Nitpicking

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Sincerest apologies to Bill Sellers but, since I was the one who asked the 
question about the 40&8s, I feel compelled to correct the record.

The "Merci" cars are French, not British, and are, therefore, decidedly not 
"goods wagons" at all . One finds "goods wagons" only in the UK and in some 
of their former colonies (except here!,) but certainly not on the continent. 
In France, the 40&8s were/are "Wagon-Couvert" and in Germany, for another 
example, a "boxcar" is a "gedeckte (or) geshlossene Gueterwagon."  Boxcars 
are called different things in all the other myriad European languages of 
course. One must not presume British English is "universally" used.

Sorry, Bill, but being a foreign language teacher and uncontrollable nit 
picker myself, I could not resist the correction.

Albert Burckard

---- Original Message ----- 
From: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2005 9:44 PM
Subject: 40 & 8 box cars.



> Not to be nitpicking fellows, but in England and on the continent there is

> no such thing as a boxcar.   They are universally known as goods wagons.

   Bill Sellers

>