What's in a Name? By Keith Rader

Mark Cravens’ article in the January, 2012, RABO publication where he refers to nicknames awarded to some of the Pittsburgh employees reminded me of some of my co-workers. Monikers were common in the early days of my railroad career. I also noted the name Real Frechette ... on page 5. “Real” and I made a switching study in New York together. The January issue identifies him as being the Director of Cost Research and previously a Dispatcher on the Boston &Maine. The name Fielding Lewis also re-surfaced on page 17 as being labeled “Hatchet Face”. Fielding met with General Manager Dick Rayburn and me about 1963 when the sale of our Allegheny Yard was being offered to the City of Pittsburgh for the Three Rivers Stadium site. I believe he was in our Pittsburgh Real Estate and Industrial Development Department at that time. I was told he was named after a Civil War Confederate General. When the two-way radio became a necessity, everyone gave themselves a handle.

SPIDER MEN WORKING FOR THE RAILROAD

Working for the railroad was somewhat like a Spider Man or maybe even a Dick Tracy movie in the early days Almost every railroad worker had an alias and some of them carried their monikers to their graves:

“Sack Head” Eiler, for example, was General Chairman for the Locomotive Engineers Union and held the assignment of engineer on Dixie 99, which was an auto parts special that ran daily between Toledo's Rossford and Cincinnati's Queen City Yards. In my time as Superintendent at the C&O/B&O’s Toledo Terminal, I never knew and don't recall anyone ever mentioning his given name. “Sack Head” had been a school teacher in Georgia and later migrated to Toledo, Ohio, to work for the B&O as a fireman. It was much warmer in the southern states and “Sack Head”, as he became known, did not own anything that resembled head covering. To compensate for his lacking a hat, he substituted a brown paper grocery bag to cover his noggin on the first cool day, after which he was dubbed as being “Sack Head”. “Sack” adapted himself to the environment and in his time became a legend, not only as an accomplished engineer, but also as a member of the Polar Bears Club. Traditionally, the Polar Bears Club members would take a dip in Lake Erie during the coldest month of the year, which was February, making the headlines in the Toledo Blade, which is the area's local newspaper.

We had other engineers I worked with, namely: H. L. more commonly known as “High Line” Butts; B. F. Phillips was “Big Foot”; and C. W., alias “Cold Water”, Kline; There was also “Shoestring” Lovelace, “Snuffy” Smith, “Ghost” Robey, “Bunny” Hare, “Cigarette Pete”
 Williams, “Sugar” Imps, “Doggie” May and H. N. “Ham Nose” Simmons.

Engineers, in general, were referred as being “HOG HEADS”. Many were accomplished enough that you would know who was behind the throttle by the sound of their whistle once they were inside sound limits.

We had other workers in train service and I can recall many of them such as “Whiskey” Joyce, “Powder Puff” Potter, “Meat Ball” Pacillio, “Alley Oop” Trail, “King Fish” Frye and his son “The Jeep”, “Jumbo” House and “Pecker Neck” Kirchner, the latter who always looked like he needed a bath.

Some of our guys didn't need an alias. They had names or initials such as I. M Zimmerman and there was R. U. Crites.

At Cincinnati, we had members on our staff that included Gene Harlow who was the Division Operator, Lotus Benson who was Road Foreman of Engines and Shirley Jones who was the Terminal Superintendent. All were males and none of them were movie stars.

On the other side of town, we had our loveable Southern Railroad Superintendent Mr. “Slab Foot” Jim Eckler. Every name had a story.