Slang for scanners on Amtrak?

[DennisInGeorgia]

Last Month on the Crescent southbound, the very nice conductor stopped by our bedroom for a chat. Before he left, my scanner "barked" -and so did the conductor's radio. He looked at mine, smiled and said "Oh - so you're going to _____ on us, eh?".

Then he chuckled and walked on down the corridor. It was a funny moment and a very funny slang term for 'monitoring with a scanner'. Is anyone familiar enough with Amtrak train crew vocabulary to tell me what the word likely was? That may come in handy sometime. My scanner came in very handy on several occasions as we traveled ATL-WAS-CHI-PDX-LAX. It was no accident that we were in the Sightseer car when an unruly college kid got to meet (and be escorted off by)the local police. That was fun - but not for her :blink:

 

[Acela150]

No idea. But, just wondering how were you in the "Sightseer Car" when the Crescent is a single level train?? Only the Superliners have a Sightseer Lounge.

 

[DennisInGeorgia]

No idea. But, just wondering how were you in the "Sightseer Car" when the Crescent is a single level train?? Only the Superliners have a Sightseer Lounge.

Note the previous 2 sentences. We were actually on the EB when that one happened, going cross-country.

 

[Acela150]

No idea. But, just wondering how were you in the "Sightseer Car" when the Crescent is a single level train?? Only the Superliners have a Sightseer Lounge.

Note the previous 2 sentences. We were actually on the EB when that one happened, going cross-country.

Got a little confused! Confusion settled! :lol:

 

[zephyr17]

Wish I knew. Only two pieces slang I know rails use for railfans is "fern" (acronym, FRN, F....g Rail Nut) and foamer, which many of us adopted as our own.

May have been "foam"..."So you're going to foam on us, eh?"

 

[Edgefan]

I learned a slang term from my SCA on my #5 leg from Chicago to Mt. Pleasant on 2/25/11. He referred to our 532 car as a "cold car" meaning it had just come from Beech Grove as a newly refurbished car. Before a car even goes in for a rebuild, it is completely stripped of bedding etc., so when it comes back to the yard it has to be completely made up from scratch. He said he gets a crew of six folks that help him to get his car back in order. Given that, it still is more work than usual for the average start of a run. JR was our SCA and he was a man for details. I would have liked to have done the whole run with him, both for his courtesies and the fact that we were in the 532 car. It was a great view out the back window as we left Chicago!

 

[Partyman]

We were on the Cona a couple of weeks ago and I heard the Engineer ask the conductors something about where the 2 or 3 stop folks are. He replied, the shorties are in the car right behind the engine and the longies are in the next one back.