The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-10-14
NAMING CARS.
How Railroad Companies Secure
=. - Appropriate Titles.
A Man Constantly Employed In LOOKING
Them Up-Gcography and NIythol-
ogy the Principal

. .
Sources.
There Is n young man in one of the
offices of each of the great sleeping car
companies who is engaged every day,
except Sunday of course, In bending
over an atlas searching for suitable
names for the sleeping, dining and par
Tor coaches which are turned out by the
company.
1t is no small matter says the Chica-
go Tribune, when you come to under
stand that every name must signify
something, and there are already on
the road something like many hundreds
of such coaches and new ones being
turned out ut the rate of two or three
hundred year. When tho first slccpers
were built the owners took tho alpha
bet, lettering the first one "a" and SO
on until the alphabet run out. Then
commenced the search for names. The
first sleepers to be named were those
run on the Pennsylvania limited be.
tween New York nnds' Chicago. They
were named for tho various nations.
that of America being the first one
chosen. The original sleepers are Chose
hrst namely America, England, France,
Russia, Scotland, Germany, and SO on.
The next names were taken from the
various towns through which tho roads
run. If the road was in Ohio, for ex.
umplc, the slcepcrs on such roads were
named for some of the principal towns
and cities in that state. This plan.
however, was soon deemed unadvisable.
us it sometimes became necessary to
transfer the slecpcrs to roads in other
States. Then came tho plan of naming
the coaches after tho sections of the
country. Those which run on tho roads
OF the west were given Indian names.
AS far as possible it is now tho rule
for the names of the palace coaches to
bear some sort of relation to tho nature
of tho business in the section where
sleepers run. For instance, on the roads
running out of Washington there arc
such names on the slccpcrs as "Sena-
tor" Diplomatic" Congress-" etc.
On few lines which traverse noted
battlcficlds some of the slecpcrs are
named in honor of famous generals.
The books of one of the principal COM
panics show that Achilles, Ajax and
Ulysses have been honored on wheels.
The present is an age of colleges.
These associations have associated with
their curriculum boating, football and
other athletic exercises This Same
company concluded for awhile to en-
balm the names Of the leading literary
institutes by painting their names on
their sleeping cars. This was the most
popular idea which the company had
adopted. But there is n limit to noted
schools in America, just as there is n
limit to the alphabet and it was soon
discovered that there were not enough
colleges to go round or, which is the
i same thing, there were too many sleep
ing cars.
Then commenced the hunt on the at
las for names. The system OF naming
is now followed in this manncr:. A
young man is employed to mako out an
alphabetical list from the atlas. Hav-
ing selected his name he goes to the
root of it and ascertains it's origin and
significance. When list is prepared
it is passed to the vice president of the
company, who adopts or rejects.
Sometimes suggestions nrc sent in by
outsiders. They are filed away in or
der. and if my of the names thus sug-
gcstcd are adopted in the course of con-
struction they find their way to tho
gaze of the travelling public.
Dining cars arc named, SO far as the
names signify. for rivers, lakes and
bays In the west for Indian chiefs.
Parlor cars are nearly always feminine
in nomenclature. Tho NEUROLOGICAL
deities on the feminine side have been
literally honored. The names of some
of the moro notable female characters
in history and fiction have been trans
ferred to these palace cars of the rail.
The instruction to the young man
whose business is to keep up the lists is
: to get the shortest names where they
have any significance, keeping in mind
at the same time those which are most
cuphonious.
This is busy age. 1t not only costs
less to paint q short name, but YOU do
not want to stop to read or write such
a word as Assinnaboinc when there are
so many shorter ones. and ones. which
are SO much smoother to speak and
which mean moro.
The naming of these cars Is no small
job, and the man who has triplets to
christen is not half SO much worried
about names as the vice president of a
sleeping car company.
A CROWS HUMOR.