LIRR Slang Phrases

[nyandw]

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrslang.htm UPDATED

Sample:
"OK, kid, get on the hack, and back the hogger down." [Get on the caboose, and back the engineer into track 3] Make sure the iron is thrown for 3 [make sure the switches are lined for 3], you should have a clear alley [3 track should be empty]. Put the entire drag into 3 [put the entire train into 3], and when the hoggers clear, tie 'em down and pin a head. [when the engineer has stopped in the clear on his end, put the handbrakes on and go home]

"Nothing made the old timers cringe more then calling a "Hack" a caboose." I remember when I first hired on, there was a hack on main line # 4 at Hillside, as we went by on mainline 2. I called Queens on the radio to ask if a freight was working, or if the hack somehow separated from the back of a freight. I made the mistake of saying "caboose" on the radio. Man, I heard it for days... "It's a HACK, not a caboose."

I suppose as the old timers retire, and there are less people who actually worked freights with "hacks" this will be another tradition gone by the wayside. (Hey, that was a RR term, too. ) Thanks for letting me "Let off steam"

"6 behind 2" An 8 car train with the head 2 cars closed to the public and the 6 cars behind are open to the public .. hence 6 behind 2..

"Pullman Hitch" A coupling of cars wherein the knuckles of the couplers are close enough just to drop the pins and the coupling is complete without disturbing passengers in the cars, etc.

[nyandw]

Updated LIRR slanf use: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrslang.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Put it on the Patio" Place the locomotive on one of two tracks off the turntable where the present Morris Park roundhouse ends (c.1970) consisting of a large concrete slab and pits between the rails where locomotives are washed.
Located on Tim Darnell's 2006 photo and the 1973 diagram at the 1 o'clock position.

1. When was the roundhouse truncated like this?

2. Garden Tracks as referred to outside the roundhouse, correct? and of LIRR vintage?

3. Any new phrases to add this year?

Thank you.

[kro52]

Greetings,
1)When was the roundhouse truncated like this? after multiple fires in the roundhouse it was decared unsafe.....it was knocked down in the 1970's
2)Garden Tracks as referred to outside the roundhouse, correct? and of LIRR vintage? It was correct during the 1940's and sometimes called that by the old timers. The name came from the term Victory Garden during WW2 and yes they grew a lot of vegetables. A smaller version was kept alive into the 1970's. The gardiner was an ex prisoner of war from the Battle of the Bulge, named Jackson.

[mirrodie]

Actually,

What’s with the term, hacks? The engineers were always so adamant about calling them by that name and seemed offended if you said caboose.

[DutchRailnut]

non of these terms or phrases is LIRR specific , they are just as used on MN or ex NYC or NYNH &H people .

[Dump The Air]

Actually,

What’s with the term, hacks? The engineers were always so adamant about calling them by that name and seemed offended if you said caboose.

The only other RR i've ever heard call a caboose a "hack" was the boston and maine, out here in the midwest calling it a hack will draw some strange looks.

[ConstanceR46]

I'd say the Hack/Cab**se/Ca*in Car thing is just sorta taking pride in a regional dialect - see soda/pop, ya'll/you all or barbecue/cookout

[freightguy]

I think there is an older book called “Cabins, Hacks, and Crummies” as a nod to cabeese slang!

[nyandw]

As posted on the page previously: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrslang.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Thanks to Al Castelli for providing the info.

March 2007 issue of RMLI's Postboy regarding "HACK".

Talk to anybody who works or worked on the LIRR and mention the car that was used on the end of freight trains. They all will call it a “hack.” Ask them why it is called that and they will probably say, “that’s just what it’s called.” On the Pennsy, the caboose was referred to as a “cabin car.” Sometimes train crews called them a “crummy,” and with good reason.

Last August I was visiting Engine 39’s former home, the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook. They have on display a smaller version of the familiar stage coach seen in many western movies and TV shows. The museum’s example is an 1860 Hack Passenger Wagon. I thought I was on to something and reasoned that maybe freight crews called the caboose a hack because it was the “passenger” carrying car of a freight train.

I tried to find out some more information and found some references on the Internet. The first station wagons (the automobile type) were a product of train travel. They were originally called “depot hacks” because they were used around train depots for carrying passengers and baggage. “Hack” is short for “hackney carriage,” another name for a taxi. (Most of us have probably heard of taxi drivers being called hacks, and taxi stands being called hack stands.)

Searching for this information also led to the origin of the word “caboose” itself. One account says it was first used in reference to railroads in 1861. It comes from the nautical usage of a wooden cabin on a ship’s deck. The German word for this was kabhuse. In Middle Dutch it was kabuis, a compartment on a ship’s deck for cooking. This makes sense since the first cabooses were wooden shanties or cabins built on flat cars; hence the term “cabin car.” Early cabooses were described as having a “crummy ride,” and the cars themselves were called “crummies.”

Another account mentions “caboose” as the name of a cooking stove used on ships. American railroads used a caboose-style stove in a special car for the train crew to keep warm. The car itself became known as a caboose, and hack was used for them as well from about 1916.

The exact origin of both words in relation to railroads may be lost to time, but hopefully this little investigation sheds some light on the subject. If anyone has any additional information or theories, please email me and share them with the rest of us.

[nyandw]

non of these terms or phrases is LIRR specific , they are just as used on MN or ex NYC or NYNH &H people .

Thank you. Anything to add?

[Dump The Air]

non of these terms or phrases is LIRR specific , they are just as used on MN or ex NYC or NYNH &H people .

Thank you. Anything to add?

thanks dutch! you have contributed so many absolutes over the years!

[Head-end View]

Thanks nyandw ! Very interesting history.

[ExCon90]

In Boston the term "licensed hackney carriage" was still in use in the late 1950's for licensing purposes, but the connection with "hack" for caboose never occurred to me until now.

[Engineer Spike]

Hack seems to be a pretty universal term in the northeast. That’s what we call them on the D&H, and what my New Haven relatives called them. B&M seemed to more often call them buggies.

[nyandw]

non of these terms or phrases is LIRR specific , they are just as used on MN or ex NYC or NYNH &H people .

Thank you. Anything to add?

Was this phrase utilized by other railroads? "Put it on the Patio" Place the locomotive on one of two tracks off the turntable where the present Morris Park roundhouse ends (c.1970) consisting of a large concrete slab and pits between the rails where locomotives are washed.

Note: At the top of the page referenced http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrslang.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; : Railroad slang usage past and present on the LIRR - Both unique and in general railroad use. IF in review of the page you might have additions, please advise us, thank you.