Talk:Rail terminilogy/Archive 1

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This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

1 412?
2 Recent edit?
3 Slang terms
4 coal coke

412?

An anonymous user added this one today, but the text is a verbatim copy from [1]. I'm tempted to take it out because it's a direct copy and it doesn't really give the significance of the term. Why is 412 such a special number to Australian railfans? slambo 13:16, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

Recent edit?

Anyone want to weigh in on whether [2] is legit? Changing acronym to abbreviation is wrong, but how about the more substantial changes? --SPUI (talk) 07:15, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

COFC and TOFC are acronyms, especially since I hear some modelers and rail workers in my area pronounce them as "coffsee" and "toffsee". On the other edits, they seem ok to me, but I'm more familiar with US practice than UK practice. slambo 15:43, May 8, 2005 (UTC)

Slang terms

I'm wondering what others think about slang terms like Foamer and Gandy Dancer; do they belong on this list or would it be a good idea to start a new Railroad slang article for those? I'm asking as the person who added both of those terms to this list. My thoughts on the matter are that there are probably as many railroading slang terms as technical terms, and it might be a good idea in the interest of keeping article size managable to divide them into two separate articles. What does everyone else think? Kaibabsquirrel 4 July 2005 19:28 (UTC)

The problem with that is that sometimes the slang becomes the official term. FRED, for example, is one that is often used by professional railroaders. Hotbox also started out as a slang term for an overheated journal box, but now it's the official term (which is why we have hotbox detectors now). I guess I'm more in favor of keeping them all in one list. The size of the definitions that we currently use is small enough that all of the vocabulary can be included. slambo July 4, 2005 20:00 (UTC)

Okay that makes sense. I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other on this and you're right about there being a lot of overlap. Kaibabsquirrel 5 July 2005 02:38 (UTC)