A Glossary of Railroad Terms

Abstract

SEVERAL brief glossaries of railroad terms have already appeared in American Speech, namely, 'Railroad Lingo' by Russell V. Batie, Vol. 9 (Feb. 1934), p. 73f., 'Railroad Terms' by J. R. Schultz, Vol: 12 (Apr. 1937), p. 154, and 'The Lingo of Railroad Linemen' by D. V. Snapp, Vol. 13 (Feb. 1938), p. 70f. More comprehensive than the sum of all of these is the glossary in The Railroader by W. F. Cottrell, Stanford University Press (1940), pp. 118-139. The list in The Railroader was compiled from H. L. Mencken's revised edition of The American Language (1936), M. H. Weseen's Dictionary of American Slang (1934), Lucius Beebe's High Iron (1938), from various issues of The Railroad Magazine, and from the author's personal experience. A comprehensive glossary is also given by Freeman H. Hubbard, editor, in the April, 1940, issue of The Railroad Magazine under the title 'Lingo of the Rails.' Batie has a few terms not included in the Railroader glossary. These are G.Y.M., pop car, skunk, train detainer, whiz. Additions by Schultz are hand grenade, hog back, iron man, latch, Little Nemo, sag, target. Snapp's terms belong to a special category and are not found in the other lists, except that corner, meaning a pole to be guyed on account of deviation of line, has a different interpretation in Cottrell's glossary (see below). To a lineman a slug is a block to be buried for anchor with a different meaning to the railroad man (see below), while a crummy is logically a bunk car to a lineman rather than the caboose. Grunt, the lineman's helper, is listed by both Cottrell and Snapp with the additional meaning of locomotive driver given by the former. There are otherwise few differences in meaning recorded. Batie adds an explanation of the origin of brownie, crummy, snake. Cottrell explains shack, brakeman, as probably named after the small huts which in the early days of railroading were frequently mounted on a car near the middle of a train, from which the brakeman sallied to set the hand brakes. Batie suggests that when the train is moving the brakeman stays in the caboose; hence the term shack is applied to him. Some of the railroad