Humorous Nicknames of Michigan Railroads

(Sobriquets, pseudonyms, aliases | All from Le Roy Barnet, unless noted)

• Amboy, Lansing & Traverse Bay (AL&TB)

  • Awfully Long & Terribly Bumpy

• Cadillac & Lake City (C&LC)

  • Catastrophe & Lost Cause

• Chicago & North Western (C&NW)

  • Cheap & Nothing Wasted

• Chicago, Kalamazoo & Saginaw (CK&S)

  • Cuss, Kick & Swear

• Detroit & Mackinac (D&M)

  • Defeated & Maltreated

• Detroit, Toledo & Ironton (DT&I)

  • Darn Tired & Irksome

  • Down Trodden & Infirm

  • Henry Ford's Railroad

• Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic (DSS&A)

  • Damn Small Salary & Abuse

  • Damn Slow Service & Abuse

  • Dead Slow Service & Agony

  • Delayed, Short-Steamed & Antiquated

  • Damn Slow and Sure Awful

  • Damn Slow, Shabby Affair

• Empire & Southeastern (E&SE)

  • Empire Slow & Easy

  • Empire & Something Else

• Escanaba & Lake Superior (E&LS)

  • Easy, Lazy & Slow

• Grand Rapids & Indiana (GR&I)

  • Go Ragged & Independent

• Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (LS&MS)

  • Long Stops & Muddy Stations

  • Long Suffering & Much Sorrow

  • Large Stations & Miserable Salaries

  • Less Sleep & More Speed

• Lake Superior & Ishpeming (LS&I)

  • Lazy, Slow & Independent

• Manistee & Northeastern (M&NE)

  • Manistee & Nowhere Else  [from retired C&O employee via Mark Hershoren]

• Manistique & Lake Superior (M&LS)

  • The Haywire [from Mike Repp]
  • Muck & Loon Shit

• Pere Marquette (PM)

  • Poor Management

• Pontiac, Oxford & Northern (PO&N)

  • Poor, Old & Neglected

  • Pants, Overalls & Necktie

• Port Huron & Detroit (PH&D)

  • Poor, Hungry & Destitute

  • Intellectual Line (PhD)

• Toledo & Western (T&W)

  • Teeter & Wooble

  • Tired & Weary

Le Roy Barnett retired in 2001 as an archivist with the State of Michigan Archives. Throughout his career, Dr. Barnett made note of railroad trivia as well as interesting railroad facts which he has shared with RRHX. We hope that you enjoy reading them. Many of these "sayings", slogans, film names will bring back memories for you. If you have other factual bits of trivia to add, there is a hot-link on each page for you to use.