Synonym for "Railroading"


F

fairbro

Member
Can someone think of another word for "operating/running a model railroad"? There is a word I can not quite remember, I have heard it before. It's something like "railroading" or "operating" or "onlining" "onborading", "mainlining, maintaining" Can anyone think of this word I am trying to think of? The thesaurus is no help, because some of these words have negative connotations.
 
All I can think of is operations/operating for the concepts of actually running your model railway. Particularly if running it in any similar fashion to a real railway or at least running it as if it had a purpose.
 
I was trying to think of the phrase "rolling stock." I had the concept of "moving along" and disremembered it as a verb. Sorry for confusion!
 
fairbro said:
I was trying to think of the phrase "rolling stock." I had the concept of "moving along" and disremembered it as a verb. Sorry for confusion!
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Ah, yeah. That's just the equipment. (For anyone else that maybe hasn't seen this term before.)
 
They used to be called "Pikes" at one time, so....does that make such an operator, a Piker? (clue Australian slang)
 
"Hiballing" but that also brings to mind martini's, or midnite-running trailer trucks...:)
...
Editing this now, just saw Bruette's signature: "Keep High Balling, Be Safe & Have Fun!..."
 
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tootnkumin said:
They used to be called "Pikes" at one time, so....does that make such an operator, a Piker? (clue Australian slang)
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A pike was a tool used to position and hold a rail in place (esp. on a curve) while the spikers hammer it down. With all the automated equipment I don't think they are hardly used anymore. I think the terminology has changed and are now more specialized and called "can't hooks" or "rail forks". So I think a Piker would be more of a person who lays model railroad track rather than an operator of same.

Now what is that movie where the runaway train is coming and they are repairing the track in front of it. The whole gang starts running but the one worker grabs his pike shoves it under the rail and says, "I say it holds". The rest of the crew comes back and does the same, and the train makes it safely through the repair.
 
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The "Pike" I was referring to was the name commonly used for model railroads in general, largely in the hobby publications, when 8 x 4's were the "norm". Fell into disuse when basement empires became more numerous.
 
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