Railroad Slang  

Age--term of time in service, usually referring to seniority.

Air monkey--air brake repairman.

Alley--clear track.

Anchor them--set the brakes on still cars.

Anchor, to--to set hand brakes on still cars

Armstrong--locomotive not equipped with a stoker

Artist--a general term usually referring to some workman, particularly

adept, & usually with such prefix as brake, pin, speed, etc.

Baby lifter--passenger brakeman.

Battleship--usually referred to the superheater type or any large locomotive.

Beanery--a railroad eating house.

Beanery queen--waitress.

Bee hive--yard office.

Bell bottom brakemen--college students.

Bend the iron--change the position of a switch.

Bend the rust--change the position of a switch.

Big 0--freight conductor.

Big hole--emergency position of the air brake valve; the act of abruptly

applying the brakes to the full reduction.

Big hook--wrecking crane.

Big ox--conductor of either freight or passenger.

Binder--hand brake

Black diamonds--company coal.

Black snake--solid train of coal-cars

Blazer--a hot journal  with packing afire

Bleed, to--to drain air from a car or cars

Bleeder--the valve by which air  is bled

Blow up--to quit a job suddenly.

Board--a fixed signal regulating railroad traffic & usually referred to as a slow board, order board, clear board (for clear tracks) or red board (stop).

Boiler header--riding in cab.

Boiler wash--a high-water engineer

Bookkeeper--flagman

Boomer--a  drifting  railroad  worker,the opposite of a home guard. The term derives  from pioneer days   when   railroads   followed boom towns & camps.

Bouncer, bed house--caboose

Brain plate--trainman's badge.

Brainless wonder--conductor, engineer, or any official who does queer

things in the opinion of his fellows.

Brains--conductor.

Brass collar--applied to members of the official family.

Brass hat--a term applicable to officials.

Brass-pounder--telegrapher

Breeze--service air

Brownie box--superintendent's car.

Brownies--demerit   marks   placed   against   an employee's record.

Brownies--demerit marks, named after the originator of the system

Bug torch--trainman's lantern

Buggy--caboose; passenger car; box car.

Buggy track--caboose track

Bull--special agent or railroad police officer.

Bullnose--front draw-bar of a locomotive

Bump, to--to secure another man's position through the exercise of seniority

Bumper--retaining post at the end of a spur track

Cage--caboose.

Caller--employee whose duty it is to call out a train & engine crew.

Canned--to be taken out of service.

Captain--a term applied to conductor,  passenger or freight.

Car knocker--inspector

Car toad--car repairer;  many variations of this word.

Car whacker--car repairman.

Cater--silver dollar.

Century--hundred

Chain-gang--train crew assigned to extra runs

Chariot--sometimes applied to passenger cars, but most frequently to cabooses.

Chasing the red--the act of a flagman who has gone back with red flag or red light to protect a train.

Cinder cruncher--a switchman.

Cinder snapper--a passenger who rides the open platform on observation cars.

Clown--a switchman or yard brakeman.

Clown wagon--caboose.

Club--three-foot hickory sticks used by freight trainmen to tighten hand brakes

Club winder--switchman or brakeman.

Cock loft--cupola of a caboose

Corn field meet--where two trains meet head

Cornered--when a car, not in the clear on a siding, is struck by a passing train or engine.

Cow cage--stock car.

Cow catcher--the pilot.

Crib--caboose.

Cripple--a defective  car or one  that needs repairs.

Croaker--doctor.

Crowning him--coupling a caboose on a train when it is made up.

Crummy--caboose.

Cupola--the observation tower on a caboose.

Cushions--a term referring to passenger cars.

Cut--a few cars attached to the goat or engine; several cars coupled together anywhere.

Dancing on the carpet--called to the h superintendent's office for investigation or discipline.

Deadhead--employee riding over the road on company pass & on company business.

Deck--the floor part of a locomotive cab.

Detainer--usually applied to the train dispatcher.

Diamond--crossover.

Dick--railroad detective.

Dinger--yardmaster or assistant yardmastcr.

Dinky--engine   without   tender   used   around roundhouse & backshop to do the switching.

Dog catcher--a crew sent to relieve a crew that has become outlawed.

Dog house--caboose.

Dolly--applied to switch st&.

Dope--orders, official instructions.

Draw bar flagging--the  act of  a  brakeman leaning up against the draw bar on the  caboose to protect the rear end of his train.

Drone cage--private car.

Drop--a switching movement.

Drummer--yard conductor.

Duckets--hat checks.

Dynamiter--a car on which a defective air mechanism sends the brakes into full emergency when only service application is given from the engine.

Eagle--eye

End man--the brakeman or rear brakeman, usually on freight trains.

Engine service.--

First reader--conductor's train book.

Flag--to work under an assumed name.

Flat--a type of freight car.

Flat wheel--a car wheel that has flat spots on the tread; also applied to an employee who walks lame or limps.

Flimsy--train order.

Floater—same as boomer

Fly light, to--to go on duty after missing a meal

Flying switch--a switching movement.

Flying switch--switching technique in which cars are cut off from behind a moving locomotive & the switch thrown after the engine has passed

Fog--steam

Foot--board

Footboard--the step on the front & rear ends of yard or freight locomotives

Freeze hub--cool a heated journal.

Freeze, to--to cool an overheated journal

Frog--the x-shaped plate of a crossover; also an implement for re-railing car wheels

Galvanizer--car inspector

Gandy dancer--track laborer.

Gangway--the space between the rear cab post of a locomotice & the tender

Garden--a freight yard.

Gate--a switch.

General--yardmaster.

Get the rocking chair, to--to be retired on pension

Glimmer--switchman's lantern.

Glory--string of empties; death by accident.

Go high, to--to climb to the top of freight-cars for purposes of signaling or setting brakes

Goat--a yard engine.

Gon--a gondola or steel

Goose, to--to make an emergency stop

Grabber--conductor.

Gramaphone--telephone.

Graveyard--spur tracks for obsolete or disused locomotives

Grease monk--car oiler

Greasy spoon--a railroad eating house.

Green backs--frogs for rerailing cars or engines.

Ground-hog--brakeman      -"

Grunt--locomotive driver

Gum shoe--railroad policeman.

Gun--torpedo used for signaling

Gut--air hose

Hack--another term for caboose.

Ham--a  student   telegrapher  or   dispatcher

Hand shoes--gloves.   

Harness--dress uniform of a passenger conductor, blue tailcoat

Hay--sleep on the job

Hay burner--hand oil lantern.

Hay burner--inspection torch

Head man--the brakeman who, on freight trains, rides the engine.

Head max--the freight train brakeman who rides the locomotive

Head pin--the head brakeman.

Hearse--caboose.

Heel--car or cars at end of track -with brakes set

Helper--the auxiliary engine on a double-header

Herald--the device, monogram or symbol of a railroad company, usually used as an identifying marker on freight-cars

Herder--a man who couples engines on & takes them off on the arrival & departure of trains.

High   grass--Central New England railroad

High  wheeler--passenger  locomotive;  a  fast passenger train; a highball artist.

High daddy--flying switch

High iron--the main line or the high speed track of a system of main tracks.

High iron--main line or high-speed track

Highball--signal for a clear track, deriving from the first train signals which were in the form of painted metal globes hoisted to the

                  cross-arm of a tall pole when trains were to proceed

Highball artist--locomotive engineer noted for speedy running

Highliner--main line express passenger train

Hightail, to--to depart at a rapid speed

Highwheeler--old-fashioned type of passenger engine; also fast passenger train or limited

Hitting the grit--falling off a car.

Hoc--locomotive

Hog--a locomotive. (logger

Hog law--the federal statute which provides that all train & engine crews tie up after 12 hours of continuous service; also called the dog law.

Hoghead--a locomotive engineer.

Hole--term applied to passing track where one train pulls in to meet another.

Hole--side track for passing trains on a single track line

Home guard--one who stays with one railroad.

Hook--wrecking crane or auxiliary.

Hop--toad

Hopper--a steel

Hopper--coal-car with hinged bottom for speedy dumping

Hoptoad--a derail iron

Horse over, to--to throw the mechanism of a locomotive into reverse position

Hot--with steam up

Hot box--overheated journal or bearing usually resulting in burning journal packing

Hot footer--engineer or conductor in switching service who is always in a hurry.

Hot shot--a fast train of any class. Sometimes called a highball run.

Hump--an artificial knoll at the end of a classification yard over which cars are pushed to be allowed to roll to separate tracks on their own momentum.

Hump--low knoll at end of classification yards down the slope of which freight-cars are allowed to glide to separate tracks by gravity

Humpback job--assignment on a local way-freight train

Hut--a term sometimes applied to a caboose & sometimes applied to the cab of a locomotive.

In the ditch--wrecked or derailed

In the hole--on a siding.

Indian valley RR--a mythical road where there are always good jobs awaiting; the happy haven of railway legend .

Iron skull--a boiler maker.

Jack--locomotive.,

Jam buster--assistant yardmaster.

Janney, to--to couple

Jay rod--clinker hook

Jerk, to--to take up water for a locomotive from a track pan' without stopping

Jerry--section foreman

Jewel--journal brass.

Jigger--a full tonnage train of dead freight.

Johnson  bar--the hand-operated reverse lever of a locomotive

Juggler--brakeman who must load & unload less than carload lots at way stations

Juggler--a term applied sometimes to members of the train crew of way freight runs, whose duties require them to load & unload less than

                carload freight at station stops.

Kangaroo court--a hearing at which matters of main line mix

Katy--the missouri, kansas, texas railroad

Keeley--water can for hot or heated journals.

Kettle--a locomotive.

Kick--applied to switching; the act of pushing a car or cars at speed ahead or behind an engine, & then suddenly cutting the car or cars loose

            from the engine while the brakes are applied quickly to the engine, thus allowing the cars to be kicked free.

Kick, to--to drop a car or cars

Kicker--a triple valve that sticks & throws brakes into emergency with application of air & sometimes by a bump of the train.

King--yardmaster or freight conductor

King snipe--foreman of track gang.

Knowledge box--yardmaster's office.

Ladder--the main track of a system of tracks which comprise a yard & from which each individual track leads off. This is also called a lead.

Lead--see ladder.

Letter--service certificate

Letters--service certificates,

Lever--jerker

Lightning slinger--telegrapher

Liner--passenger train

Link & pin--old-fashioned or obso lete

Lizard scorcher--cook.

Louse cage--caboose.

Lung--drawbar.

Main iron--main track, high iron

Main pin--an official.

Main stem--the main line. Making a hitch

Manifest--fast freight usually made up of .merchandise, perishables or live stock     "

Marker--rear-end signal of a train, flags or lights            "

Master maniac--master mechanic

Master mind--sometimes applied to trainmaster,yardmaster & conductor, also to the train dispatcher.

Maul, to--to work an engine in corner with full throttle

Mill--stearn locomotive

Mill--steam locomotive; typewriter.

Mill kettle--locomotive.

Modoc--employees' train.

Monkey--brakeman on cars in process of classification

Monkey house--caboose.

Monkey motion--link motion.

Moonlight  mechanic--light roundhouse foreman

Mop--the missouri pacific railroad

Motion--the cross heads, side & main rods, eccentrics, link blocks, etc., the visible & moving driving-gear of a locomotive

Mtys--empty freights

Mud chicken--surveyor.

Mud sucker--a non-lifting injector

Mudhop--yard clerk.

Muzzle loader--a hand-fired locomotive or obsolete type of power

Niggerhead--steam exit on top of locomotive boiler, from which issue pipes to injector, etc.

No-bill--a non-union railroad worker

Nose on--coupled to the front end of a locomotive

Number dummy--yard clerk.

Number grabber--car clerk.

Nut buster--mechanic

Nut splitter--machinist.

Nypano--the new york. Pennsylvania & ohio railroad, later part of the erie

ORC--conductor, member of the order of railway conductors

O.s., to--to report a train by a station to the dispatcher

Old man--superintendent.

Op--telegrapher

Operator's fist--the distinctive, cursive type of handwriting

characteristic of telegraph operators & train dispatchers

Order board--a fixed signal to indicate to approaching trains whether to pick up train orders or to proceed.

Ornament--station master. 0

Outlawed--a crew that has worked 12 hours, the limit allowed by law.

Paddle--semaphore signal.

Palace--a term applied to the caboose. Ò

Parlor--caboose.

Parlor man--the hind brakeman or flagman on a freight train.

Peck--twenty-minute stop allowed for a meal in a railroad restaurant

Peddle, to--to set out freight-cars

Peddler--local way-freight

Pig--locomotive.

Pig mauler--locomotive engineer.

Pig pen--locomotive roundhouse.

Pike--railroad system

Pin--sometimes applied to a brakeman.

Pin ahead & pick up two behind one--cut off the engine & pick up three cars from the siding, put two on the train & set the

                  first one back on the siding.

Pin for home--to go home.

Pin pullers--switchman who cuts off cars in train yard

Pin, to--to head for home; to pull the pin or knock off work

Pinhead--applied to brakeman.

Pink--caution card.

Pinner--switchman that follows.

Play ball--get busy; go to work; quit fooling.

Plug--throttle. In old days engineers - -were caile'd plug pullers,

Plug--one horse passenger train.

Pop--safety valve

Possum belly--tool box under caboose.

Pound her, to--to work a locomotive to capacity

Pull freight, to--to depart or to give up a job

Pull the pin--to resign, or quit a job.

Pull the pin, to--to knock off work or go home for the day

Putty--steam.

Rabbit--derail iron

Rah,--railroad man

Rail--a railroad employee. Usually referred to men in transportation service.

Rattler--a freight train.

Rawhider--a conductor or engineer who is especially hard on men & equipment.

Real estate--low grade coal

Red ball--fast freight.

Red board--fixed signal to stop.

Red onion--railroad eating house.

Reefer--refrigerator car.

Ringmaster--yardmaster.

Rip track--minor car repair siding

Riprap--loose pieces of heavy stone or masonry  used  to protect  from

erosion   road-beds   exposed   to water-action    -

Roof garden--helper locomotive on a mountain run

Roofed--to be caught in close clearance

Rubberneck--observation car.

Rule  g--railroad regulation  against drinking

Runty--dwarf signal.

Scoop--fireman's shovel

Scoop--the vstep on the front & rear

Secret works--automatic air brake application.

Seniority--the   rights   of   passenger trains over freight & of express trains over locals; also the right of  way   in  one  direction

                 on a single-track line

Shack--a brakeman.

Shack stinger--brakeman.

Shanty--a caboose.

Shiner--trainman's lantern

Shining time--starling time.

Short--car set out between stations

Shuffle the deck--used by local brakemen for switching house tracks at every station.

Shunting boiler--switch engine.

Siave-driver--a rawhiding executive or official

Side-door   pullman--box-car   (hobo term)

Sidedoor pullman--box car.

Skipper--conductor.

Slake--switchman.

Slave driver--yardmaster.

Slug--heavy fire in a locomotive firebox

Smart alec--conductor.

Smoke--fireman

Smoke orders--moving a train from one station to another without orders & by watching for the smoke of an approaching train

                          on the same  track;    practiced  in early years of railroading

Smoker--locomotive.

Snake--switchman

Snakehead--a rail coming loose from the ties & piercing a car floor; common   accident   among   strap iron rails of a century ago

Snipe--track laborer

Snoozer--pullman car.

Soft bellies--wooden frame cars.

Spar--a pole used to shove cars in the clear when switching.

Speedy--call boy.

Spot, to--to place a car or engine in any designated position, specially

m setting out freight-cars & making up freight trains

Spotter--a company inspector

Spotter--a man assigned to snoop around to check up on conduct of employees.

Stab, to--to delay or cause to lose time or precedence

Star-gazer--a brakeman who fails to observe signals

Stem winder--.climax-type geared engine "

Stick--a staff used on certain stretches of track or the purpose of controlling the block. It is carried by engine crews from

            one station to  another.

Stinger--brakeman.

Stopper puller--a member of the crew that follows the engine in switching.

Strawberry   patch--rear end of caboose by night

String--two or more cars coupled together; also telegraph wire

Suck it by, to--to make a flying switch

Super--a superintendent.

Swell head--conductor.

Swing--brakeman in the middle of a freight train in charge of setting out cars & braking between the sections of the

              train handled by head & parlor brakemen

Take by the neck, to--when an engine pulls a drag up a steep grade

Tallowpot--locomotive fireman

Tank--locomotive tender.

Teakettle--usually applied to leaky old locomotives.

Thous& miler--a starched blue shirt with an attachable starched blue collar of deep hue worn by railroad men universally &

                          especially as an insignia of rank among boomers of a bygone era.

Ticket punch--pair of pliers.

Tie 'em down--to set hand brakes.

Tie sown--to set hand brakes

Toad--derail iron

Toepath--running board.

Top dresser drawer--upper bunk in a caboose

"toxk--car-repairer   -"

Train detainer--train dispatcher.

Train line--the pipe that carries the compressed air used to operate the  air brakes.

Traveling grunt--a road foreman of engines.

Traveling man--usually applied to the traveling engineer.

Trick--applied to tour of duty. Trip

Underground hog--chief engineer.

Varnished    wagons--passenger    train equipment.

W wagons--see buggies.

Washout--stop signal waved violently by using both arms & swinging them in a downward arc by day, & swinging a lamp in a wide,

                   low semicircle across the tracks by night.

Way--car

When  do  you shine?--what  time  were  you called for?

Willie--waybill.

Wing her--set the brakes on a moving train.

"wye--tracks running off main line or lead, forming rough letter ""y"" & used to turn cars or to reverse direction of trains.

            Used to reverse engines at points where no turntable is available."

Y   yard--a system of tracks for the making of trains or the storing of cars.

Y yard boomer's version--a system of tracks surrounded by a high board fence run & inhabited by a bunch of natives that will not

             let a train in or out.

YM--yardmaster.