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  • 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

 #576299  by Mitch
 
After reading seveal posts that mentioned the nick names of fellow rails, such as "Chisel Chin," I wanted to hear more.

I worked on the C&NW, Milwaukee and The South Shore Line. Over the years this is what, and who I knew.

"Rotten Socks""Big Foot,""The Deacon" (Gave out nick names on the South Shore),"Iron Mike,"" Silly" (Superintendant that wanted to know why the Line Car was always on the siding when he passed them on single track,) "Bones" (Skinny guy)"Skinny"(Heavy set fellow,) "Tubby" (Really heavy set fellow,) "Tiny" (Beyond belief,) "Jug o' Whiskey," or "Jug" for short (Contraction of last name)"Ooo la lah"(From Montreal)aka"The Frenchman,""Gabby Gary" (In 10 years said exactly 17 1/2 words)"Fingers" (Had several missing,) "Hollywood Joe"(Wore crazy sunglasses)"Madam Iron Girddle"(Use your imagination,) Just to name a few.

So if you've a nickname, or know some good ones pass them along. Better yet, If they have stories I want to hear them.

On the C&NW, mine was just "Mitch." On The Milwaukee "That Goofey Mitch," on The South Shore, I was back to just "Mitch."
 #576328  by UPRR engineer
 
UPRR MOD NOTE: Please try to choose your words carefully, and also how about none of that one letter/symbol substitution so this doesnt turn into something that one of us ends up babysitting.
 #576365  by Lmcgolf
 
mine is cheesburger. given to me by the turkey man.
 #576371  by Mitch
 
Lmcgolf wrote:mine is cheesburger. given to me by the turkey man.
I can only imagine...

Another one that comes to mind is that of The South Shore's first female engineman. She passed away at an early age and she's dearly missed but her nick name may live on.

Her nick name was "Madame Ginsu," or "Steak Knife" for short. She was wrongly accused by a neighbor, during a bar b que of making certain threats. None of it true, but it made the papers.

She ranked amongst the best railroaders I ever worked with.
 #576450  by Jtgshu
 
hahahahaa

Lets see some that pop into my head at my RR are (most are pretty obvious as to the reason, some are mysteries and no one knows!)

Buffy
Bone Cruncher
The Cowboy
BooBoo
Pokey
Happy
Grumpy (sounds a bit like the 7 dwarfs, huh?)
The Sarge
Inky
Stinky
8 and Change
Doorlights

Are only some of them............hahaha
 #576458  by Mitch
 
For some reason I figured out "Doorlights" and got a big laugh. The first time I rode the LIRR we remained stopped at Jamaica. All of a sudden a big voice came over the PA and yelled,"No door light Al!"

Here's more:

No neck
Teardrops
Monkeyface

And the best one I can think of today, which was awarded to the guy when during his vacation he managed to saw himself out of a tree by using the chain saw on the wrong side of the branch,

"Tarzan."
 #576480  by Jtgshu
 
Mitch wrote:For some reason I figured out "Doorlights" and got a big laugh. The first time I rode the LIRR we remained stopped at Jamaica. All of a sudden a big voice came over the PA and yelled,"No door light Al!"

Here's more:

No neck
Teardrops
Monkeyface

And the best one I can think of today, which was awarded to the guy when during his vacation he managed to saw himself out of a tree by using the chain saw on the wrong side of the branch,

"Tarzan."
Oh yes thats exactly it Mitch!!!!

"Doorlights" is a good friend of mine, however, getting the doors, closing them in particular, isn't his best talent............

"Get out of the way, ill do it........." I wanna get to my car and go home sometime today........
 #576508  by Mitch
 
Jtgshu wrote:
Mitch wrote:For some reason I figured out "Doorlights" and got a big laugh. The first time I rode the LIRR we remained stopped at Jamaica. All of a sudden a big voice came over the PA and yelled,"No door light Al!"
Oh yes thats exactly it Mitch!!!!

"Doorlights" is a good friend of mine, however, getting the doors, closing them in particular, isn't his best talent............

"Get out of the way, ill do it........." I wanna get to my car and go home sometime today........
That's remarkable. You tell him that his call over the PA influenced 2 Milwaukee Road guys with results. You may recall I mentioned my good friend and fellow trainman (Nickname "Fast Eddie") who was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Seaford. We were riding together to visit his mom when on that train that evening. When we returned to our home road, where he and I worked Amtrak turbo trains together we would test the PA system on the train. "No doorlight Al !" would resonate through the train as we waited to board passengers in Chicago and Milwaukee. Of course this eroded into my playful "And now ladies and gentlemen, will everyone please rise as the Conductor and Engineer sing...The National Anthym." All was going good with that until one day an elderly couple was allowed to board early. I made the announcement, and they stood up. They wouldn't sit back down until the Star Spangle Banner was sung. Eddie and I just crawled out the door and started to board passengers. It earned me the short lived nick-name, "Golden Fog."

We had doorlights on the South Shore MUs. I got on the PA and said, "No dawlight Al !" Even though the conductor's name wasn't Al. I had to do it in my phoney Brooklyn, hillbilly accent.
 #576537  by Jtgshu
 
Just replace AL with my buddies name and the conversations were the same, at nearly every stop.......hahahah

Oh my Gosh.........How could I forget "No Neck" ?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

we have a "No Neck" too - thats another one that doesn't require an explaination.........he's just missing a body part....thats all!

And then there is "Blinky" who is a dispatcher now...........

We had a "Tex" who unfortunatley passed away very young, but he was from Texas and when passengers would get him going and push his buttons, he would start going on rants and his "Texas'ness'" would come out and he would start yelling at the folks with these words and phrases that NJ urbanites have NEVER heard before in their lives..........

And my personal favorite "Mimi" which we called a female train"person" who looked and acted just like the famous character from the "Drew Carey Show" - quite remarkable was the resemblance..........
Last edited by Jtgshu on Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #576552  by Mitch
 
Maybe we should have a poll on how many railroads had a "No neck," or a "Dynamite." We had a "Blinky" as well. And the name aptly fit.

We had a "No pants." It came from his working as flagman on Amtrak 7 up to Milwaukee and then back on number 8. This resulted in a 6 hour layover in The Brew City as his job protected trains that had more than 5 cars as per Wisconsin state law at the time. The union agreement required the flagman have a room at a near-by hotel for his layover, which "No pants" availed himself of as he was a Chicago man and couldn't spend time at home like the rest of us Milwaukee guys.

"No pants" went to his hotel and checked in. He then retired to the hotel's lounge where he met 2 women of questionable stature. Drinks flowed and "No pants" suggested they move the party up to his room where in the midst of his romp was given a sedative in his drink, unbeknownst to him. He awakened when the caller called the hotel and discovered to his horror that said young ladies had departed. With them they had taken his uniform trousers and his wallet. They may have taken his ticket punch as well. I'm not a bettin' kinda person but I bet the trousers were not removed account the girls were railfans looking for Milwaukee Road souvenirs.

He called the Milwaukee Police who arrived promptly at his room and they figured out what happened. They took the report but advised "No pants" that city regulations prohibited them from giving him a ride over to the depot, 4 blocks south.

Undaunted, and into the cold rainey October evening he trudged out of his room with a white shirt, tie, his uniform jacket, his silver trimmed trainman's uniform cap, a pair of raucous colored boxers, and "No pants." He marched past the very lounge where his troubles began to the gales of laughter of the crowd. Down alleys, and passageways until he knocked madly at the baggage room door of Milwaukee Union Station. After a few more tense minutes the baggage door opened and the station baggage agent got an eyeful that would have made Ed Sullivan go soaking wet. The agent was able to locate a set of Amtrak station baggageman's coveralls and "No pants" worked his train home. His wife didn't see any bit of truth to his story about a train wreck he was just in.

The next day "No pants" got a talking to by the assistant superintendant, and a nick name.
 #576571  by Jtgshu
 
HAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

I wish I could get into a few more stories of a few of our nicknames, but 1) Karma is a @#%#! and 2) Im still working!!!

but there is one more i gotta mention..........

"Scuba" - he took an accidental swim in a body of water that the yard was next to when he got a little startled by something........
 #576584  by Mitch
 
Jtgshu wrote:HAHAHAHAHHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

I wish I could get into a few more stories of a few of our nicknames, but 1) Karma is a @#%#! and 2) Im still working!!!

but there is one more i gotta mention..........

"Scuba" - he took an accidental swim in a body of water that the yard was next to when he got a little startled by something........
Now yer talkin'. That's good.

Our "Stinky" on the C&NW got his nick name that caused one of the few times an official received a handle.

The C&NW switched several meat packing plants that were located on the South end of Milwaukee. A by-product was cattle guts that were hauled in gondolas. The stuff was a raunchy, gooey mess. Our hero, during a switching (drilling) maneuver decided to climb up the side ladder and stand on the end of said "gut car." "Five cars back," he signaled, "3 big cars," he said. "That'll do!, That'll do!" were his last words. KKkkkaaahkaBOOOM!!! He was immersed. Sloshing around in all of that. He was saturated with what used to be the outsides and some innards of some of the best blue ribbon cattle in the Midwest.

He wasn't coming back onto the head end. I think the fireman locked the cab doors while the engineer got on the radio to broadcast the event to the trainmaster, and the rest of the operating listening audeience. After a full 15 minutes of "mmmOOOOOOooo" coming over the radio from every train in the area, the trainmaster got on the radio and said he would drive the fellow home.

The trainmaster from then on was "Stinky's Chauffeur."

Stay tuned for more, tomorrow.
 #576694  by Gadfly
 
:-D :-D OH NO!!!!! :-D I always suspected railroads had nicknames. Ours did. Yes, we had a NO Neck (because his chin rested on his shoulders). A Rob-eye. (I think it was just a constriction of the letters of his name) A Knobby (Don't know why). A Radar ( *I* gave him that name because he reminded me of the M.A.S.H. company clerk and spent most of his time on a mini-truck delivering parts to the back shops. a Steam Train Tony----and I have to change this one a bit to protect the guilty :P and I gave this name as well. Tony was a draftsman design engineer, true-blue railfan and genuine foamer. One day, a steam train signaled its arrival in town and I observed as "Tony" burst out of the office, stumbling and fumbling with a camera, tripping and skipping, desparate to get a picture of the train (*violating safety rules in the process). Then there was "Tricky Dicky" an uncomplimentary nick for a certain superintendent. Another one I called "One Ton" WHOOPS! We won't explain that one!!! :P :P

Gadfly
 #576731  by Mitch
 
In reading the previous post I'm reminded that characters on TV situation comedies gave rise to nick names. Such was the case of our Assistant Division Superintendent on The C&M Division of the Milwaukee Road when I hired out. First I want to say that this guy was a very well liked, and respected official. He was a dead ringer for the character played by Werner Klemperer on "Hogan's Heroes." His nick name was "Colonel Klink," or just plain "Klink" for short.

I had come from the Wisconsin Division of the C&NW at the time. In the era of my employ on The North Western that company was well into a corporate identity as being a formal corporation, and at the time C&NW was still reporting a small profit from operating suburban trains, or "The Scoots," as they were called. One would never address an official on the C&NW in the familiar or worse, a nick name. One day in my first year on The Milwaukee I was sitting in the trainmen's room at the Fox Lake depot preparing for our ruch hour trip into the city. I knew this official had a nick name but I would never use it especially to his face. So in he pops into the trainmen's room, picks up the phone and dials. A moment later I hear the phone answer on the other end and the Super says, "Hello Skeeter, this is Col. Klink." I couldn't believe it. A moment later my conductor came in, looked at him and greeted him with,"G'mornin' Klink." Of course Bill "Monkey face" Cavanaugh spit his coffee out but that's a whole 'nuther story.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about "Huricane Horowicz."
 #576741  by DutchRailnut
 
on Metro North they got this guy "wooden shoes", wonder who their talking about ;-)