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Posted by NKP guy on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 7:47 AM

cefinkjr
That's "an Imp & an Iron" where I come from. True Boilermakers don't just pour the shot into the beer; they put the whole shot glass in the beer glass.

   I thought in western Pensivania that a shot of Imp (Imperial) is chased with a fishbowl of Iron ("arn") City beer; not dumped into it.

   In Texas, Wiki says, a shot and a beer is called a two-step, not a Boilermaker.

   By the way, I think it's against the law in Pensivania to have a bar and not have a mounted deer head in the establishment, preferably over the shelves of liquor.

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 9:39 AM

Erik_Mag
I've got a couple of Boilermakers in my back as this is being typed - my son and one of his friends from Purdue enjoying the winter break. At least Purdue managed to have in person classes in the semester that just ended, albeit more of the class time was on-line vs in-person.

My education from High School through college graduation as viewed by the schools nicknames - Railroaders Bulldogs Boilermakers Trailblazers Golden Flashes.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by NKP guy on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 10:01 AM

BaltACD
My education from High School through college graduation as viewed by the schools nicknames - Railroaders....

  The only high school that I've heard of that has "Railroaders" as its mascot is Collinwood High School in Cleveland...because of the New York Central's shops and yards just down the street.  Are there others in the USA that have the same mascot name?  For example, what's the mascot at Altoona High School?  Or at Croton (or would that be Harmon?), NY?  What about Roseville High School in California?

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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 10:08 AM

NKP guy
 
BaltACD
My education from High School through college graduation as viewed by the schools nicknames - Railroaders.... 

  The only high school that I've heard of that has "Railroaders" as its mascot is Collinwood High School in Cleveland...because of the New York Central's shops and yards just down the street.  Are there others in the USA that have the same mascot name?  For example, what's the mascot at Altoona High School?  Or at Croton (or would that be Harmon?), NY?  What about Roseville High School in California?

Garrett, IN - the Bulldogs were very close to you

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 10:17 AM

Proctor HS in Minnesota calls its teams the Rails.

The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 11:51 AM

JOHN BARRY
Maybe your tradition is different from others' for naming the job. In western Europe trains are driven by a driver. Machinery is designed and developed by an engineer, as is the permanent way, signalling, communications, PTC etc.

The reason the person that runs the locomotive is called "Engineer" is because the first few that were built, the only person that knew how to run it was the engineer that designed and built it (he didn't just draw up some plans, he was totally involved in the construction of the parts and the assembly of those parts).  The name just carried over to the next person that got the job of running the engine.

My grandfather was just the Janitor at the library, (he swept the floor, emptied the trash and did simple repairs), but he was called the "Building Engineer" because he operated the boiler and steam powered air conditioning pump ... the people that designed and built that machinery were engineers and were the only ones that knew how to make it work.  When my Grandfather was hired, the title just carried over to him.

The dictionary now lists one of the definitions as "one who operates an engine".

 By the way:

The Engineer runs the engine and the Conductor conducts the train.  This was settled in a fist fight early in RR history... the Conductor wanted the train to go and the Engineer didn't.  The Conductor tried to take over the engine, but was stopped by the Engineer.  A fist fight ensued on the ground next to the train.  The Conductor won the fight, but had to concede to the Engineer the exclusive right to run the engine.  The engineer had to do what the Conductor said, but the Conductor was not allowed to touch the controls.

 

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by rrnut282 on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 12:34 PM

BaltACD

 

 

Garrett, IN - the Bulldogs were very close to you

 

My children's basketball and volleyball teams played them.  (if you hadn't answered this, I was going to ask.)

 

Anyone slow down and look both ways at an abandoned rail crossing (you know, just in case there is a rip in space-time)?

Mike (2-8-2)
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Posted by BaltACD on Wednesday, December 16, 2020 12:36 PM

rrnut282
 
BaltACD 

Garrett, IN - the Bulldogs were very close to you 

My children's basketball and volleyball teams played them.  (if you hadn't answered this, I was going to ask.)

The Bulldogs referrence is to NKP's home area - we both graduated from the same college.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by Charles H Bogart on Sunday, December 20, 2020 11:28 PM

When you are teaching a class - the class hears the train blow for the crossing - they all go silent so you, the teacher, can go to the window and watch CSXT roll by 

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Posted by JPS1 on Monday, December 21, 2020 9:04 AM

NKP guy
.....what's the mascot at Altoona High School?  

Mountain Lion!  

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, December 21, 2020 12:42 PM

NKP Guy
... what's the mascot at Altoona High School?

Apple OS X 10.8!

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Posted by Paul Milenkovic on Monday, December 21, 2020 9:21 PM

Overmod

 

 
NKP Guy
... what's the mascot at Altoona High School?

 

Apple OS X 10.8!

 

 

 

"Inside baseball."  And they now call it MacOS.

If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, December 21, 2020 9:57 PM

Paul Milenkovic
And they now call it MacOS.

Only since 2016, long after the days of Mountain Lion.

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Posted by tafinorail on Wednesday, December 23, 2020 8:19 PM

You talk your Dad into setting up the tent only 75ft away from the CPR mainline. Late at night a long coal drag comes by blowing its crossing horn 300ft from your tent....and your Mom says "I thought you said "near" the tracks, NOT on it!!!" 

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Posted by tree68 on Wednesday, December 23, 2020 9:04 PM

tafinorail

You talk your Dad into setting up the tent only 75ft away from the CPR mainline. Late at night a long coal drag comes by blowing its crossing horn 300ft from your tent....and your Mom says "I thought you said "near" the tracks, NOT on it!!!" 

For several years following the Ice Storm of '98, my department went back and forth with a Southern Tier department that sent three crews to help us out.

They came to our banquets and picnics, etc, we chiefly went to their field days.

A good time was had by all.

One year my department set up an encampment on their field day grounds.  After the field day activities settled down, we settled in around a campfire for camaraderie and libations.

About 6 AM on Sunday morning a northbound came through town on the old Erie mainline.  A trip by rail through Hancock, NY involves around a half dozen crossings and the old double track truss bridge over the Delaware River.

Of course, I was up and out of the tent in a flash to observe the admittedly slow speed action.  And the engineer was being as courteous as possible with the horn.

Did I mention that the trip through Hancock also involves a pretty significant curve?

One of our group, who had imbibed perhaps too much hard liquor the night before, swore that the rumbling over the bridge, the horn, and the squealing of the wheels sounded like it was coming right straight through his tent.

We all had a good laugh.

LarryWhistling
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...

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Posted by Electroliner 1935 on Thursday, December 24, 2020 12:14 AM

tree68
One of our group, who had imbibed perhaps too much hard liquor the night before, swore that the rumbling over the bridge, the horn, and the squealing of the wheels sounded like it was coming right straight through his tent. We all had a good laugh.

Larry, my experience with train horns was on one of my early college co-op assignments. It was with the PRR with a signal and communications gang in Greenfield IN working on the pole line. They were in a camp train on a siding one track away from the St. Louis to Pittsburg main line.  It had cab signals and heay 156lb rail and the passenger trains blew for the crossings in town as they roared through at 80+ mph. I rode the train from Cincy to Richmond and a Greyhound to Greenfield, got to the camp about 8 pm on Sunday night, met the gang and was assigned an upper bunk. Went to bed and about 2 am, the Metropolitan roared through town in run 8 laying on the horn sounding like it was coming down the aisle of the bunk car. I hit my head on the ceiling as I sat up. By the end of the second week, I could just roll over and think "there goes #27" But I loved the gang. Hard workers. 

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Posted by alphas on Thursday, December 24, 2020 2:16 PM

[quote user="NKP guy"]

 

 
BaltACD
My education from High School through college graduation as viewed by the schools nicknames - Railroaders....

 

  The only high school that I've heard of that has "Railroaders" as its mascot is Collinwood High School in Cleveland...because of the New York Central's shops and yards just down the street.  Are there others in the USA that have the same mascot name?  For example, what's the mascot at Altoona High School?  Or at Croton (or would that be Harmon?), NY?  What about Roseville High School in California?

 

The former Renova, PA high school was long known as the "Railroaders" until it became part of a bigger one.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, December 24, 2020 3:52 PM

Back to "You might be a railfan if..."

You're putting trains under the Christmas tree and you absolutely refuse  to mix eras with your motive power, that is, no GP20's or second or third generation diesels with classic steam, and your freights absolutely positively  have cabooses!

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Posted by Shock Control on Friday, December 25, 2020 9:51 AM

Flintlock76
It's not a whistle.  It's a HORN. H-O-R-N.  Blasphemy!

Tell that to Thee Great Johnny Mercer! 

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Friday, December 25, 2020 12:30 PM

Shock Control
 
Flintlock76
It's not a whistle.  It's a HORN. H-O-R-N.  Blasphemy!

Tell that to Thee Great Johnny Mercer! 

I would, but if he doesn't know the difference already, it probably wouldn't do any good.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, December 25, 2020 1:07 PM

Shock Control

 

 
Flintlock76
It's not a whistle.  It's a HORN. H-O-R-N.  Blasphemy!

 

Tell that to Thee Great Johnny Mercer! 

 

Johnny's beyond caring, he's dead!

But if you're talking about the song "Blues In The Night" that one was written in 1941.  The Steam Era was still very much  alive!  If Johnny said "whistle," he meant "whistle!"

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Posted by Shock Control on Friday, December 25, 2020 1:15 PM

Flintlock76
 Johnny's beyond caring, he's dead!

But if you're talking about the song "Blues In The Night" that one was written in 1941.  The Steam Era was still very much  alive!  If Johnny said "whistle," he meant "whistle!" 

Correct sir!

And as you know, various railroad terms dating from the steam era have carried over to the contemporary era, even though they are not quite accurate, for example, "fireman." Yes

Kind of like how the word "tape" is still used as a verb to record something, even though the format may be digital.  Yes

And cheers to you for being cool enough to remember Johnny Mercer!  Beer

Happy Holidays!  

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, December 25, 2020 1:30 PM

Shock Control
And cheers to you for being cool enough to remember Johnny Mercer!  

I'd be a poor student of history, especially the 1940's, if I forgot Johnny Mercer.  I've always felt to really understand an era you should have a familiarity with its music.  

And Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, December 25, 2020 2:58 PM

Horn is not going to work in "Panama Limited" when the girl gets to the top of the stairs and turns back over her shoulder and the whistle evocatively speaks for her...

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, December 25, 2020 2:59 PM

And somehow "when you hear the horn a' blowin' eight to the bar" is just not the same as the original... even if it makes more sense as a jazz-music metaphor...

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Posted by SD70Dude on Friday, December 25, 2020 4:12 PM

If a railroader gets in trouble these days he still ends up "talking to the typewriter".

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Friday, December 25, 2020 4:24 PM

Any of you remember your parents calling the refrigerator an "icebox?" 

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Posted by Overmod on Friday, December 25, 2020 4:33 PM

Flintlock76
Any of you remember your parents calling the refrigerator an "icebox?"

I still call it that sometimes.  

What's unusual is people (many in the South) who call it a 'frigidaire'...

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Posted by Erik_Mag on Friday, December 25, 2020 4:50 PM

Paul Milenkovic
Apple OS X 10.8!

"Inside baseball."  And they now call it MacOS.

 

Espcially now that the major version number is now 11, presumably due to the merger of iOS compatibility for the ARM based machines.

Maybe Apple will start using famous RR place names for their next OS releases, Altamont would be close to home...

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Posted by 54light15 on Friday, December 25, 2020 4:56 PM

Some words become generic, like Kleenex for tissue or Posi-Traction for limited-slip differential. In the U.K. vacuuming is called "Hoovering". Here in Canada if someone eats something quickly, a normal response from someone would be, "You sure Hoovered that up!" But no one except maybe ex-pat Brits would call vacuuming Hoovering. 

And speaking of Frigidaires:

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/shel_silverstein/poems/14820 

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