I have never heard the term lashup used on the railway. Generally it's a
locomotive consist. I don't know whether lashup was used in early diesel days.
Whether lashup or consist, the difference in terminology between diesel and
steam arises because diesels are all operated together by multiple unit control
whereas steam engines always had to be controlled separately. Thus an extra
steam engine always required another crew whereas an extra diesel was just an
extra diesel (except when a helper consist is used, which I suppose could be
considered a "doubleheader"). The railroads, and thus the diesel manufacturers,
had an interest in considering a group of diesels to be a single locomotive
because of the labour issues. If they had to put a crew on each unit there
would be no benefit from dieselizing. Early road diesels were marketed and
usually operated in sets of two to four depending on the proposed assignments,
until the railroads began to break up and shuffle the consists around for
greater flexibility. Possibly this is why the term "unit" became common,
because it avoided confusion as to whether "locomotive" meant one unit or a
multiple unit consist. "Locomotive" no longer implies more than one unit, but
the term "unit" has survived.
Don Thomas
----- Original Message -----
From: KVRailway
To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 11:14 PM
Subject: Re: [cpsig] RE: CPR D-10 from sunset
No. I've never heard that term used on railroads in southern British
Columbia, though it doesn't mean that it never was. I suspect that it may
have been a logging railway term. I doubt that you'll find anybody from the
class one railways familiar with that one. 'Knuckles' and 'drawbars' were
the standard terminology anyplace I ever was.
As for the term 'lashups': In my part of the world; in steam days, engines
were double or triple-headed or the pusher/helper may have been coupled
ahead of the road engine. I remember my dad referring to an assisting
engine being 'cut in' either behind the road engine or back in the train
consist or just ahead of the caboose.
In diesel days, units were 'MU'd' or run in multiple unit consists.
'Lashup', so far as I know, was an American railfan term and definitely was
not the standard terminology anyplace that I can recall.
Joe Smuin
1. - "Joey, the secret to telling a good railway story is to always try to
stick just as close to the facts as possible." --- (the late) Cliff
Inkster; CPR Engineman, raconteur and philosopher.
2. - The secret to contacting Joe by email is to be sure to insert "Joe" or
"Smuin" into the main text portion of any message you send to him, and thus
your message should percolate through his spam filters.
----- Original Message -----
From: <PilotRicky@xxxxxxx>
To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: [cpsig] RE: CPR D-10 from sunset
Here's one term I always got a kick out of...I don't know if any of you have
ever heard this term before. My best friend from high school, (who was from
Powell River, B.C.), always called the couplers on trains, the "tag-a-long"
or "tag-a-longs". Has anyone else ever heard couplers called the
"tag-a-longs"?
Rick
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave & Marilyn Pottinger <dandm.pottinger@xxxxxxxx>
To: CPSIGgroup <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 7:14 pm
Subject: [cpsig] RE: CPR D-10 from sunset
Apparently "lashed together" must be one of those quaint expressions that
only we North Americans use to describe how the steam engineers kept their
double and triple heads together. I was not aware that diesels are connected
to each other differently from how steam engines were connected to each
other - couplers, isn't it?
Dave Pottinger
Re: CPR D-10 from sunset
Posted by: "Roger T." rogertra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx rogertra
Date: Thu Feb 5, 2009 7:57 pm ((PST))
>>You don't "Lash together" steam, only diesels.
>OK… so how about couple two or three together and the engineers try to keep
>them all at the same speed sound instead?
Double or triple headed. Where do you think the term "Double header/headed"
came from? Not from baseball but from steam locomotive operation. Dates back
to the earliest days of steam railways in the UK.
These diesel era fans, I tell ya. :-)
Cheers.
Roger T.
See the GER at: -
http://www.islandnet.com/~rogertra/
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