Railroad Acronyms

Here's some from across the pond;
GWR - Great Way Round, and later on, God's Wonderful Railway.
Somerset & Dorset - Slow and Dirty.
London, Chatham and Dover - in it's early years, London, smash'em and over - guess what they were good at !
The railway I volunteered for in the 1970's when we were struggling to recover from years of underspending, The Romney ,Hythe & Dymchurch - Rusty , Hard up & Dirty.
 
How about one for FRED, the flashing rear end device on the last car of a freight train. I think I heard a conductor call it something more expressive. As for one for just a railroad, the students at Princeton use to call their shuttle train to the PRR's Northeast Corridor the PJ&B. Princeton Junction and Back. Also the Maryland and Pennsylvania RR. was known as the MA&PA, the Ma and Pa line.
 
CRR
Clinchfield RR
Can't Run Railroad
Cantankerous Rotten Rumguts

"In 1886 ex-Union Gen. John T. Wilder received a charter for the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Triple C" Railroad. This was the beginning of the modern Clinchfield. The promoters proposed a 625-mile line from Ironton, Ohio, to Charleston, South Carolina, with an extension down the Ohio River to Cincinnati. It would serve the rich agricultural lands of the Piedmont, the summer resorts of the North Carolina mountains, the rich timber and mineral deposits and coal fields of Virginia and Kentucky, with terminals on both the Ohio River and the Atlantic seacoast. The estimated cost was $21 million, equal to $571,977,778 today. Johnson City, Tennessee, was established as the headquarters for the Triple C Railroad and that city became a railway boom town.

Built north and south from Johnson City, tracks reached
Erwin, Tennessee, in 1890. Grading was 90% complete from Johnson City to Dante, Virginia, in 1893 when the Triple C had financial problems and failed in the national depression of that year. In July 1893, the assets of the Triple C Railroad were sold at a foreclosure for $550,000, equal to $14,980,370 today. The new owners renamed it the "Ohio River and Charleston Railroad." The construction continued halfheartedly and in 1897 owners began to sell off the railroad in segments.

At the time an enterprising entrepreneur,
George Lafayette Carter, was involved in developing the coal lands of southwestern Virginia and needed a railroad to transport his coal to a seaport. In 1902, he purchased the Ohio River and Charleston Railroad, renamed it the Clinchfield Railroad, and organized a gigantic construction program. Between 1905 and 1909 the road was completed from Dante, Virginia, to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Carter got financing to build to high standards and Clinchfield has not had to reduce grades, lighten curves, and enlarge tunnels to handle larger equipment as other railroads have had to do. (The main line retains many 14° curves, though.) Carter established the Clinchfield's headquarters in Johnson City, Tennessee, but later moved it to Erwin, Tennessee, when he could not get land for the shops and classification yards. Erwin remained Clinchfield's headquarters thereafter."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinchfield_Railroad

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 
Union Pacific Station, Salt Lake City.JPG
 
L & N
Louisville and Nashville
Ellen N.
Late and Never
Long and Narrow
Long and Nasty
Loose Nuts
Loud and Noisy
Louseyville and Nastyville
Lousy and No good

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
There are two NYC subway trains which run on the same set of tracks for part of their run, namely the R and the N, apparently not too frequently. According to veteran strap hangers those letters stand for Rarely and Never.
 
RWORR
Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg RR
Rotten Wood and Old Rusty Rails

The Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg Railroad (RW&O) began in 1842 as the Watertown & Rome Railroad (W&R) to link Watertown with Rome, New York on the Syracuse & Utica Railroad, later consolidated as part of the New York Central Railroad (NYC). The Potsdam & Watertown Railroad was formed at this time to link Watertown with Potsdam, New York in St. Lawrence County near Massena. In 1861 these two railroads merged as the RW&O.

A branch line from DeKalb Junction (near
Canton, New York) to Ogdensburg was later built. In 1864 the RW&O constructed a line from Pulaski to Oswego and merged with the Syracuse & Northern Railroad. In 1858 the Lake Ontario Shore Railroad (LOS) was chartered from Oswego to Suspension Bridge, New York (now Niagara Falls, New York). RW&O merged LOS in 1875; by that time it was bankrupt.

The RW&O was nicknamed "Rotten Wood & Old Rusty Rails" due to its crumbling infrastructure. By 1878 the RW&O had been merged into the
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). DL&W built the Ontario Secondary in 1882 (Beebee line) from Charlotte, New York (where the Genesee River flows into Lake Ontario) to Rochester, New York. By 1891 RW&O became a subsidiary of NYC. On April 12, 1913 the RW&O was formally merged into the NYC.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Watertown_and_Ogdensburg_Railroad


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
ACL
Atlantic Coast Line
Always Cries Loudly
Another Crushed Load
Always Comes Late

'The earliest predecessor of the ACL was the Petersburg Railroad between Petersburg, Virginia and a point near Weldon, North Carolina, founded in 1830. A route between Richmond, Virginia and Petersburg was built by the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad, which was founded in 1836. In 1840 the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, at the time known as the Wilmington and Raleigh and renamed in 1855, completed a route between Weldon and Wilmington, North Carolina. From Wilmington, the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad began operations in 1853 to Florence, South Carolina, where the Northeastern Railroad operated to Charleston, South Carolina. In 1871, the W&W and the W&M (renamed the Wilmington, Columbia & Augusta) began using the Atlantic Coast Line name to advertise the two lines. An investor from Baltimore, William T. Walters, gained control of these separate railroads after the Civil War, and operated them as a network of independent companies. In 1897–98, most of the South Carolina lines in Walters' system were consolidated under the name of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of South Carolina. In 1898, as the companies moved towards combining themselves into a single system, the lines in Virginia were combined into the new Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of Virginia, and the lines in North Carolina underwent a similar process in 1899, becoming the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of North Carolina. In 1899 or 1900, due to a regulatory climate in Virginia that was better suited to the company than that in other states, the ACL of Virginia took control of the other lines and subsequently shortened its name to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company.

In 1898 the Petersburg Railroad and the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad formally merged, and two years later the combined company took control of the ACL's routes south of Virginia as well as the Norfolk & Carolina Railroad, which operated from Norfolk, Virginia to Tarboro, North Carolina. These mergers created an ACL system reaching from southern Virginia to South Carolina and Georgia. Other small acquisitions took place in 1901, and in 1902 the ACL took over the Plant System, which operated numerous lines within Florida and Georgia. This same year the ACL took control of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad as well as the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway, though the two were never merged into the ACL and were operated independently. The ACL acquired the East Carolina Railway in 1935, running south from Tarboro to Hookerton, although the 12-mile extension to Hookerton was abandoned in 1933. The ACL's last major acquisition was the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad, which it purchased in 1927, though the AB&C was not merged into the ACL until 1945.'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Coast_Line_Railroad

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
CNW RR
Chicago and North Western
Can Not Win
Can't And Never Will Run Right
Cardboard and No Wheels
Carrier to No Where
Chaos and Nothing Works
Cheap and No Wages
Cheap and Nothing Wasted
Chicago and NoWhere
Chicago and Norwegians
Coal and No Water
Corroded Nuts Washers

'The Chicago and North Western Transportation Company (reporting mark CNW) was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the North Western. The railroad operated more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of track as of the turn of the 20th century, and over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states before retrenchment in the late 1970s. Until 1972, when the employees purchased the company, it was named the Chicago and North Western Railway (or Chicago and North Western Railway Company).

The C&NW became one of the longest railroads in the United States as a result of mergers with other railroads, such as the
Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway and others. By 1995, track sales and abandonment had reduced the total mileage to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad further helped reduce the railroad to a mainline core with several regional feeders and branches. Union Pacific (UP) purchased the company in April 1995 and integrated it with its own operation.'

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_and_North_Western_Transportation_Company

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 
EL
Erie Lackawanna
Eastern Laxative
Erie Lackatraffic
Erie Lackawampum
Ever Late
Leery Erie
Weary Lack-a-money

The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the merger on September 13, 1960, and on October 17 the Erie Railroad and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad merged to form the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad.

The EL struggled for most of the 16 years it existed. The two railroads that created it were steadily losing passengers, freight traffic and money; and were heavily burdened by years of accumulated debt and extensive, money-losing commuter operations. These two historic lines, the Erie and the DL&W, started to consolidate facilities on the Hudson River waterfront and across southern New York State in 1956, four years before formal corporate merger. The Lackawanna route was severely affected by the decline of
anthracite and cement traffic from Pennsylvania by the 1940s. The Erie was burdened by the continuing loss of high-tariff fruit and vegetable traffic from the western states into the New York City region as highways improved in the 1950s. Both lines were also affected by the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959, which allowed ocean-going cargo ships to travel between European, African and South American ports and cities on the Great Lakes, such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Duluth, Chicago, etc. The DL&W had previously carried much traffic to and from ocean ships, having its own port facilities at Hoboken Terminal on the Hudson River.

The northeast's railroads, including the EL, were all beginning to decline because of over-regulation, subsidized highway and waterway competition, commuter operations, and market saturation (i.e., too many railroad lines competing for what market was remaining). The closure in the 1960s of old multi-story factories in the eastern cities, followed by the decline of the domestic
automobile and steel industry in the 1970s, eroded much of the EL's traditional traffic base. Also, due to government regulation policy formulated in the late 19th century, the EL and other railroads could not immediately abandon long-distance passenger runs, despite the fact that competition from airlines, bus lines and the private automobile made them unprofitable.

However, the EL did post profits in the mid and late 1960s through heavy cost-cutting (reduction of parallel services), equipment modernization, suburban industrial development, increased
piggy-back trailer traffic, and steady reduction of long-distance passenger train service, which ended on January 6, 1970. Also, additional rail traffic was temporarily diverted to the EL because of service problems on the troubled Penn Central lines, which the EL largely paralleled. The EL built a state of the art diesel engine repair facility in Marion, Ohio, and upgraded a large car repair shop in Meadville, Pennsylvania. As to its money-losing suburban passenger train services in the New York City metropolitan region, the EL had come to terms with the state of New Jersey during the late 1960s for adequate subsidy and for the purchase of new engines and coaches. The EL also gained a lucrative contract with United Parcel Service in 1970, which led to the operation of five dedicated intermodal trains daily between New Jersey and Chicago.

Decline and conveyance into Conrail
The Erie Lackawanna Railway was formed March 1, 1968, as a subsidiary of
Dereco, the holding company of the Norfolk and Western Railway, which had bought the railroad. On April 1, the assets were transferred as a condition of the proposed but never consummated merger between the N&W and Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Dereco also owned the Delaware & Hudson Railway at the time.

In 1972,
Hurricane Agnes destroyed many miles of track and related assets, especially in southwestern New York State. The main line between Hornell and Binghamton was abandoned as not worth the high cost of rebuilding it. The cost of what repairs were done, and the loss of revenue, forced the company into bankruptcy, filing for reorganization under Section 77 of the Federal Bankruptcy Act on June 26. The completion of the Interstate 80 highway across Pennsylvania and New Jersey by 1971 added to the Erie Lackawanna's financial problems, as it diverted piggyback traffic previously garnered from less than truckload shipping companies such as Navajo and Cooper-Jarrett. On the flip-side, EL was able to land large contracts with UPS because of its ability to move piggyback traffic between Chicago and Metro New York more reliably, although not faster than Penn Central (and formerly, New York Central). For example, in 1971, the Penn Central advertised a 24 and 1/2 hour piggyback service from Metro New York to Metro Chicago in the Official Guide of the Railways, while the EL's Employees Timetable Number 3, New York Division, showed its fastest comparable schedule to be 28 hours and 45 minutes. By 1973, the Penn Central's fastest piggyback service between these points was shown in the Official Guide to be 26 hours and 15 minutes, while the EL's Employees Timetable Number 4 showed that the EL's fastest comparable schedule was 29 and 1/2 hours.

After its 1972 bankruptcy, EL management attempted to plot an independent course, anticipating financial reorganization without a heavy debt burden. Therefore, it initially declined interest in joining the Consolidated Rail Corporation (
Conrail) takeover of the other major bankrupt eastern lines. The preliminary (PSP) and final (FSP) system plans for Conrail showed the EL being merged into the Chessie System. However, the operating unions could not reach a compromise. Also, by 1975 the economy in the eastern United States was gravely affected by the 1973 oil crisis, quashing any hopes of the EL being able to independently compete with government-rehabilitated Conrail lines. Therefore, the EL petitioned and was accepted into Conrail at the last minute.

In 1976, much of the company's railroad assets were thus purchased by the federal government and combined with other companies' railroad assets to form Conrail. An independent Erie Lackawanna Estate continued in existence for several years thereafter. This estate liquidated the EL's marginal non-railroad assets and distributed the railroad purchase funds to satisfy much of the large
debt burden that the EL and its predecessors had accumulated. The EL's creditors gained more by selling the line's assets than by continuing its traditional business operations. Thus, the EL was an example of a business enterprise that became worth more dead than alive.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Lackawanna_Railway

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Here's another line from across the pond ,but this one didn't need an acronym to be funny !
The Western, Portishead and Cleveland.

There is a story that a passenger trying to get to Portishead was told to go to the WC & P ! He apparently took offence !
 
G M & O
Gulf, Mobile and Ohio
Grease, Mud and Oil
Gummo
Garlic, Mustard and Onions
Girls, Men and Oldtimers
Goes More Often (relative to the ICG)
Goat's Milk and Onions


The Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad was created as the reorganization of the New Orleans, Mobile and Chicago Railroad in 1917. The GM&O was incorporated in 1938 to merge the Gulf, Mobile and Northern Railroad and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which was accomplished in 1940. The GM&O later bought and merged the Alton Railroad in 1947.

Isaac B. Tigrett, a native of
Jackson, Tennessee, was president of the GM&N from 1920 and of the GM&O from 1938 to 1952, and oversaw the development of the road from a nearly bankrupt operation into a thriving success. He was the great-uncle of Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett, also a native of Jackson.

From 1952 to 1972 the headquarters of the GM&O were in Mobile, Alabama at 104 St. Francis Street. The President of the GM&O Railroad during this period was G. Paul Brock. The Railroad retained the passenger terminal at Beauregard Street for additional offices.

At the end of 1944 GM&O operated 1950 miles of road, including NOGN; at the end of 1950 it operated 2898 route-miles. At the end of 1970 route mileage was 2734 (3946 miles of track); GM&O reported 8285 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 44 million passenger-miles for that year.

The GM&O Railroad was the first "large" railroad in the United States to replace all its steam locomotives with diesels.

On August 10, 1972 the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad merged into the
Illinois Central Railroad, forming the 9600-mile north-south Illinois Central Gulf Railroad. In 1996 Illinois Central spun off some of its redundant trackage, including most of the former Gulf, Mobile and Ohio. Most of this trackage was acquired by other railroads.

On February 11, 1998 the Illinois Central was purchased by the
Canadian National Railway (CN) with the integration of operations beginning on July 1, 1999.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf,_Mobile_and_Ohio_Railroad

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
NYS & W
New York Susquehana and Western
Now You Sit and Wait
Now You Suffer & Wait
Squeak
Suskie
Susie-Q

NYSW_Historical_NJ_and_PA.jpg


upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/NYSW_Historical_NJ_and_PA.svg

Before the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway

The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway can trace its roots back to the Hoboken, Ridgefield & Paterson Railroad, chartered in 1866 to connect industrial
Paterson, New Jersey, with the ports along the Hudson Waterfront opposite New York City at Hoboken. That same year, the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad (NY&OM) was chartered to connect the Great Lakes port at Oswego, New York, with New York City. Several competing companies sprang up in 1867, but the New Jersey Western Railroad (NJW) was the most successful, constructing westward from Paterson and Hawthorne. Cornelious Wortendyke, president of the NJW, signed a lease agreement with DeWitt Clinton Littlejohn of the NY&OM giving his road a through route into New Jersey. Construction on the NY&OM started in 1868 and progressed rapidly. The NJW changed its name to the New Jersey Midland Railway (NJM) in 1870, and construction had stretched from Hackensack, New Jersey, all the way through to Hanford.

The NY&OM reached Middletown, New York, and leased the connecting
Middletown, Unionville and Water Gap Railroad (MU&WG), which reached the NJM at Hanford. The last stretch of construction from Hackensack to Jersey City completed the NJM in 1872. The first through train from Oswego to Jersey City operated on July 9, 1873. While the goals of the two partners had been reached, the Panic of 1873 caused financial ruin for both companies. The NY&OM suspended lease payments, and the agreement was broken. The NY&OM was reorganized as the New York, Ontario and Western Railway in 1879, and went its separate way. The NJM took over the lease of the MU&WG as well. Unable to weather the financial storm, the NJM was put into receivership in 1875. In 1880, the NJM was reorganized as the New Jersey Midland Railroad (NJM), and attention was turned to the lucrative coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania.

Formation and as an independent railroad


In 1881, the New Jersey Midland Railroad was consolidated with five other railroads to form the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. The new New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway had extended west to Gravel Place, Pennsylvania, and a connection with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway (DL&W). The NYS&W also had a connection to the DL&W at Delaware, New Jersey via the Blairstown Railway. Due to the increased volume of traffic, the railroad was double-tracked from Paterson to Jersey City in 1887. To reach the port on the Hudson River waterfront, traffic was handed off to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Marion Junction via the Hudson Connecting Railway. To keep more of the line haul revenue for themselves, the Susquehanna extended their line from their Little Ferry Yard through the new Palisades Tunnel to a new terminal at Edgewater where they had constructed coal docks for transfer from train to boat in 1892. The NYSW also reached west of the Delaware River and leased the Wilkes-Barre and Eastern Railroad to access the Scranton area directly and divert traffic away from the Lackawanna.

American financier
J.P. Morgan began to take notice of this rapidly expanding coal-hauler, and quietly bought up its stock on behalf of the Erie Railroad. The railroad was leased by the Erie in 1898, and soon after took over complete operation of the line.

The NYS&W was reported as the first
Class I railroad in the USA to completely replace its steam locomotives with internal combustion motive power, in the form of diesel electric locomotives, in early June 1945. By that time the railroad was profitably operating a suburban commuter passenger service across New Jersey, as well as being a bridge line for freight connecting to several regional carriers.

The NYS&W fell on hard times during the
economic recession of 1957. The NYS&W lost its western connection to the Lehigh and New England Railroad when the L&NE ceased operations in 1961, resulting in the NYS&W pulling up all its track west of Sparta Jct. (which now comprises what is now known as the Paulinskill Valley Trail). Thereafter, the NYS&W sold off its nearly new Budd passenger cars and replaced them with second-hand used equipment. Desperate to close its money-losing commuter service, the railroad's trustees offered its commuters $1,000 each to stop using the trains. Permission to end commuter service was granted in 1966. Washouts caused by Tropical Storm Doria (1971) cut off other connections, and the railroad retreated to Butler, New Jersey.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York,_Susquehanna_and_Western_Railway

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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