Bristol Line

Wed Apr 8 15:05:23 EDT 2015

I'm surprised that you did not cite one of my most "like to dislike" railroad misnomers, which is almost universally used by news media when referring to railroad "tankers" carrying crude oil, etc.

Gordon Hamilton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: NW Mailing List 
  To: N&W Mailing List 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2015 9:07 AM
  Subject: Re: Bristol Line

  I think the "District" lingo (e.g. "Pulaski District") made its appearance  after the December 1959 merger with the Virginian.

  Theretofore, territorial terminology for the Radford Division's routes had been "Main Line" and "Bristol Line."  But when that portion of the VGN New River Division, extending between Kellysville and "South" Roanoke, was incorporated into the Radford Division, a third territory was added.  Someone came up with the nomenclatures "Christiansburg District," "Pulaski District" and "Whitethorne District."

  So, if you want to be a real, ontologically true-to-the-tradition railroader, just refuse to use the term "Pulaski District."  Call it the Bristol Line.

  A decade ago I did some searching and see how far back the term "Bristol Line" went.  About the best and most consistent sources I could research  were the Annual Reports.  And in those, I think I found the term "Bristol Line" back to around 1900, or slightly there-before.  If I recall correctly...

  It's time for a Commercial.  (Or call it a "Rant," if you like.)  The purity of the vocabulary has become increasingly polluted.  Some people now call Engines "units," and apparently do not know any better.  The news media bozos call Railroads "train companies," and they call Enginemen and Conductors "train operators."  All He-Men of the Rails, cease and desist such nefarious neologisms, and use the classical vocabulary of our forefathers !  Away with all such weenie-talk !

  -- abram burnett
  (such a curmudgeon that he still uses the telegraph...)

  ===========================
  Sent to You from my Telegraph Key
      ... better than AT&T 4G LTE 
  ===========================

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  ________________________________________
  NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
  To change your subscription go to
  http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
  Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
  http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  No virus found in this message.
  Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
  Version: 2014.0.4800 / Virus Database: 4311/9488 - Release Date: 04/08/15
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20150408/6a43c846/attachment.html>