An earlier question got me thinking . . . . . . .?

Question

what are some slangy names you have heard for engineers, firemen, brakemen and conductors? (besides that ornery SOB?)

I have heard dozens but I am sure there are lots more out there.

HA, yahoo's suggestion for category was psychology, I know railroaders are nuts to do what we do but I dont think we need a psychologist.

Answer 1

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Answer 2

In the UK there aren't that many nicknames for railwaymen but sometimes they were known in steam days after the engineers who designed the locomotives they drove, e.g. Drummond Men, after Dugald Drummond who designed locomotives for the London & South Western Railway.

A nickname for drivers on the Great Western Railway and later British Railways (Western Region) was 'Blower Kings' because of their frequent use of said device.

Men who lit up the engines to raise steam before handing them over to the main line crews, and took them over on return to the shed for dropping the fire, cleaning the ash etc. were known as 'P. & D. Men', the P. & D. standing for Preparation and Disposal.

The unfortunate whose job it was to tour the neighbourhood on a bicycle in the wee hours to call up men due to work the early shift (usually a young trainee or 'lad') was known as the 'Knocker'.

Those are the only ones I have heard of but there were no doubt more, local names and dialect terms which by now will have all but vanished.

Answer 3

I've only heard a very few slangs in my time. I've led a sheltered life. They don't let me get off the engine very much. Hoghead already nailed what few slangs I've heard. I chuckled last week though when my Conductor was repeating a Form B issued by the Foreman from a Maintenance-of-Way gang.  He repeated the restriction over the radio as "Foreman _________, from Maintenance IN THE Way."

Answer 4

Engineer:  Hoghead, hogger, hogineer, Eagle Eye, Golden Arm, piglet (an engineer in training), goat roper (when working a yard engine), throttle jockey, throttle jock.  Of course I've known individuals that had special names, like J.K. "Jerk and Kill" Marsh, Bill "knuckle buster" Franklin, Ed "Suitcase" Simms, Bill "Water Tank" Weston, "Mile Post" Jones etc..  

*As a foot note, the origin of the term 'hoghead' is open to debate, still, but the two best guesses people have made is that in earlier times, when inventors came up with a new device, it often carried the inventor's name.  A piece of equipment for steam engines was invented and patented by a man named 'Hogg'.  I don't remember the device, but engines that had been upgraded with the device were called Hogg Engines.  The men who ran them were the Hogg engine heads.  The other, and what I think most likely, is that steam engines really drank up the water, earning them the name of 'water hogs', consequently the engineer was the 'water hog head', which morphed into 'hoghead'.

Fireman:  Ash cat, tallow pot, fireboy, belly robber (they got the name "belly robber" because, after dieselization, if an engineer worked with a fireman at his disposal, his pay was lowered by $4 evry 100 miles)

Conductor:  Parlour shack, skipper, captain,

Brakeman: Shack, brakey (or by position: head man, rear man, swing man)

Switchman: Yardlet, snake, herder, footboard man, the "pot" (as in, follow the "pot")  *Old switchman saying, "Never stand when you can sit, never walk when you can ride."

And, we may need head shrinking from time to time, BUT, if really wanting to lay-off for a day's rest and you're told "no dice," when in the Road Foreman's or Trainmaster's office pleading your case, start pulling the buttons off of your shirt and eat them, one at a time, lickin' your chops and goin' "Mmmmmm... chocolate," each time you do.  

You'll get the whole weekend off...