"Railway" (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Wilson Gray]

Again, for what it's worth, there is no need for me to consult Google
Books or any other reference work, in this case. I'm unfortunately
more than old enough to be personally acquainted with and to have
ridden on the streetcars / trolleys of the former _street railways_ of
both Saint Louis and Los Angeles, including the once-famous "red cars"
of the latter city, which were in use through the 'Fifties, at least.
Hence, post-WWII is a better dating than pre-WWI. I can't say exactly
when _street railway_ ceased to be a common term, but I can certainly
state that I've personally never read or heard a reference to a
"street railroad."

I forgot to mention that, for some  reason, the Sunshine Special,
later the "Texas Eagle," also the subject of a folksong, went north as
a train of the Texas & Pacific, whereas it returned south as a train
of the Missouri-Pacific.

When the Mo-Pac/T&P, once ownd  by the legendary railroad baron, Jay
Gould, was swallowed up by the Union Pacific, a wag in the WSJ
suggested that the amalgamation  be known as the "MoP-UP."

-Wilson

On 11/7/07, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: "Railway" (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: American Dialect Society
> > [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Jesse Sheidlower
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 3:02 PM
> > To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> > Subject: Re: "Railway"
> >
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: "Railway"
> > --------------------------------------------------------------
> > -----------------
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 07, 2007 at 12:45:46PM -0500, Wilson Gray wrote:
> > > Jesse Sheidlower writes:
> > >
> > > ' ... [P]erhaps even the use of "railway" is odd for an
> > American source."
> > >
> > > FWIW, "railway" sounds okay to me. It actually appears to be used
> > > interchangeably. E.g., the Texas & Pacific Railway (the "T&P") is a
> > > unit of the Missouri-Pacific Railroad (the "MoPac"). My father once
> > > "ran on the road" on the Sunshine Special, a MoPac-T&P train
> > > celebrated in a blues by Blind Lemon Jefferson.
> >
> > Both _railway_ and _railroad_ are in use in Britain and
> > America, but there's a distinct preference for the former in
> > the former and the latter in the latter. Ben Zimmer ran some
> > numbers in the Oxford Corpus demonstrating this connection
> > clearly. I think this is an interesting pair to compare,
> > because it's not the sort of binary thing where the forms are
> > totally different (e.g. _windscreen_ and _boot_ are almost
> > exclusively British, and _windshield_ and _trunk_ almost
> > exclusively American), but there's more of a flow. Yet within
> > this flow, the pattern is pretty clear.
> >
> > Also, it seems to be the case that in America _railway_ is
> > limited to reference to railway companies, as in your
> > examples, whereas in Britain it's used more broadly.
>
> "Railway" is also commonly pre-WWI to refer to the trolleys and
> streetcars that were ubiquitous back then.  Search for
> "street railway" in Google Books, or the other archives.  Often
> it would refer to a particular company, as Jesse states, but
> also it would mean the local system, or the generic idea of
> trolleys on rail tracks.
>
>
> >
> > Jesse Sheidlower
> > OED
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org