Railway slang

[stanmorek]

Elephant's Trunk - Trackside ready to start plunger

An alternative meaning for elephant's trunk I know would be the concrete boxes which buried HV cables emerge out from.

I've heard rail nips/tongs referred to as two dogs by P-Way. Two people were required to use it though I'm not sure how dogs come into it!

[Deleted]

There is the 'on and off' reference, where a signal on red will be 'on' and on green be 'off'. I believe this takes it's meaning from the days of semaphore signalling and something to do with the signal mechanism.

[Deleted]

alexh said:

There is the 'on and off' reference, where a signal on red will be 'on' and on green be 'off'. I believe this takes it's meaning from the days of semaphore signalling and something to do with the signal mechanism.

You also see platform repeaters (more on national rail) which show On and Off. You'll hear people talking about the stick (signal) being on or off.

[Deleted]

alexh said:

There is the 'on and off' reference, where a signal on red will be 'on' and on green be 'off'. I believe this takes it's meaning from the days of semaphore signalling and something to do with the signal mechanism.

I've wondered about this and wonder if it dates from the days when semaphore sticks were first fail-safed... by arranging it so that one end was heavy and would fall, presumably until it was on some kind of rest, to put the signal on if the pull wire failed, and the pull wire would lift it off its rest to clear the signal.

As stated in a later post, you do see worded repeater lights on NR that say "OFF".

Still, we could be wrong again and calling the indications "on" and "off" could have a different derivation.

[towerman]

Swinger-a dead unit that has to be pulled/propelled by a good unit,normally done in depots,can be a bit hair raising if you're pulling a swinger with no brakes(except handbrake)with a D to D adaptor around a depot like Hainault/Ruislip/Cockfosters where it's uphill to the shunting neck.

[Colin]

pmrnorthern said:

Still, we could be wrong again and calling the indications "on" and "off" could have a different derivation.

Nothing has been said wrong at all - the 'ON' & 'OFF' descriptions are spot on

[railtechnician]

stanmorek said:

Elephant's Trunk - Trackside ready to start plunger

An alternative meaning for elephant's trunk I know would be the concrete boxes which buried HV cables emerge out from.

I've heard rail nips/tongs referred to as two dogs by P-Way. Two people were required to use it though I'm not sure how dogs come into it!

I've never heard elephant's trunk used to refer to HT cable ducts, then again as clearly demonstrated in this thread each department has/had its own slang and obviously there has been some crossover of terms where two or more departments liaise or otherwise work together.

Talking of ducts another term that comes to mind in the animal category is ratting / ratted meaning cleaning or cleaned out.

Has anyone mentioned 'pipe' meaning tunnel as in "he's down the pipe tonight"?

bolt hole - refuge in a tunnel

horn - telephone
blower - telephone
flags - electro-mechanical indicators
flaps - electro-mechanical indicators
clipper - point relay (KLPR) on older sites

[railtechnician]

pmrnorthern said:

alexh said:

There is the 'on and off' reference, where a signal on red will be 'on' and on green be 'off'. I believe this takes it's meaning from the days of semaphore signalling and something to do with the signal mechanism.

I've wondered about this and wonder if it dates from the days when semaphore sticks were first fail-safed... by arranging it so that one end was heavy and would fall, presumably until it was on some kind of rest, to put the signal on if the pull wire failed, and the pull wire would lift it off its rest to clear the signal.

As stated in a later post, you do see worded repeater lights on NR that say "OFF".

Still, we could be wrong again and calling the indications "on" and "off" could have a different derivation.

My thinking about the terms ON and OFF is simple!

The earliest semaphore signals were of the lower quadrant type and the arms dropped when cleared. They would also clear if the pull wire broke and the arm would then be OFF as in no longer controlled. I may be wrong but to me this makes sense and I could easily see how it could have come to be used as a legitimate term.

[Deleted]

railtechnician said:

My thinking about the terms ON and OFF is simple!

The earliest semaphore signals were of the lower quadrant type and the arms dropped when cleared. They would also clear if the pull wire broke and the arm would then be OFF as in no longer controlled. I may be wrong but to me this makes sense and I could easily see how it could have come to be used as a legitimate term.

But then again, that would be a wrong-side failure.

On lower quadrant, the spectacle was heavy and that end of the arm lowered, to make the other end level, under gravity if the wire broke.

Upper quadrant had more weight in the actual arm than in the spectacle.

[railtechnician]

pmrnorthern said:

railtechnician said:

My thinking about the terms ON and OFF is simple!

The earliest semaphore signals were of the lower quadrant type and the arms dropped when cleared. They would also clear if the pull wire broke and the arm would then be OFF as in no longer controlled. I may be wrong but to me this makes sense and I could easily see how it could have come to be used as a legitimate term.

But then again, that would be a wrong-side failure.

On lower quadrant, the spectacle was heavy and that end of the arm lowered, to make the other end level, under gravity if the wire broke.

Upper quadrant had more weight in the actual arm than in the spectacle.

Yes but when? Remember that signalling is developed from failure rather than normal usage. Just when was the first wrong side failure? If I wasn't busy doing other things I might be inclined to peruse my library for some definitive answers. My experience of signal installation and maintenance over more than 25 years reminds me that there is no such thing as infallible signalling, nor can there ever be, there will always be something overlooked in a design no matter how good it is.

Edited to add that as far as I am aware upper quadrant signalling was developed from the failure of lower quadrant arms indicating line clear.

[Deleted]

railtechnician said:

pmrnorthern said:

But then again, that would be a wrong-side failure.

On lower quadrant, the spectacle was heavy and that end of the arm lowered, to make the other end level, under gravity if the wire broke.

Upper quadrant had more weight in the actual arm than in the spectacle.

Yes but when? Remember that signalling is developed from failure rather than normal usage. Just when was the first wrong side failure? If I wasn't busy doing other things I might be inclined to peruse my library for some definitive answers. My experience of signal installation and maintenance over more than 25 years reminds me that there is no such thing as infallible signalling, nor can there ever be, there will always be something overlooked in a design no matter how good it is.

Indeed, it is quite possible (maybe even likely) that this is the case.

A kind of wrong-side failure caused the Abbots Ripton crash in 1876 - this led to "danger" being adopted as the default position. The signals there were slotted, though there probably were lower-quadrant non-slotted semaphore signals in use as well.

[railtechnician]

Ok everyone, I found 5 minutes between doing other things and consulted my library. The first book I pulled from the shelf gave the answer to the question regarding the origin of 'ON' and 'OFF'!

I quote;

In the 1840s the number of board signals in use increased, as did their variety,and soon there were almost as many differently shaped boards as there were railway companies using them.
Some boards were completely circular - usually referred to as discs, others were triangular, others square. whatever their design, all were made so they could be rotated through ninety degrees about a vertical axis. When policeman wanted to indicate danger they turned the board on to face the driver, and when they wanted to indicate the line was clear, they turned the board off so the driver could not see it. This terminology passed into general use and remains so today; when a signal shows danger it is considered to be in the 'ON' position, and when at all clear it is said to be 'OFF'.

For those who may not know of course the railway policeman was the original signal operator!

[Deleted]

Have we done spares yet?

Spare: Pretty much what it says on the tin. A driver on duty but with no specific train to drive. He is there as a spare in case somebody doesn't turn up or needs to come off a train for some reason.

Hot Spare: As above but with a spare train associated. Should one train go out of service there is a spare train and driver available to slot in to the service.

[Deleted]

gappe said:

Have we done spares yet?

Spare: Pretty much what it says on the tin. A driver on duty but with no specific train to drive. He is there as a spare in case somebody doesn't turn up or needs to come off a train for some reason.

Oh to be in a job with spares - sometimes, Train Operator looks appealing.

[Deleted]

Cut - Away: Where a member of staff is allowed to finish a bit earlier than they would have done.

Top Top: (Very old saying, not heard much now) Same as above really, but the moment when someone is told to call it a day.

[Deleted]

on the front - where the driver is
on the back - where the guard used to be

[railtechnician]

alexh said:

Cut - Away: Where a member of staff is allowed to finish a bit earlier than they would have done.

Top Top: (Very old saying, not heard much now) Same as above really, but the moment when someone is told to call it a day.

Oh well lets have those as well then! ;D

Poets Day = Friday cut away

Awayday = cut away early in the shift

Going to the library = Apprentice cut away

Blitz it = strive to finish early in the hope of an Awayday

brown stuff job = literally a filthy task or one that is disliked

Floating gang = no particular task, jobs could be brown stuff jobs but with potential for Awaydays

[stanmorek]

Job and knock: Complete your tasks as quickly as possible so that everyone can end the shift early.

These days 'job & knock' is frowned upon mainly on health and safety grounds.

[railtechnician]

stanmorek said:

Job and knock: Complete your tasks as quickly as possible so that everyone can end the shift early.

These days 'job & knock' is frowned upon mainly on health and safety grounds.

It maybe frowned upon but it is alive and well and is often the only incentive to achieve a target.

[Colin]

Job 'n knock - mainly applies to a spare.....DMT says "go do this **hands over a scrap of paper** , then go 'ome" (finishing before time ;D ;D).

Edit: how strange - stamore k's example appeared while I was typing this post - great minds think alike! ;D ;D

P Way - the permanent way; the track.

Double man - either two drivers, one at end of a train to provide a quick turnaround or two staff in a cab (at least one driver, obviously) because of a failure of equipment, etc.

Shed Road - a siding which goes inside a depot building.


Stable - driver leaves the train with all keys removed in a siding.

secure - where the driver stops a train with the brake set in a holding position.

Fully secure - as above, but with the reverser key removed to prevent accidental movement. Used when a driver leaves the cab (signal phone, etc) or for protection to staff on the track.

Up - a direction description used on Network Rail sections; up usually means towards London.

Down - the opposite of Up.

[stanmorek]

You are right but just don't mention it to the managers.

I knew a p-way section manager who used to promise his gang job & knock on the shift. Once they' done their work he'd find something else for them to do or make them return to the cabin until the end of the shift. Needless to say he wasn't too popular with many.

[stanmorek]

great minds think alike!

Or fools seldom differ! ;D

[Deleted]

tfc said:

on the front - where the driver is
on the back - where the guard used to be

And added to that there's this one that comes up in stock training now and again. ;D

The other front: The rear of a train that's in the process of being reversed.

Confused? Us? ;D

[c5]

alexh said:

Cut - Away: Where a member of staff is allowed to finish a bit earlier than they would have done.

And then there were sub-phrases:
Start up - When you come in a bit later
Back ender - When you get to go a bit early

[Deleted]

colin said:

Double man - either two drivers, one at end of a train to provide a quick turnaround or two staff in a cab (at least one driver, obviously) because of a failure of equipment, etc.

One at each end of the train would be double ending.

[railtechnician]

colin said:

Job 'n knock - mainly applies to a spare.....DMT says "go do this **hands over a scrap of paper** , then go 'ome" (finishing before time ;D ;D).

Edit: how strange - stamore k's example appeared while I was typing this post - great minds think alike! ;D ;D

P Way - the permanent way; the track.

Double man - either two drivers, one at end of a train to provide a quick turnaround or two staff in a cab (at least one driver, obviously) because of a failure of equipment, etc.

Shed Road - a siding which goes inside a depot building.


Stable - driver leaves the train with all keys removed in a siding.

secure - where the driver stops a train with the brake set in a holding position.

Fully secure - as above, but with the reverser key removed to prevent accidental movement. Used when a driver leaves the cab (signal phone, etc) or for protection to staff on the track.

Up - a direction description used on Network Rail sections; up usually means towards London.

Down - the opposite of Up.

That reminds me of another well known phrase

Shed night - no work, standby in depot and study inside of eyelids!

[towerman]

Screw it down-apply the handbrakes(amazing the amount of T/Ops on the Jubilee who don't know this term)
Doubling back(An Irishman's return)-mainly used in fleet maintenance for short rest periods between duties eg:finishing 23:00 Saturday returning 09:00 Sunday or finishing 07:30 Monday returning 16:30 Monday,fortunately these shifts finished in the early 80's,but there were still some old timers who complained about it.

[Deleted]

Stepback: get orf one train and get on another, possibly going in the direction from which you have just come!

There, thats about the simplest of explanations I can manage!

The Alps. Some old sidings at Kneesden. They were elevated, apparently.

[Tubeboy]

You also have the Alps between Kings X and Angel on my beloved Northern.

[Deleted]

That was Weston Rise Signal Cabin!

Shed leads - the power leads to supply power to the train inside the shed. But, make sure you take them out before leaving... Otherwise words with some spice added will be aired from various sauces.