| Beginning With: "S" |
| SADDLE |
First stop of freight car, under the lowest grab iron |
| SANDHOG |
Laborer who works in a caisson tunneling under a river, boring either a railroad tunnel, subway, or highway tunnel |
| SAP |
Same as brake club; also called the staff of ignorance. To set hand brakes is to sap up some binders |
| SAW BY |
Slow complicated operation whereby one train passes another on a single-track railroad when the other is on a siding too short to hold the entire train. Saw by is applied to any move through switches or through connecting switches that is necessitated by one train passing another |
| SAWBONES |
Company doctor |
| SCAB |
Nonunion workman; also car not equipped with automatic air system. (See nonair) |
| SCIZZOR-BILL |
Uncomplimentary term referring to yard or road brakemen and students in train service |
| SCOOP |
Fireman's shovel. Also the step on front and rear ends of switch engines |
| SCOOT |
Shuttle train |
| SCRAP PILE |
Worn-out locomotive that is still in service |
| SEASHORE |
Sand used in sand dome. Also applied to coal that is mixed with sand |
| SEAT HOG |
Passenger who monopolizes more than one seat in a car or station waiting room while others are standing. Such pests usually spread luggage, packages, or lunch over adjacent seats |
| SECRET WORKS |
Automatic air-brake application. Also the draft timbers and drawbar of a car, when extracted by force. If only the drawbar is pulled out, you say, "We got a lung," but if the draft timbers comewith it, you say, "We got the whole damn secret works" |
| SENIORITY GRABBER |
Railroad employee who is glad when someone above him dies, gets killed, is fired, or resigns, so he can move up the seniority list to a better job |
| SEPARATION |
The sorting of mail sacks and parcels within the storage car before transferring to trucks |
| SERVICE APPLICATION |
Gradual speed reduction, as contrasted with emergency stop caused by wiping the clock |
| SETTING UP |
Loading a baggage car with mail and parcels according to a prearranged plan to facilitate rapid unloading at various stations along the line |
| SETUP |
Four to six hand trucks placed in formation beside the door of a storage car to facilitate the separation of the mail and parcels being unloaded. Each truck is loaded with matter to be transferred to other trains or to the R.P.O. (Railway Post Office) terminal office |
| SHACK |
Brakeman, occupant of caboose. Shacks master is a conductor SHAKE 'EM UP-Switching |
| SHAKING THE TRAIN |
Putting on air brakes in emergency |
| SHANTY |
Caboose |
| SHINER |
Brakeman's or switchman's lantern |
| SHINING TIME |
Starting time (probably from old Negro spiritual "Rise and Shine") |
| SHOO-FLY |
Temporary track, usually built around a flooded area, a wreck, or other obstacle; sometimes built merely to facilitate a rerailing |
| SHORT FLAGGING |
Flagman not far enough from his train to protect it. (See drawbar flagging) |
| SHORT LOADS |
Cars consigned to points between division points and set out on sidings at their destinations. Also called shorts |
| SHORT-TIME CREW |
Crew working overtime but not yet affected by the sixteen-hour law. (See dogcatchers) |
| SHUFFLE THE DECK |
Switch cars onto house tracks at every station you pass on your run |
| SHUNTING BOILER |
Switch engine |
| SIDE-DOOR PULLMAN |
Boxcar used by hobos in stealing rides |
| SKATE |
Shoe placed on rail in hump yard to stop cars with defective brakes |
| SKIN YOUR EYE |
Engineer's warning to man on left side of cab when approaching curve |
| SKIPPER |
Conductor |
| SKYROCKETS |
Red-hot cinders from smokestack |
| SLAVE DRIVER |
Yardmaster. Also any rawhider |
| SLING MORSE |
Work as telegraph operator |
| SLIPS, CAR OR TRAIN OF |
Car or train of bananas |
| SLOW BOARD |
See board |
| SLUG |
Heavy fire in locomotive firebox |
| SLUGS |
A shipment of magazines, catalogues, or automobile-license plates in small mail sacks weighing approximately 100 pounds each |
| SMART ALECK |
Passenger conductor |
| SMOKE or SMOKE AGENT |
Locomotive fireman. Smoker is engine or firebox. Smoking 'em or running on smoke orders is a dangerous method, now obsolete, of running a train from one station or siding to another without orders from the dispatcher. You moved cautiously, continually watching for the smoke of any train that might be approaching you on the same track |
| SNAKE |
Switchman, so named from the large serpentine letter S on membership pins of the Switchman's Union of North America. Sometimes called reptile or serpent |
| SNAKEHEAD |
A rail that comes loose from the ties and pierces the floor of a car; a fairly common accident with the strap-iron rails of a century ago |
| SNAP |
Push or pull with another engine. Snapper is the engine that does the pulling |
| SNIPE |
Track laborer. His boss is a king snipe |
| SNOOZER |
Pullman sleeping car |
| SNUFF DIPPERS |
Coal-burning engines that burn lignite (which, on the Missouri Pacific at least, is the same color as snuff) |
| SOAK |
Saturated locomotive |
| SODA JERKER |
Locomotive fireman |
| SOFT BELLIES |
Wooden frame cars |
| SOFT PLUG |
Fusible plug in crown sheet of locomotive that is supposed to drop when water gets below top of sheet |
| SOFT-DIAMOND SPECIAL |
Coal train |
| SOLID CAR |
A completely filled storage car containing sixty feet of mail and parcels, equal to a 100 per cent load |
| SOLID TRACK |
Track full of cars |
| SPAR |
Pole used to shove cars into the clear when switching. (See stake) |
| SPEED GAUGER |
Locomotive engineer |
| SPEEDER |
Same as pop car |
| SPEEDY |
Callboy |
| SPIKE A TORCH |
Throw a fusee |
| SPOT |
To place a car in a designated position. Also sleep, rest, or lunch period on company time. On the spot means an opportunity for railroad men to "chew the rag" or swap experiences. Unlike the same underworld term, on the spot has no sinister implication in railroad slang |
| SPOTBOARD |
Guide used by section men in surfacing or ballasting track in order to obtain an even bed. |
| SPOTTER |
Spy, company man assigned to snoop around and check on employees |
| SQUEEZERS |
Car-retarding system used in some railroad yards |
| SQUIRRELING |
Climbing a car |
| STACK O' RUST |
A locomotive that has seen better days |
| STAKE |
Pole used in dangerous and now rare method of switching. A cut of cars was shoved by a stake attached to the car immediately in front of the engine. This method was supposed to be superior to the ordinary method of "batting them out" because there was less wear and tear on drawbars and less damage to freight; but the human casualties that resulted gave more than one yard the nickname "slaughterhouse." Another meaning of stake is the money a boomer saved on a job so he could resign and continue eating regularly while looking for another job |
| STAKE DRIVER |
Any engineering-department man |
| STALL |
Space inside a mail or baggage car containing mail or parcels consigned to a certain destination and separated from other shipments by removable steel posts |
| STARGAZER |
Brakeman who fails to see signals |
| STARVATION DIET |
See board |
| STEM |
Track or right-of-way |
| STEM-WINDER |
Climax type of geared locomotive. Also applied to trolley car without brakes because of the motion of its brake handle |
| STICK |
Staff used on certain stretches of track to control the block. It is carried by engine crews from one station to another. Now rare |
| STIFF BUGGY |
Specially designed four-wheel truck used for transferring coffins and rough boxes inside a station |
| STINGER |
Brakeman. Derived from initial B(ee) of Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, or perhaps from some brakemen's habit of arousing hobos by applying a brake club to the soles of their shoes |
| STINK BUGGY |
Bus |
| STINKER |
Hotbox |
| STIRRUP |
First step of freight car, under the lowest grab iron |
| STOCK PEN |
Yard office |
| STOCKHOLDER |
Any employee who is always looking out for the company's interests |
| STOPPER PULLER |
Member of the crew that follows the engine in switching |
| STORAGE CAR |
Baggage car or (in rush periods) Railway Express car containing a mixed shipment of parcels and mail sacks consigned to a certain terminal for sorting and rerouting to various destinations via other trains |
| STRAW BOSS |
Foreman of small gang or acting foreman |
| STRAW-HAT BOYS |
Railroad men who work only in pleasant weather |
| STRAWBERRY PATCH |
Rear end of caboose by night; also railroad yard studded with red lights |
| STRETCH 'EM OUT |
Take out slack in couplings and drawbars of train |
| STRING |
Several cars coupled together; also a telegraph wire |
| STRUGGLE FOR LIFE |
Existence in railroad boardinghouse |
| STUDE TALLOW |
Student fireman |
| STUDENT |
Learner in either telegraph, train, or engine service; an apprentice |
| SUCK IT BY |
Make a flying switch |
| SUGAR |
Sand |
| SUPER |
Superintendent |
| SWELLHEAD |
Conductor or locomotive engineer |
| SWING A BUG |
Make a good job of braking. (See bug) |
| SWING MAN |
Same as middle man |
| SWITCH LIST |
Bill of fare at railroad eating house |
| SWITCH MONKEY |
Switchman |
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