Railway wagons

[football21]

Why are railway wagons named after sea creatures?
Shark, mermaid, sturgeon, dogfish, catfish, tench
Whats the origin of the railway Jim Crow?

[New Judge]

I have studied British railways for most of my life and must say I have never come across any of the terms for wagons that you mention. I�ve even had a quick look among one or two of my (many) books and can find no trace. I�d be very interested if any other readers come up with anything.

The Jim Crow tool is a manual rail bending device. I�m not sure of its origin but, since it acts rather like a crowbar, it probably has something to do with that.

In another context, the term Jim Crow originated around 1830 when a white, minstrel show performer who would �black up� to look like a negro, danced a jig while singing the lyrics to the song, "Jump Jim Crow." As a result of this, the word Jim Crow (or Jimcro) became a racial slur synonymous with blacks or Negroes in the vocabulary of many whites. By the end of the 19th century acts of racial discrimination toward blacks in the USA were often referred to as Jim Crow laws and practices.

[heathfield]

I'm very surprised that New Judge hasn't heard of these fishy names - surely common knowledge amongst rail afficionados.
GWR were the first to apply fish names to their engineering wagons for some unknown reason. From there, the practice spread, and continued into the days of British Rail.
E.g. 'Grampus' - a 20 ton drop-sided wagon with half-drop ends used for sleeper and ballast transportation. A similar wagon with fixed ends was designated a 'Tunny' on SR.
'Shark' - a ballast plough. ..And so on.

[New Judge]

Never was much of a a Great Western gricer - more of an LNER man myself with leanings to the Southern in my spare time!

It just shows that you learn something new every day - thanks heathfield.

Any time you want to know anything about Bulleid Pacifics, Gresley Pacifics or Deltics, I'm your man!

[nightmare]

on a pedantic level,
catfish and tench are not sea creatures, merely (freshwater) aquatic ones