not so beautiful -- Dirty, Rotten, and Getting Worse (DRGW)

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Posted by Bob-Fryml on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 7:48 PM

Trainrev

 Beautiful -- Denver and Rio Grande Western

 Not so beautiful -- Dirty, Rotten, and Getting Worse (DRGW)

How about "Dangerous and Rapidly Growing Worse" as suggested by someone who's always loved the "Crash, Bounce and Quiver" and one of the latter road's important eastern connections, the "Eerie Lack-o'-money?" 

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:03 PM

Tallulah Falls RR     ---  TF  --  Total Failure 

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Posted by ValleyX on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 9:56 PM
The New York, Chicago, and St. Louis, is a clunky name. Ah, but what it became known as, the Nickel Plate Road, rolls off the tongue. My tongue, anyway. Chesapeake and Ohio sort of flows but I always thought Chesapeake Western, the shortline in Virginia, flows. How did Norfolk and Western take over the Atlantic and Danville, which isn't too clunky, and rename it Norfolk, Franklin, and Danville, which is.
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Posted by erikem on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 10:47 PM

AgentKid

Thanks Larry. I have always wondered about that. St. Paul, St. Louis, but who is St. Boniface, as in the town in Manitoba. I'm going to have to look into that.

 

More like who was St. Boniface. He brought Christianity to the Germans and was killed by them after cutting down one of their most revered trees.

On a different note - the Nevada County Narrow Gauge was usually referred to the Never Come, Never Go...

- Erik

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Posted by AgentKid on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 1:04 AM

Thanks, Erik.

And as Erik says, on a different note - Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo - To Hell and Back.

Pacific Great Eastern (BCRail/CN) - Prince George Eventually - Pray to God Every Day. This railway traverses some beautiful if hair raising terrain.

Bruce

 

So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.

"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere"  CP Rail Public Timetable

"O. S. Irricana"

. . . __ . ______

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Posted by dmoore74 on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 7:13 AM

AgentKid

Thanks, Erik.

And as Erik says, on a different note - Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo - To Hell and Back.

Pacific Great Eastern (BCRail/CN) - Prince George Eventually - Pray to God Every Day. This railway traverses some beautiful if hair raising terrain.

Bruce

 

Pacific Great Eastern also known as the Please Go Easy.

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