Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

"Mark Brader" <msb@vex.net> wrote...

I was hoping you'd comment on this.  In Britain, I've seen articles
about proposed light rail systems which imply that they have less
stringent safety and manning requirements than the general railway
systems.

Matti

In Chicago this is called a "pedway".  Bwahahaha!

Lots of former trainspotters (N.B.I bit my tongue) around this ng, then.

Another word I came across is used by Montreal's Bombardier, arguably the
largest builder of trains in the world at present: trainset. And that's what
I called my Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley when I got it.

Cheers, Sage

I like to bet that you grew up in the period between about 1954 and
1970. The garment was almost unknown in North America before that time,
and here is the reason for the change.

When teh Korean War broke out, the first  American troops sent to the
peninsula were woefully ill equipped for the horrible Korean winters. Some
soldiers, in fact, died of exposure. Even the warmest clothing that had
been designed for use in Germany after the Second World War was inadequate
to meet the new need. The Office of the Quartermaster General, of the
United States Army (now long subsumed into the Defense Logistics
Agency) put together a team of winter clothing specialists to design a
whole new suite of garments and equipment that could be produced quickly
and distributed swuftly to the troops. The head of the effort was Sir
Hubert Wilkins, the noted arctic explorer. The centerpiece of the
collection of garments was the parka, modified from the Eskimo garment of
the same name.

I am happy to say that my mother was a part of that team! As a child, I
was very, very happy to have a miniature one, which had been made for me
by the prototype activity at the Schenectady General Depot in New York --
that was in January, or perhaps February, of 1952.

The earliest parkas had real fur linings in teh hoods, but taht quickly
became too expensive and other materials were then employed.

The parkas were a hit with the soldiers, who brought them home -- and that
began the fashion of wearing them in civilian life.

On a more scholarly note, here is the material on the word "parka" from
the <Oxford English Dictionary>:

PARKA:

[Aleutian, from Russ. párka skin jacket.]

   An outer garment or long jacket with a hood attached, made of skins
and worn by Eskimos; a similar garment, usu. of wind-proof fabric, worn by
mountaineers, skiers, etc. Also attrib.

 1780 W. COXE Acct. Russ. Discoveries 256 The inhabitants of Alaxa,
Umnak, Unalaksha..wear coats (parki) made of bird skins. 1813 G. H. VON
LANGSDORFF Voy. & Trav. II. ii. 37 They are called parka, and are worn
some~times with one side outwards sometimes with the other. 1818
V. M. GOLOVNIN Narr. Captivity in Japan I. i. 32 The women wore parkis
made of the skin of birds with the feathers outward. 1851 J. RICHARDSON
Arctic Searching Exped. II. 379 (heading) Eskimo
vocabulary. English... Parka... Kuskutchewak... atkuk. 1907 R. W. SERVICE
Songs of Sourdough 56 Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it
stabbed like a driven nail. 1910  Ballads of Cheechako 25 My eyes were
seared, yet thralled I peered through the parka hood nigh blind. 1922
Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 137/1 He had no snowshoes, no parki, and he did not
see the dense black blizzard sweeping up from the north-west. 1922 19th
Cent. Feb. 269 They changed their drill parkees for coats of caribou
fur. 1926 Spectator 18 Sept. 408/2 The woodsman of the north..wears no
fur, unless it be a little trimming round the neck of the `parca'. 1934
Sun (Baltimore) 31 Jan. 3/3 Stocky Indians and Eskimos, fur-trimmed parkas
and mukluks, miners with violent red and green plaid shirts,..these
characterized the simpler functions at crossroad taverns. 1948
Manch. Guardian Weekly 1 Jan. 9 Your correspondent will now buckle on his
parka, latch his skis, and take off. 1955 E. HILLARY High Adventure 37 We
took possession of our own equipment..double-layered windproof
parkas. 1958 Tararua XII. 31 Parka. This name is the only one used in New
Zealand for the hooded garment based on that of the Eskimos. Anorak seems
to be common in England. 1958 L. WHISHAW As far as You'll take Me vii. 94,
I spent a wonderful couple of hours trying on fabulous parkas (pronounced
parkees in the North). 1963 Times 25 Feb. (Canada Suppl.) p. xv/1 Eskimo
children..Huddled inside their sealskin parkhas and warmed by the low
flame of a blubber lantern,..may listen spellbound to stories of the
powers of Talluliyuk the seal-goddess. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17
Feb. 1/7 Busloads of parka-clad workers..arrived almost hourly yesterday
at Elliot Lake's two hotels. 1973 Guardian 10 Apr. 13/2 Fox-trimmed parka
with shirred waist. 1973 A. H. WHITEFORD N. Amer. Indian Arts 86 The
Kutchin made fine tailored skin skirts, parkas, and one-piece leggings and
moccasins. 1976 Evening Post (Nottingham) 14 Dec. 1/6 A boy's parka coat
worth £4·50 was stolen from the cloakroom of the Chaucer Junior School,
Ilkeston. 1978 Times 23 Feb. 13/6, I wore a silk Chinese padded jacket
under my parkha.

Growing up rhotic with (usually) non-rhotic parents, for a few years I
thought they were called "parkers" - presumably having been named after
some Mr. Parker.

-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom

Mike Lyle:

Not at all in my usage.  There are two kinds of railway service in
urban areas, for which the primary terms in my usage are "subway"
and "commuter train".

A subway -- British "underground", German "U-Bahn", Scandinavian
"T-bana", and "metro" to most other foreigners and a few silly
English-speakers -- typically

   * is either entirely or almost entirely within the city; most
     passengers ride within the city
   * is physically segregated from long-distance and freight trains
   * is operated or governed by the same organization, under
     municipal control, as the city's transit buses
   * is at least partly integrated with the buses for fare purposes
   * has its most important sections underground
   * has trains designed for short journeys, with plenty of standing
     room and plenty of wide doors
   * has stops every 1-3 minutes, limiting top speeds to about 40 mph,
     on most of the system.
   * runs trains every 5-10 minutes or better, most of the day;
     riders are not expected to know the times of individual trains

A commuter train service -- also "suburban train", German "S-Bahn",
Paris "RER" (and other services), New York "LIRR" and "Metro-North"
(and other services), Toronto "GO Train", former "Network SouthEast"
in London, etc. etc. -- typically

   * extends from the city to its outermost suburbs; most passengers
     travel between the city and somewhere outside
   * shares tracks with long-distance and freight trains
   * is operated by state or nationally regulated organization,
     perhaps the same railway owning the tracks
   * when used for travel within the city, requires an independent
     fare more expensive than a subway or bus fare.
   * is mostly at ground level
   * has trains designed for most people to sit down, although
     the seats may be relatively spartan
   * has stops every 5-10 minutes along most routes, allowing speeds
     to reach about 70 mph
   * operates at best every 20-30 minutes, at worst one trip into
     the city in the morning and one back out in the evening;
     riders are expected to know the times of individual trains

Of course, there are lots of systems that fall between these extremes
in one way or another, just as the boundaries of what constitutes
"light rail" are not clearly defined.  In London, Underground fares
are separate from bus fares unless you use a pass, and the tracks
extend beyond Greater London in places and are not entirely segregated
from the long-distance network.  But it still feels a lot more like a
subway than a commuter train operation to me.

True, but much less true than at one time.

In the 19th century, what we now call the Underground consisted of
several separate companies.  Some of them were heavily integrated
with other railways, with track connections used for regular through
trains at more than 10 points (see a recent posting of mine in
uk.transport.london).  In the 20th century the Underground has not
only evolved into a single system, but an almost segregated one.
But it is still "almost"; the segregation is not entirely complete.

For example, if you go to Kew Gardens station, you will see the same
tracks being shared by District Line Underground trains and North
London Line commuter trains.  Those trains are actually designed for
*different* electric power supplies, but it's possible to construct
track that will satisfy both, and that's what's used on that section.
(See e.g. the Intro section of CULG <http://www.davros.org/rail/culg>;
search for the phrase "LU standard" and read from that sentence.)

As far as I know, that's true.

I think it would have been possible to have the same track served by
both, but it would have conflicted with safety regulations.

Frances Kemmish:

There have been railway lines that ran along streets, although they
were probably less common in Britain that in North America.  This
does not make them tramlines.

But, er, this is fiction.  And at this point I think we're merely
talking about Thomas's feelings about those modifications.

Sodor is another country: they do things differently there.

Mike.

And up here, of course, we have:

... Canadian National Railway Company (which) operates a network of
approximately 18,000 route
miles of track in Canada and the United States, generating revenues from the
...
www.cbr.ca/CompanyProfile.aspx?CompanyID=2562 -

"Railway" is the commoner term here.

Cheers, Sage