[Ads-l] locomotives as female (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Wabash Cannonball is a girl:

" From the great Atlantic ocean to the wide Pacific shore
>From the queen of flowing mountain to the south bell by the shore
She's mighty tall and handsome and know quite well by all
She's the combination on the Wabash Cannonball"

Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe is a girl:

"Do you hear that whistle down the line?
I figure that it's Engine Number 49
She's the only one that'll sound that way
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe"



City of New Orleans is a boy:

"Good morning America how are you?
Don't you know me I'm your native son,
I'm the train they call The City of New Orleans,
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done."

The Chattanooga Choo Choo's gender is not stated (at least, not by Glenn Miller).


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Herb Stahlke
> Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 10:20 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: locomotives as female
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header ---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Herb Stahlke <hfwstahlke at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      locomotives as female
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
> 
> My nephew, who is a great train buff, the other day referred to a
> locomotive as "her."   I asked about the gender, and he said it's
> conventional to refer to locomotives as feminine.
> 
> New one for me.
> 
> Herb
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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