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Pet hate idioms used by railway enthusiasts


DY444
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Do you have any idioms used by railway enthusiasts that rub you up the wrong way?   I have two.  Prompted by seeing one of them used in a recent post I thought I'd gently vent my spleen.  For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a dig at the individual who used that particularly term recently as many use it.

 

1.  DIT = "Dead in Tow".  DIT was always "Dead In Train" but has become "Dead In Tow" in some enthusiast circles.  I do have a suspicion as to who first coined this and it grates for two reasons.  Firstly in what context do UK railways ever use the word "tow" relating to the movement of unpowered/dead vehicles?  "Haul" is the universal word.  Secondly if it's dead how can it be anything other than being hauled/"towed"?  So to my mind it uses a very non-railway word and it's tautology.

 

2. "Dragged" for the hauling of a (usually electric) dead locomotive/multiple unit by a (usually diesel) locomotive.  I can only think of two legitimate railway contexts for "drag".  The S&C gradients and not fully released brakes.  Every time I see that unit xyz was "dragged" somewhere I think "well release the ******* brakes then". 

Edited by DY444
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22 minutes ago, DY444 said:

1.  DIT = "Dead in Tow".  DIT was always "Dead In Train" but has become "Dead In Tow" in some enthusiast circles.  I do have a suspicion as to who first coined this and it grates for two reasons.  Firstly in what context do UK railways ever use the word "tow" relating to the movement of unpowered/dead vehicles?  "Haul" is the universal word.  Secondly if it's dead how can it be anything other than being hauled/"towed"?  So to my mind it uses a very non-railway word and it's tautology.

 

 

Except when it is pushed....... :) 

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It’s too easy to get pointlessly worked-up about this sort of thing, which has been going-on since the dawn of railways, and is unstoppable.

 

I get irritated by the widespread use of the term “loco”, for instance, when the proper term is “locomotive engine”, and always has been.

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20 minutes ago, rodent279 said:

 

 

.............. Another pet hate is "train station". They were always railway stations when I were a lad. ............

 

 

Right on. Another “Americanism” which has crept to the fore!

Doesn’t personally irritate, but examples of this modernistic re-phrasing of our native tongue might represent to some, even further degradation of our history in the interests of media fashion.

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Without sounding harsh, this thread will become one.

 

It will start off all Bulleid v Bullied and before we know it there will be talk of rucksacks, gronks, peds and duffs, train stations and it will go on and on for pages like this.

 

Be careful what you wish for is all I can say.

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There are probably many examples that will irk someone, somewhere. I suspect that it possibly stems from people "outside" the industry not knowing the "correct" railway terminology and using a word/phrase they think "fits" the situation. One that irks me is the use of the term "relay box" for "signalling location" (or signalling loc). 

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"Dead in train" / "Dead in tow" - I've been on the railways 34 years this year and heard both used interchangeably all that time. Similarly "drag" or "dragging" was/is in common use for diesels hauling (normally) electric sets.

 

Conversely the S&C was never referred to as 'The Drag / Long Drag' when I was working on it, it was always 'The Midland' to distinguish it from the North East, the North West, the M&C (or 'The West Line') and The Caley which were the other lines then radiating out of Carlisle.  If you were referring to the North West and the Caley as a continuous route then it was 'The Main Line'. But if you went to Newcastle 'The West Line' was what Carlisle men called 'The North East' - context being everything with geographical names.   

 

Does it really matter ? 

 

"Train station" - ok that one really matters, I'm surprised our social media team haven't blocked me. 

 

Any quirks to do with announcements on 333s is likely to be because it costs a fortune to alter anything. The auto-announcer was a unique system when it was introduced and is now completely non-standard, so it mostly says whatever CAF originally programmed it to say. Personally it annoys me more that, unless it's stopping at Kirkstall Forge, it starts announcing Leeds almost immediately it leaves Shipley or Guiseley !

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9 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

 

"Train station" - ok that one really matters, I'm surprised our social media team haven't blocked me. 

 

I hate "Train Station" but it seems to be a broadcast media phrase.  Its less syllables than Railway Station, so does that make it easier to say?

I guess it brings it into line with others, "Bus Station" or bus stop is normal, but trains have been around a lot longer than buses, so perhaps we should call bus stations "Road Stations"...

 

I dislike "Arriving Into" as well.  Blimey, I'm starting to sound like my Dad!

Edited by DLT
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56 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

It’s too easy to get pointlessly worked-up about this sort of thing


Enough said, in my humble opinion…

Edited by Western Aviator
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2 hours ago, rodent279 said:

Personally, it grates whenever I hear "Midland Region" or "Great Western Region", when referring to the former LMR & WR respectively.

 

Yes, except that I get the feeling that 'Great Western Region' was how the WR thought of itself for some time after nationalisation.

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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

I get irritated by the widespread use of the term “loco”, for instance, when the proper term is “locomotive engine”, and always has been.

Do you travel by omnibus, or get annoyed by traffic jams where there are empty omnibus lanes? 

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2 hours ago, rodent279 said:

I've been aware of the use of the word "drag" in the context of a diesel hauling (choosing my words very carefully here....) an electric locomotive/multiple unit, for a long time, usually because power is off. But I can see your point.

 

Personally, it grates whenever I hear "Midland Region" or "Great Western Region", when referring to the former LMR & WR respectively. Another pet hate is "train station". They were always railway stations when I were a lad.

 

Also, why do trains "arrive into" stations now, rather than "arrive at" ? Not quite sure I can explain why, but the former doesn't sound right, grammatically.


Absolutely right! We can arrive in the town of Reading but we arrive at the specific point .... Reading station

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2 hours ago, DY444 said:

Do you have any idioms used by railway enthusiasts that rub you up the wrong way?   I have two.  Prompted by seeing one of them used in a recent post I thought I'd gently vent my spleen.  For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a dig at the individual who used that particularly term recently as many use it.

 

1.  DIT = "Dead in Tow".  DIT was always "Dead In Train" but has become "Dead In Tow" in some enthusiast circles.  I do have a suspicion as to who first coined this and it grates for two reasons.  Firstly in what context do UK railways ever use the word "tow" relating to the movement of unpowered/dead vehicles?  "Haul" is the universal word.  Secondly if it's dead how can it be anything other than being hauled/"towed"?  So to my mind it uses a very non-railway word and it's tautology.

 

2. "Dragged" for the hauling of a (usually electric) dead locomotive/multiple unit by a (usually diesel) locomotive.  I can only think of two legitimate railway contexts for "drag".  The S&C gradients and not fully released brakes.  Every time I see that unit xyz was "dragged" somewhere I think "well release the ******* brakes then". 

 

I'm glad DIT winds other people up I thought it was just me! When I hear a driver say it I tell them to read their bloody TOPS list 

Shows a DT warning and says check number of locos authorised DEAD IN TRAIN. 

 

Don't get me started on railwaymen using TRAIN  STATION!!

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1 hour ago, DLT said:

 

I hate "Train Station" but it seems to be a broadcast media phrase.  Its less syllables than Railway Station, so does that make it easier to say?

I guess it brings it into line with others, "Bus Station" or bus stop is normal, but trains have been around a lot longer than buses, so perhaps we should call bus stations "Road Stations"...

Flying from a planeport?

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2 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Spelling "Kadee" as 'Kaydee'.  :shout:  :nono:  :punish:

 

My pet hate is by no means specific to railway enthusiasts, but it does seem to proliferate on this forum significantly more than on others that I read on a regular basis.  I refer to the use of the contraction "it's" in place of the third person singular neuter possessive "its".  I know, I know, it's picky and pedantic but it always and without fail causes me to hesitate over the meaning as I'm reading before I recognise that I've just tripped over yet another occurrence of the error.  It's almost as if my brain has to go back and apply a mental highlighter every time I come across it.

 

It's not really the same as having two terms for the same thing e.g. Jinty vs Fowler 0-6-0T.  It's a word (or a contraction in this case) that means something different to what the writer intended - like "loose" instead of "lose", or "lead" instead of "led".

 

Their is one contributor on hear whose particularly prone to this, to the extent that sometimes I don't even read they're posts because I fear the rough mental ride I'm going to get.  (See what I did there?)

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1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

"Dead in train" / "Dead in tow" - I've been on the railways 34 years this year and heard both used interchangeably all that time. Similarly "drag" or "dragging" was/is in common use for diesels hauling (normally) electric sets.

 

Conversely the S&C was never referred to as 'The Drag / Long Drag' when I was working on it, it was always 'The Midland' to distinguish it from the North East, the North West, the M&C (or 'The West Line') and The Caley which were the other lines then radiating out of Carlisle.  If you were referring to the North West and the Caley as a continuous route then it was 'The Main Line'. But if you went to Newcastle 'The West Line' was what Carlisle men called 'The North East' - context being everything with geographical names.   

 

Does it really matter ? 

 

"Train station" - ok that one really matters, I'm surprised our social media team haven't blocked me. 

 

Any quirks to do with announcements on 333s is likely to be because it costs a fortune to alter anything. The auto-announcer was a unique system when it was introduced and is now completely non-standard, so it mostly says whatever CAF originally programmed it to say. Personally it annoys me more that, unless it's stopping at Kirkstall Forge, it starts announcing Leeds almost immediately it leaves Shipley or Guiseley !

Dead In Tow was certainly used in the railway vernacular as was drag/dragged in the context you mention.  However as far as DIT is concerned on the Western the term officially used, and also often used in the vernacular as well, was ANR - meaning 'Attached, Not Required'

 

'Train station' is one of the most appallingly ignorant expressions in the English language - yes, I absolutely hate it, especially when it is used anachronistically.

 

Great Western Region was a term very commonly used at one time stemming mainly from the reappearance of chocolate and cream coaching stock and green loco liveries in the late 1950s.  However I'm fairly sure that it didn't originate within the railway but started as a journalistic expression.   (I have even used it in its original context for a picture caption in 'Smoke Steam'  so buy a copy of that if you want to be irritated by it ;)  ).  There was definitely no need for us to use it on the WR as we knew we were a cut above the rest and our various disciples - including me in two instances - took our methods elsewhere on BR although i also introduced some of them to part of SNCF and even to one railway network in Australia.

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Garrett (other wrong spellings often appear, 1r or 1t are common enough) when people mean Garratt. At least when talking about articulated locomotives from Beyer Peacock & Co. (and other makers).

 

Garrett from a railway perspective, refers to this company and it's products.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garrett_%26_Sons

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24 minutes ago, ejstubbs said:

 

Their is one contributor on hear whose particularly prone to this, to the extent that sometimes I don't even read they're posts because I fear the rough mental ride I'm going to get.  (See what I did there?)

I don't blame individuals who can't spell  - and some spell checkers aren't up to the job either.  I think our educational system leaves a lot to be desired.

When I was working in Europe, I couldn't help being embarrassed by the way so many of the locals had better English than the locals, and that we (myself included) are so poor at learning their languages.  

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'Frog'!

 

There is no such thing in UK railway engineering - every P-way person and official bit of documentation refers to them as a 'Crossing'

 

'Bulb' - Bulbs grow in the ground and produce plants.

 

The correct term for an illuminating device is a 'Lamp' - which can be prefixed by what method is used to create the light - i.e. 'Paraffin Lamp', 'Gas Lamp', 'Electric Lamp', 'LED Lamp',...

Edited by phil-b259
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