Railway Slang

[BrummieBobby]

Its drummed into trainees and new joiners on the railway that slang is to be avoided at all costs. Whilst this is understandable in an industry that relies on safety critical communication, a vast slang directory still exists and is often used by drivers, guards, signallers, shunters and other operational staff and is generally accepted, provided that the standard rule of "reach a clear understanding" is achieved.

A few examples:
Bang road - A wrong direction move (Unsignalled move with train travelling in the wrong direction)

Bobby - A signalman / signaller. From when trains were signalled by police officers on the line.

Carnage - Chaos, disruption, trains at a stand (Not as bad as it sounds to outsiders)

Clip up - As a signaller, secure points before authorising a movement. Usually due to a failure of interlocking, having to pass a signal at danger, a defective track circuit or with OTM that cannot be relied upon to actuate track circuits. Can also be used when a MOM / PWay is securing points on the ground.

Dalek - Emergency Restriction of Speed indicator; If you have seen an EROS board, you will know why it's called a Dalek!

Dolly Board - A ground position signal, usually used for cross overs, shunting etc.

Flying banana- Inspection / recording train.

Give him six! - Shouted in emergency; send the emergency alarm / six beats / obstruction danger to the next box

Jetter - Railhead treatment train.

In the dirt - Train derailed

Pull off - Clear a signal, set a route etc

Put back - Return a signal to danger with a train approaching (Emergency)

Talk by - Authorising a train / trains to pass a signal at danger due to degraded working. See S5.

Ticket working - Traditionally this would have been Temporary Block Working, but now usually taken to mean Emergency Special Working; requires driver and signaller to fill in a ticket for train to pass through section during a failure of signalling equipment.

Under cover - A train has arrived complete in a section; used by signallers to inform next signal box / panel that track circuits have been proved following a possession.

3-5 working - Signalling by bell or telephone / failure of train describer or defective track circuits on track circuit block line makes it necessary to offer trains to next box, recording time accepted, entered section and out of section as in Absolute Block areas.

There are countless examples, does anybody have any favourites?

 

[John Luxton]

Its drummed into trainees and new joiners on the railway that slang is to be avoided at all costs. Whilst this is understandable in an industry that relies on safety critical communication, a vast slang directory still exists and is often used by drivers, guards, signallers, shunters and other operational staff and is generally accepted, provided that the standard rule of "reach a clear understanding" is achieved.

A few examples:
Bang road - A wrong direction move (Unsignalled move with train travelling in the wrong direction)

Bobby - A signalman / signaller. From when trains were signalled by police officers on the line.

Carnage - Chaos, disruption, trains at a stand (Not as bad as it sounds to outsiders)

Clip up - As a signaller, secure points before authorising a movement. Usually due to a failure of interlocking, having to pass a signal at danger or a defective track circuit. Can also be used when a MOM / PWay is securing points on the ground.

Dolly Board - A ground position signal, usually used for cross overs, shunting etc.

Flying banana- Inspection / recording train.

Give him six! - Shouted in emergency; send the emergency alarm / six beats / obstruction danger to the next box

Jetter - Railhead treatment train.

In the dirt - Train derailed

Pull off - Clear a signal, set a route etc

Put back - Return a signal to danger with a train approaching (Emergency)

Talk by - Authorising a train / trains to pass a signal at danger due to degraded working. See S5.

Ticket working - Traditionally this would have been Temporary Block Working, but now usually taken to mean Emergency Special Working; requires driver and signaller to fill in a ticket for train to pass through section during a failure of signalling equipment.

3-5 working - Signalling by bell or telephone / failure of train describer or defective track circuits on track circuit block line makes it necessary to offer trains to next box, recording time accepted, entered section and out of section as in Absolute Block areas.

There are countless examples, does anybody have any favourites?

The Royal Navy has a vast slang dictionary which one can buy. The book is "Jack Speak" written by a former sailor runs to over 500 pages spaced out a bit with a few appropriate cartoons.

I saw a copy on the shipping shelves in a book shop some years ago and bought a copy. Interesting to see that there were quite a few works in every day use which originated in the Royal Navy.

If shipping can generate such a large dictionary I wonder if something similar could be done for the railways?

 

[philthetube]

On the underground, and I would be surprised if not on the main line as well.

Stick's off, clear signal. (despite no sticks since god knows when)

Blocking back, trains queuing to get through an area.

 

[splashoutradio]

A personal favourite is "box of eggs". A plastic box with six bulbs inside, used to check if third rail is live.

One that I use regularly is the term "cape'd" It's used when a train is cancelled throughout, and I believe is meant to stand for cancelled At Point Of Entry.

"The feather" is another - relating to the illumination of a junction indicator - the five white lights that illuminate, at an angle, above a stop signal, if the route is set off the straightest route.

 

[Ken H]

Its drummed into trainees and new joiners on the railway that slang is to be avoided at all costs. Whilst this is understandable in an industry that relies on safety critical communication, a vast slang directory still exists and is often used by drivers, guards, signallers, shunters and other operational staff and is generally accepted, provided that the standard rule of "reach a clear understanding" is achieved.

A few examples:
Bang road - A wrong direction move (Unsignalled move with train travelling in the wrong direction)

Bobby - A signalman / signaller. From when trains were signalled by police officers on the line.

Carnage - Chaos, disruption, trains at a stand (Not as bad as it sounds to outsiders)

Clip up - As a signaller, secure points before authorising a movement. Usually due to a failure of interlocking, having to pass a signal at danger, a defective track circuit or with OTM that cannot be relied upon to actuate track circuits. Can also be used when a MOM / PWay is securing points on the ground.

Dalek - Emergency Restriction of Speed indicator; If you have seen an EROS board, you will know why it's called a Dalek!

Dolly Board - A ground position signal, usually used for cross overs, shunting etc.

Flying banana- Inspection / recording train.

Give him six! - Shouted in emergency; send the emergency alarm / six beats / obstruction danger to the next box

Jetter - Railhead treatment train.

In the dirt - Train derailed

Pull off - Clear a signal, set a route etc

Put back - Return a signal to danger with a train approaching (Emergency)

Talk by - Authorising a train / trains to pass a signal at danger due to degraded working. See S5.

Ticket working - Traditionally this would have been Temporary Block Working, but now usually taken to mean Emergency Special Working; requires driver and signaller to fill in a ticket for train to pass through section during a failure of signalling equipment.

Under cover - A train has arrived complete in a section; used by signallers to inform next signal box / panel that track circuits have been proved following a possession.

3-5 working - Signalling by bell or telephone / failure of train describer or defective track circuits on track circuit block line makes it necessary to offer trains to next box, recording time accepted, entered section and out of section as in Absolute Block areas.

There are countless examples, does anybody have any favourites?

A Dalek was also the device at power stations to operate the levers on Merry go Round wagons that opened the bottom doors.
Is this still a thing?

 

[ComUtoR]

One that I use regularly is the term "cape'd" It's used when a train is cancelled throughout, and I believe is meant to stand for cancelled At Point Of Entry.

CAPE(D) isn't slang. It's an official term I believe.

"The feather" is another - relating to the illumination of a junction indicator - the five white lights that illuminate, at an angle, above a stop signal, if the route is set off the straightest route.

I never liked feathers. It was an old term when I started and my era was firmly using 'lunas'

Daleks was very much in use. The older term was Metal Mickey.

We have : Rolo and Toblorone. Slang that is pretty much very specific and unique.

 

[Galvanize]

“Cars” for ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) movements sometimes spoken by old Hands on the Eastern Region. I believe it originated from Ilford Depot.

The other one I’ve heard, only on the former ER metals, people referring to the time of the train by the minutes in plural form. For example the “08:52” becomes known as
“The Fifty Two’s”.

 

[43066]

Its drummed into trainees and new joiners on the railway that slang is to be avoided at all costs. Whilst this is understandable in an industry that relies on safety critical communication, a vast slang directory still exists and is often used by drivers, guards, signallers, shunters and other operational staff and is generally accepted, provided that the standard rule of "reach a clear understanding" is achieved.

A few examples:
Bang road - A wrong direction move (Unsignalled move with train travelling in the wrong direction)

Bobby - A signalman / signaller. From when trains were signalled by police officers on the line.

Carnage - Chaos, disruption, trains at a stand (Not as bad as it sounds to outsiders)

Clip up - As a signaller, secure points before authorising a movement. Usually due to a failure of interlocking, having to pass a signal at danger, a defective track circuit or with OTM that cannot be relied upon to actuate track circuits. Can also be used when a MOM / PWay is securing points on the ground.

Dalek - Emergency Restriction of Speed indicator; If you have seen an EROS board, you will know why it's called a Dalek!

Dolly Board - A ground position signal, usually used for cross overs, shunting etc.

Flying banana- Inspection / recording train.

Give him six! - Shouted in emergency; send the emergency alarm / six beats / obstruction danger to the next box

Jetter - Railhead treatment train.

In the dirt - Train derailed

Pull off - Clear a signal, set a route etc

Put back - Return a signal to danger with a train approaching (Emergency)

Talk by - Authorising a train / trains to pass a signal at danger due to degraded working. See S5.

Ticket working - Traditionally this would have been Temporary Block Working, but now usually taken to mean Emergency Special Working; requires driver and signaller to fill in a ticket for train to pass through section during a failure of signalling equipment.

Under cover - A train has arrived complete in a section; used by signallers to inform next signal box / panel that track circuits have been proved following a possession.

3-5 working - Signalling by bell or telephone / failure of train describer or defective track circuits on track circuit block line makes it necessary to offer trains to next box, recording time accepted, entered section and out of section as in Absolute Block areas.

There are countless examples, does anybody have any favourites?

Dolly seems to be a northern term, dummy more common down south.

We have : Rolo and Toblorone. Slang that is pretty much very specific and unique.

That very much marks out those who’ve done a networker traction course!

 

[alxndr]

The Royal Navy has a vast slang dictionary which one can buy. The book is "Jack Speak" written by a former sailor runs to over 500 pages spaced out a bit with a few appropriate cartoons.

I saw a copy on the shipping shelves in a book shop some years ago and bought a copy. Interesting to see that there were quite a few works in every day use which originated in the Royal Navy.

If shipping can generate such a large dictionary I wonder if something similar could be done for the railways?

There is Ellis’ Railway Encyclopaedia. Perhaps a bit too technical for someone outside of the industry but it also has a fair bit of slang scattered through it.

Dots - position light signal

Bogie - trolley

Pull the pin - put a point machine back on power after its been manually operated

We had a fair few slang phrases for the unpronounceable German messages axle counters produced (e.g. "sausage fault" =verbingdunsausfall = communication failure), but I have no idea whether they're widespread enough to count.

 

[Friary Yard]

CAPE comes from the Standard Codes for Telegrams used on Railway Business and means

"Undermentioned train will not run. Advise all concerned"

These codewords were still in regular use with the teleprinters in the 1970's

Quite a few of these codewords have slipped into the railway vocabulary.

 

[Gloster]

CAPE was the old railway telegraphic term for ‘The following train is cancelled...’ Even long after the telephone took over, it was still used for telephone messages as it was quick and clear. Another was BOXER ‘The following message is to be passed from signal box to signal box.’ I have numerous times had the ‘phone ring, picked it up, been told ‘BOXER. CAPE 1B45‘ and then got on the ‘phone to the next box and repeated the message. I don’t think that it stood for anything: it was just a short and clear word.

By the 1980s most of the others had fallen out of use as far as signalmen were concerned, although there was still an old book containing hundreds of words, many totally obsolete, in many boxes. The only two I can remember using were HANOVER ‘The following train will run in two portions...’ and URE ‘Special attention is to be paid to the working of the following train...’ (The latter was seen as ‘Member of the board on his way home.’) All from memory.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

On the juice/off the juice. Third rail operated train on or off the traction current. Could equally apply to overhead line routes, although suspect those who worked on such routes may have other 'terms' to describe same, such as On or Off the string (?)

Gapped - associated with above, if a train has accidentally become isolated from the third rail.

Travelling PASS - crew travelling as passengers. Or travelling 'on the cushions'. same meaning.

Down the pan - loco not steaming very well, as in the fire's gone down the ash pan. Might be used for an associated train delay.

 

[Ken H]

What about 'vice'. As in the 0756 to London Bridge will be 8 vice 12.
I always assumed this meant 'instead of' as in vice captain.
But vice, as in vice squad also means ' a moral fault or weakness'. And so could describe a short formed train.
I think the 'vice captain' etymology more likely but I don't know...

 

[dk1]

Drummed into them in class then once out with a DI like me we teach them the proper way with the likes of peg, dod & got the road

 

[Llanigraham]

In our area a train in the ballast was said to be "in the kitty litter".

 

[306024]

“Cars” for ECS (Empty Coaching Stock) movements sometimes spoken by old Hands on the Eastern Region. I believe it originated from Ilford Depot.

"Cars to the car sheds". Heard and said it many times so I must be an old hand ✋️ Yes it refered to ECS to ICS.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

What about 'vice'. As in the 0756 to London Bridge will be 8 vice 12.

From an Altered Carriage Working Notice angle, 'vice' did indeed mean 'instead of', and to give a basic random example; if the 0758 Waterloo to Windsor was due to terminate at Staines due to engineering work, the WATERLOO page entry in the altered CWN for that day would read: "0758 (to) Staines (vice Windsor)".
In my experience the loose verbal term 'Cars' could refer to any/all trains of EMU/DMU types, if not speaking about specific types. For loco hauled it might be 'carriages', 'coaches' or 'corrs' (as in 'it's formed of 10 LM Corrs' - 10 London Midland Corridor coaches). This latter phrase was common place in written form in Southern CWN's for many of the inter-regional trains years ago.

 

[83G/84D]

‘Footplate swap’ is still used occasionally when referring to a crew (driver) swapping trains mid journey usually due to disruption/late running.

 

[LAX54]

"Cars to the car sheds". Heard and said it many times so I must be an old hand ✋️ Yes it refered to ECS to ICS.

745 has 'failed' so 'cars to Norwich"
Distant Signal: Back Board (becoming rarer by the day!)
Feathers, also know as lunar lights
Ground Signal: Dummy

Talking to a Driver at a Signal: "You've got the road Driver"

No doubt many local ones too!
Platform 1 Ipswich: Arcade
Fuel Point: Table Road or Foundout
Norwich has the Royal Dock.

 

[swt_passenger]

For railway Telegraphic Codewords, (which were not really slang in their original usage), I’m sure the it’s been regularly explained that the vast majority don’t actually expand out into phrases, ie they are not initialisations. On Phil Deave’s site listing the codewords he caveats CAPE as an example where the supposed meaning is a “backronym” applied retrospectively.

 

[GalaxyDog]

Hear these quite often. I think the only one that gets through into 'formal' communication is 'caped' for a cancelled working. I hear the others a lot when talking say informally cab to cab with a driver or a DTM but when we need to make a formal communication in order to establish the clear understanding protocol, most of the slang goes out the window.

It is fascinating to read these though. It seems that signallers had almost their own language to a tee.

 

[DelW]

What about 'vice'. As in the 0756 to London Bridge will be 8 vice 12.
I always assumed this meant 'instead of' as in vice captain.
But vice, as in vice squad also means ' a moral fault or weakness'. And so could describe a short formed train.
I think the 'vice captain' etymology more likely but I don't know...

"Vice" is a Latin word for "in place of", as in vice versa, or your example of vice captain.

 

[bigfoote]

A couple I remember from my time as a contractor (3rd rail land). "popped mushroom" = broken insulator. Arnie for a teminating train/terminator. Not so much slang as local jokes, was BBQ, for example, trains suspended between x and y due to shopping trolley contacting 3rd rail - "BBQed trolley" at z.

 

[Galvanize]

Junction Indicators I’ve heard Lunars were generally a Southern Region expression, Feathers an Eastern Region one…but very occasionally they’ve also been called Flashes, and I’m sure someone referred to one as a “Horn” before.

Which regions said Flash or Horn?

 

[317666]

No doubt many local ones too!
Platform 1 Ipswich: Arcade
Fuel Point: Table Road or Foundout
Norwich has the Royal Dock.

Cambridge has the Cupboard and the Gasworks for the loops either side of the station.

 

[SJN]

Junction Indicators I’ve heard Lunars were generally a Southern Region expression, Feathers an Eastern Region one…but very occasionally they’ve also been called Flashes, and I’m sure someone referred to one as a “Horn” before.

Which regions said Flash or Horn?

Well I’m in Birmingham and all my fellow drivers call them Flash.

 

[Gloster]

I used to hear, many years ago, junction indicators being called Sky Lights.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

Well I’m in Birmingham and all my fellow drivers call them Flash.

And yet I was trained at Snow Hill where everyone uses the term 'feather'!

Bobby I hear far less now then a few years ago, on the 350s at Crewe it's very formal over the IC so Signaller is used exclusively.

 

[SJN]

And yet I was trained at Snow Hill where everyone uses the term 'feather'!

Bobby I hear far less now then a few years ago, on the 350s at Crewe it's very formal over the IC so Signaller is used exclusively.

Lol. Suppose it can vary who you train with.

 

[matchmaker]

Not slang, but pronunciation. Up in Scotland, for old hands "cran" = "crane". "Rout" = "route".