THE RAILROADS – 1900 TO 1960s
THE RAILROAD GENERATION – THE HARRISONS MOVE FROM MACON TO JACKSONVILLE
Grandpa Nathaniel Harrison, Jr. moved his family from Macon to Jacksonville, Florida between 1900 and 1910. Grandpa Harrison hired on at the Seaboard Airline Railroad (SAL) at the Jacksonville rail yard as a special agent, a “railroad dick”, a railroad detective, a security officer. As his sons matured, most of them took jobs on the railroad, the SAL or the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL).
- Edward Bell Harrison – Conductor, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Jacksonville, FL
- Charles Lee Harrison – Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, then Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, DC
- Alexander Brown Harrison – Conductor, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Jacksonville, FL
- William Burton Harrison – Engineer, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Wildwood, FL
- Nathaniel Cecil Harrison – Career in the US Navy
- Emory Carlton Harrison – Conductor, Seaboard Airline Railroad, Wildwood, FL
WILLIAM BURTON HARRISON’S RAILROAD CAREER
SENIORITY LIST AND CUTOFF NOTICE
THE DIESEL-ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE
WILLIAM BURTON HARRISON’S TRAINS
(Courtesy of NEGenWeb Project Resource Center)
RAILROAD SLANG
Railroad terminology is not easy to comprehend if you weren’t raised with it. Here are some words and definitions.
https://www.alaskarails.org/terminology/slang.html
RAILROAD TALK
“On the high iron, let the big dogs walk”
means the caboose is over the switch and on the mainline so open the throttle all the way on the locomotives
“All black, well stacked, goin’ down the track clickity clack”
means the train looked good on the visual roll-by inspection.
“Pull the pin” or “let’s pull the pin and roll”
means “uncouple so we can get out of here”
“Highball it out of here.”
Proceed at maximum permissible speed
“Double the hill”
means the train is split in half to get up a grade
“We are on the ground!”
means the train has derailed
“Mosey Speed”
means when you approach the limit of your track warrant and have not received a new warrant, you mosey up to the limit prepared to stop.
“Grip”
Trainman’s suitcase
“Dead Head”
A railroad employee traveling as a passenger
“Drag”
Describes the movement of a heavy train, such as a coal drag
“Dump the air”
Emergency application of the air brakes causing a train to stop abruptly
“Dog chasing”
A crew change out.
The caller called a dog catch to catch a dog.
Caller – A person whose job it is to call out a train crew.
Dog Catch – A crew sent to relieve a crew that has worked the legal limit.
Catch a dog – Catch a slow moving train.
KEEPING TIME
Every railroader had to have his pocket watch on him at all times. Trains ran on a schedule and the operations department supported the train schedules. Here is a typical railroad man’s “watch and chain”
Another indispensable tool for the train crew and operating support crew was his switch key. You had to have a key to unlock the switch to run a train in to a side track to get it off the mainline so a train going in the opposite direction could pass.
