Railroad Forums 

  • Nick names

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

 #576874  by RearOfSignal
 
How about, Toasterhead, The Mooch, Sweet Petey, Artie Cologne and Burger King. :P
 #577777  by H.F.Malone
 
There's even a few of these on the shortline/museum roads. There was a "Mr. Fish" once upon a time (his then-lady friend was known as "Chips", of course). There's "The B-unit"; he could be said to be missing a control stand from time to time. A young fellow who favored Oakley shades, baggy shorts and beach tee shirts (when not dressed in appropriate work clothes) and many surf decals on his truck quickly became "Surfer Joe". There's "Dana Boy" and "Dana Girl" (yes, one of each sex with the same first name). And "Buzz Lightyear" who hung around a trolley museum (zorch!).
 #594765  by MNRR_RTC
 
There was an old timer block operator who people say held up more trains than Jesse James.... :-D :-D
 #594787  by BR&P
 
Oh man, this could be a long list....

Motormouth - self explanatory
Milkbone - sometimes imitated a poodle yapping over the radio
Speedy - with a last name of Gonzales, what else?
Big Stupe - Big husky guy but not "all there"
Tip Toes Tommy - short conductor (but NOT to his face!)
The Mad Cabber - conductor who made a practice of outlawing each day
The Dinger - yardmaster, later went back braking
102% - arrogant young dispatcher who knew everything there was to know - and then some!
Goofy Gus - eccentric terminal sup't
Mr. Wonderful - yard conductor (may have given the name to himself, but it stuck)
Iron Mike - engineer
Hammerin' Hank - yard engineer
Wounded Knee - brakeman of Native American ancestry
The Chief - engineer of Native American ancestry
Stosh - anyone of Polish origin
Captain Nice - grumpy clerk
Gator Bait - came from the south and still had an accent
Muscles - short, skinny brakeman
Squeeky - a rugged guy whose voice had never changed
Farmer - worked his farm on the side
Earl The Pearl -
Puddinhead - track guy who was not always on the ball
Hotpants - use your imagination
Beef - large engineer

And the ones based on names - if you were Smith, it was Smitty. Likewise for Brownie, Woodie, Whitey, Frosty, Jonesy, Boggsie, and so on.

I'm sure I'll wake up at 3 AM with a couple more, but that's a start!
 #670030  by ex Budd man
 
At SEPTA we had several unique names;
Butterball, shortened to Butter
Bigfoot-size 13 eee
Big bird- 6'5" 195 lbs
Woodrat or Woody
Horizontal Harry
Mikey Maytag, the agitator
Swapsie
The Cuz
V.I. or the village idiot
The (muff) Diver
Capt. Howie
Mother Goose or Goose
Pumkin Head
Prof. Plaid
the Mole
Sarge
Clown feet or squeegy boy
Clutch Cargo
Max Headroom
The Worker
Big Stinky-doesn't like soap
The Baz
The Shrunken Drunk
Jiffy Lube
Learch
Sumo
Fish Town Johnny
Needle Nose
Mr Wipple
Otis, the shop drunk
Rhino
Mad Dog
Last edited by ex Budd man on Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:09 pm, edited 6 times in total.
 #670382  by Jtgshu
 
ex Budd man wrote:At SEPTA we had several unique names;
Butterball, shortened to Butter
Bigfoot, size 13 eee
Big bird, 6'5" 195 lbs
Woodrat or Woody,
Horizontal Harry
Mikey Maytag the agitator
Swapsie,
The cuz
V.I. or the village idiot
The diver
Capt. Howie
Mother Goose or Goose
HAHAHHAHA I gotta remember V.I. - I can think of more than a few fellas that that is very fitting...........

"But thats not my initials, why does he keep calling me V.I.?" :)
 #670957  by dirtydave
 
pete, re-pete, boar, ground hog, peabody, meathead, moe, snowman, perrydog (last name perry), buckshot, honey bee, tweety, ladybug, termite, moonshine, oddball, snowball, big country, curly, hooter, flo, frumpy, mule and so many more that i cant think of.
 #675477  by ENR3870
 
Baby Huey. Apparently I look like baby huey.
 #1369756  by Engineer Spike
 
We have a conductor who is a champion ball buster, and has come up with a few. One was for a newer conductor, who had a hard time catching on. This guy got named Ricky Retardo. A short but round engineer is the burn barrel.
 #1370017  by rovetherr
 
Paddington, like the railbuff bear from the books and movies. Thats the one people call me to my face, I'm sure there are others they save for my absense! :-D
 #1370034  by amtrakhogger
 
ex Budd man wrote:At SEPTA we had several unique names;
Butterball, shortened to Butter
Bigfoot-size 13 eee
Big bird- 6'5" 195 lbs
Woodrat or Woody
Horizontal Harry
Mikey Maytag, the agitator
Swapsie
The Cuz
V.I. or the village idiot
The (muff) Diver
Capt. Howie
Mother Goose or Goose
Pumkin Head
Prof. Plaid
the Mole
Sarge
Clown feet or squeegy boy
Clutch Cargo
Max Headroom
The Worker
Big Stinky-doesn't like soap
The Baz
The Shrunken Drunk
Jiffy Lube
Learch
Sumo
Fish Town Johnny
Needle Nose
Mr Wipple
Otis, the shop drunk
Rhino
Mad Dog
Don't forget the "Beast!"
 #1371029  by JWilson
 
Blue, Metro Paulie, Rooster, Heavy Metal, AL Bean, Red, Paulie Toughnuts. . .
 #1409472  by Engineer Spike
 
We had a guy who had a rotund midsection, and always wore blue overalls. He was called Blueberry. Our safety committee members used to ride with crews. The rides were called ORCA rides, and I forgot what the acronym stood for. One large safety committee member was called Orca.

Another is the Expert Switchman. He'd always complain that the yardmaster didn't know how to set up the switching efficiently. Working the shift before Expert Switchman was easy because all we had to do was to remind the yardmaster who was coming in. He would make sure the Expert could show us all how to get it done, and safe some extra work for him.
 #1427985  by Engineer Spike
 
It is funny how some guys get a name based on some incident. Under Hunter Harrison, it was decided that crew transportation was too expensive. For short runs, usually a trainmaster, or clerk drives us. On long runs, we go by bus.

One guy is quite large. It so happened that the bus was quite full. At one stop, the last 2 seats were filled. This guy takes over one seat's worth of space. The last passengers were a mother an small child. The mother told the kid that he'd have to squeeze in next to "Big Beefy". Now the name has stuck.