The Pullman Company's Agencia en Mexico when it was absorbed by Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico became Agencia Coches Dormitorio.

Last year a young man of 12 or 14 dropped by while we were prepping a display steam locomotive for paint and talked a while. He seemed knowledgeable enough, but he used British terms like shunter and so on. After he left, one of the young guys said he probably was getting his info from the internet. Sixty years ago, when I was that age, I was getting my info from Trains and Railroad Magazine.

I vaguely thought that some Mexican railroads used the Spanish word for Guard instead of one for Conductor.

Mr Boylan,

Just because I didn't include something, possibly because I may not be aware of it, doesn't mean it never was. Mexico is a big country, with many regional dialects of Spanish, and with many industrial, shortline, or narrow gauge RRs, any of which might use the term that you're thinking of.

Likewise, the term "Agencia Coches y Dormitorios" may have been correct at one time, or perhaps it is correct in certain contexts, but I am familiar with the term "Servicio Coches y Dormitorios". The abbreviation SCD appears on passenger equipment, advertising, dining car china, etc from the mid 80s or earlier up until privatization of the FNM.

Another possible candidate for that category is "roofwalk". Model Railroader magazine has used that word more or less since the beginning, as have the instruction sheets of kit manufacturers for decades. Is it a word that is ever used "in real life" or should it just exclusively be "running board"?

I've heard "roofwalk" more than "running board." It's quite descriptive.

A "running board" is the walkway alongside the boiler of a steam engine.

Phil Mulligan

I'm thinking of boxcars, stenciled "Excess Height Car - No Running Boards".

I agree. They have always been running boards in the trade press, car builder's drawings, and published standards going back to the Master Car Builders Association days. Someone, in the model hobby's formative years, didn't know the proper term and made up a descriptive term, which stuck. Another is stirrup step, for what the industry calls sill steps. I am very much aware of this issue, as I manufacture model railroad freight car kits, and I've chosen to use the hobby terms in our instructions. Knowledgeable people occasionally complain, but they can't deny that they knew what part was being referred to.

Mr. King, thank you for your comprehensive list.
jimboylan

You're very kind, Sir. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Or perhaps by watching the TV show about the Blue Engine who's name begins with T......mld

A throttle does look like a large knife, so MACHETE makes sense. Some British steam locomotives use Regulators instead of Throttles to regulate the steam flow.
TUBITOS looks like the word for small TUBOS. There was discussion in this Group a while ago about the difference between Flues and Tubes in a steam locomotive boiler. It looks like that same discussion would work in Mexican Spanish.
Some British steam locomotives use Chimneys instead of Smokestacks.
Have you thought of any more?

Not really, but I do believe your comment is right on. I HAVE been wondering how many of our American RR terms really came from the Brits. It seems like only the cases where we use different words have been noted here.

Of course, there are many words that sound similar and have similar meanings in the various languages, I think the ones we have been discussing are called "Germanic" languages (since I didn't go to college, maybe a better educated person should really be the one to enlighten us all). For instance, in Germany "kessel" means boiler or tank, kind of like kettle, so, did that word come from the UK ?? And how about "fuerbuchse" for firebox, or "stehbolten" for staybolt ?? I don't know what these things are called in England, maybe since railroads came from England, the words migrated from there as well.

A German friend once told me that Dutch is half way between English and German, since Holland is half way between England and Germany. And so, one day when I was in Amsterdam Central Station, I wanted to take the train to Hoorn, and needed to know where and when to catch it. There was a line of about 60 people waiting to ask one solitary clerk similar type questions, next to a deserted kiosk with all the schedules on all the lines quite clearly displayed, in DUTCH. So, I decided to give it a shot. Their word for train was "trien", and I figured that "stoptrien" was a local. Numerals and telling time is the same, and the Dutch word for track is "spoor", the same as the German word "spur", which also bears a resemblance to "spur" in English. I figured it out in a minute or two, and as I was going to the correct track with plenty time to catch my train, I looked back at the kiosk. The line had not moved.

Locomotive (English) = Lokomotiv (German) = Locomotora (Spanish)

In the UK a loop can be entered at one end and exited at the other end, whereas a siding is a dead ended track with a point only at one end.

What you would call a wye we call a triangle.

A passenger depot is a station, unless it is a Motive Power Depot, formerly known as an engine shed.

Michael

And I'm a little surprised tht so far no one has mentioned "deck" vs "footplate" or "driver" vs "engineer"..........mld