It occured to me the other day while showing some friends around the C&I of the BNSF, that they looked confused when I would call out to Tina my wife a certain locomotive was leading. Tina and I have started a slang of our own for mainly BNSF and other local roads and it helps us explain to each other what we are looking for. It looks like this: BNSF: H1 = H1 or original BNSF H2 = H2 or Great Pumpkin BNSF H3 = Swoosh or Dark Pumpkin Anything NS = Dark Pony Anything UP = Borg Anything CSX = New Kitty Anything CN/IC = Scenic (CNIC) Any old Conrail = Old Blue Amtrak = Slamtrak I call the old BN units beaters with heaters, but she hates that. We have more to describe loco types too like SD40-2's are dueces, GP38-2's are little Geeps, BNSF SD70MAC's are Chillimacs etc. Therefor a BNSF SD70MAC with a NS SD40-2 and a BN SD40-2 in the consist would be said like this, "We got a hot BNSF Great Pumpkin chillimac, Dark pony duece and a beater duece pulling a pig through Polo, Eastbound." So what are your nicknames for RR and loco's?
Railroads have a code for all these too, I just can't print it here. Sorry couldn't help myself. Adam
You asked for it...................... BNSF- Beansniff Any UP diesels- Borgrail Ex-ATSF blue & yellow- Cub Scouts (thanx to whoever first thought this one up) Ex- ATSF red & silver- Fleets Ex- BN green & black- Greenies BN SD70MACs in Grinstien colors- Grimestains H1, H2 and H3 BNSF- all the same to me. GE Environmental Series engines- GEVO Any SD70MACe- Big Ace Remaining white KCS engines- ghosts COnrail engines in blue with CSX or NS lettering- ex-Cons Any diesel lettered FURX, LETX, HCLX, etc., still in colors of previous owner or lessor- rent-a-wreck BNSF SD70MACs- ChiliMacs SD40-2s- Dueces B40-8s, regardless of color- Technotoasters For the freights I've seen on the Gallup Sub, I've developed this list: Stackers- double or single-stack trains Pigs- piggyback freight Coalies- empty or loaded unit coal trains Grainers- unit grain trains Junk freights- general manifest Steel train- coil cars loaded with steel coils Bare table- nuthin' but empty COFC/TOFC or stack cars "Brown worm"- unit train with almost if not all brown BNSF covered hoppers Amtrak pass. trains- the SW Chief (this IS ex-Santa Fe territory) Gas trains- unit LPG tank train Toss in the occ. ballast train, local, etc., and it's a busy mainline out here. PS- I don't differentiate on CSX color schemes- it's all CSX to me. Same with BN green or BNSF green & orange.......
The wrost nightmare I can think of????? We cringe at a Dash 8, cry about a SD45-2, and tell stories around the campfire about GP-9's. Not really but when you look at a SD70MAC as getting old, it's all relative. Adam
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Bob pretty well covered them for me, too.. Uncle Pete is UP, 'Deuces don't change, and drag freights are usally called 'dog freights' by me--just because they get stuck in every siding, go dead on the law 50 miles from the on-duty terminal, etc.. Amcrash or Amscrap, well, you can figure it out..mg: I call the SD70ACe's ACez, and post Dash-7 GE-anything are GEez... And track crews are Maintenance-in-the-way.
"We got a hot BNSF Great Pumpkin chillimac, Dark pony duece and a beater duece pulling a pig through Polo, Eastbound." How come when I hear this I think of CW McCall? mg: :sun: Actually I only use a few: BNSF's are pumpkins, NS's are ponies, cub scouts, rent-a-wrecks, pig trains, stackers.
One other- if I can tell the diesels in question are C44-9Ws and not earlier Dash-8s, I'll refer to 'em as just "Dash-9s". When I wuz in Wyoming last year, I saw a potload of AC4400Ws and their newer AC4400CTE kin. I call the latter "Big Cats".
The ACeez that run thru WY are generally the 'Controlled Tractive Effort' variety, or C44ACCTE's in UP parlance. 'Big Cats' makes good sense to me. Convoy!! CW McCall is a an all-time great... What's a 'cub scout'?? Where's Polo?
Somebody on this board (can't remember the name, sorry) hung the nickname "cub scout" on any of the BNSF units still in the Santa fe blue & yellow.
T'was me. I was just passing on what some of the old Santa Fe trainmen around here used to call them.
There are two that I knew of... Polo, Illinois, and Polo, Missouri. Which one? I'd guess it's the first. Boxcab E50
Some others that my brother, friends and I use are: NS wide body GE's catfish NS GE's without wide cabs are toasterheads rock trains for ballast trains, garabge power, is all the standard power we see every day. good one, is a consist that is more than worthy of a picture, such as a leaser on the point or something good. a trophy train is something that would have a leader such as rare power.
Well here in the south, any MRL, Soo, Unpatched few and far between SP. Other things include any WC power found on the point, anything left in CR paint, stuff like that. Anything that is fading fast into the past that was common 2-5 yrs ago.
