| Beginning With: "T" |
| TAIL OVER HER BACK |
Engine with full head of steam, with plume resembling a squirrel's tail from her safety valve |
| TAKE THE RUBBER OUT OF THEM |
Disconnect the air hoses on a train |
| TAKING YOUR MINUTES |
Stopping for lunch |
| TALLOWPOT |
Locomotive fireman, so called from melted tallow used to lubricate valves and shine the engine |
| TANK |
Locomotive tender. Tanker is tank car used in hauling oil, water, milk, chemicals or some other liquid |
| TEAKETTLE |
See kettle |
| TEASE THE BRUTE |
Follow the engine |
| TELLTALES |
Any device that serves as a warning. Specifically the row of strips hanging down a short distance in front of a tunnel or low bridge to inform trainmen who are riding car tops that they'd better duck |
| TEMPLE OF KNOWLEGE |
Term for caboose |
| TERMINAL |
Railway Post Office unit, usually at or near the railroad station, where mail is removed from sacks, sorted, and forwarded to its ultimate destination |
| TERMINAL LOAD |
A shipment of mail consigned to a certain R.P.O. terminal office for sorting and reshipment in other sacks |
| THE BISCUITS HANG HIGH |
There's a scarcity of food handouts in that locality |
| THIRTY |
Telegraphic term for "that's all-no more" |
| THOUSAND-MILER |
Black satin or blue percale shirt worn by railroaders, expected to last 1,000 miles between washings. (The usual basis of a day's work was about 10 0 miles, so two shirts could easily last from one pay day to the next) |
| THREE-BAGGER |
Train pushed or pulled by three engines. (No doubt originated by a baseball fan) |
| THROTTLE GOD |
Loc.Engineer) |
| THROTTLE-JERKER |
Engineer |
| THROW AWAY THE DIAMONDS |
Term applied to locomotive fireman missing the firedoor with a shovelful of coal and spilling some |
| THROW OUT THE ANCHOR |
Done for the Day |
| TIE 'EM DOWN |
Set handbrakes |
| TIE ON |
Couple on. Tie 'em together is to couple cars |
| TIE UP |
Stop for a meal or for rest |
| TIER |
Pile of mail sacks or parcels occupying the full width at each end of a car |
| TIMKENIZED |
Equipped with Timken roller bearings |
| TIN LIZARD |
Streamlined train |
| TING-A-LING |
Small engine with "tinny" bell |
| TISSUE |
Train order. (See flimsy) |
| TOAD |
Derail. (See rabbit) |
| TOEPATH or TOWPATH |
Running board of locomotive or catwalk on top of boxcars, or that part of railroad embankment lying between end of ties and shoulders of fill |
| TONK |
Car repairer |
| TONNAGE HOUND |
Trainmaster or other official who insists upon longer or heavier trains than the crew and motive power can handle efficiently |
| TOP DRESSER DRAWER |
Upper bunk in caboose |
| TOWER BUFF |
Railfan so zealous that he disregards signs such as "Private," "No Admittance" and "Stay Out" on interlocking towers and other railroad structures |
| TRAIN LINE |
Pipe that carries compressed air to operate air brakes |
| TRAMPIFIED |
The way a boomer looked after being out of work a long time. His clothes were "ragged as a barrel of sauerkraut" and he needed a "dime's worth of decency" (shave) |
| TRAVELING CARD |
Card given by a railroad Brotherhood to a man in search of employment. Also an empty slip bill |
| TRAVELING GRUNT |
Road foreman of engines, traveling engineer. Sometimes called traveling man |
| TRICK |
Shift, hours of duty |
| TRIMMER |
Engine working in hump yard that goes down into yard and picks out misdirected cars and shoves them to clear. (See yard and hump) |
| TWO-WHEELER |
Two-wheeled hand truck for transferring baggage and mail around in a station |
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