[Ads-l] locomotives as female (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Laurence Horn]

> On Apr 17, 2015, at 1:06 PM, Mullins, Bill CIV (US) <william.d.mullins18.civ at MAIL.MIL> wrote:
> 
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
> 
> Wabash Cannonball is a girl:

But isn't the Wabash Cannonball the train, rather than just the locomotive/engine?  Engine Number 49 on the A/T/SF is an engine to be sure, but the Cannonball seems to be the train.  And what *is* the south bell by the shore?  Other versions have it as "south belt", which doesn't help, and still others reanalyze the line more radically, e.g. "From the great Atlantic ocean to the wide Pacific shore/She climbs flowery mountain, o'r hills and by the shore" (Carter Family) or "...the green and growing mountains/and the south belt by the shore" (U. Utah Phillips).    


Then there's that familiar refrain: 

Listen to the jingle
The rumble and the roar
As she glides along the woodlands
Through the hills and by the shore
Hear the mighty rush of the engine
Hear that lonesome hoboes' squall
You're travelin' through the jungles
On the Wabash Cannonball   
[Roy Acuff version]

In each version, the engine (unsexed) is a proper subpart of the train (+ fem)

It may be interesting to note that (at least IRT) subways are also female (although later neuter). (We have no evidence for the gender of IND and BMT trains.)

GEORGIE AND THE IRT

Along came the IRT, a'cannon ballin' through
From 242nd Street to Flatbush Avenue
At 5:15 one Friday Eve, she pulled into Times Square
The people all filled the station, and Georgie he was there.

The people all filled the station, they milled and massed around
And Georgie looked upon that train and it was Brooklyn bound
He vowed at once that train to board, the weekend not to roam
For Georgie was a shipping clerk and Brooklyn was his home.

The people all filled the station, a million head or more
George used his elbows and his knees until he reached the door
But when he reached those portals, he could not take the gaff
The conductor shut the door on him and cut poor George in half

The train pulled out of Times Square, the swiftest on the line
It carried poor George's head along, but it left his body behind
Poor Georgie died a hero's death, a martyr plain to see
And the very last words poor Georgie said were "Screw the IRT"

--recorded by Dave Van Ronk, words by Lawrence Block, tune from Engine 143
cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7lcOHE3Or4 for a rendition

[I've left the fifth verse untranscribed so as not to spoil the suspense]


LH

> 
> " 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
>> 
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> 
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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