# Train-related place names



## BCL (Feb 7, 2017)

Was thinking about places with names that are train related.

One is Coalinga, California, which I understand used to be "Coaling Station A" where trains would load up on coal. There are a bunch of places named Pullman, including one neighborhood near me where the Pullman Company used to repair cars.


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## p&sr (Feb 7, 2017)

BCL said:


> Was thinking about places with names that are train related.
> 
> One is Coalinga, California, which I understand used to be "Coaling Station A" where trains would load up on coal. There are a bunch of places named Pullman, including one neighborhood near me where the Pullman Company used to repair cars.


Santa Fe Springs, California. And lots of streets named "Santa Fe" or "Railroad Avenue", all across California.


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## Bob Dylan (Feb 7, 2017)

Helper,Utah on the Zephyr route where "Helper"engines could help hump the trains up the mountain grades!


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## JayPea (Feb 7, 2017)

Mobridge, SD, on the old Milwaukee Railroad, is a contraction of Missouri Bridge, the name of the site where the railroad bridge crossed the Missouri River.


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## Metra Electric Rider (Feb 7, 2017)

Dotsero....

Are all of the Pullmans after Chicago's Pullman neighborhood?


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## fairviewroad (Feb 7, 2017)

Long Island is named after the Long Island Railroad. 

On a more serious note, one of my favorite train related names is "Pennsy Road" in Lancaster County, PA. It paralleled the former "Low Grade" railroad route operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad....a.k.a. the "Pennsy." I'm not sure if the road was originally built as a service road to maintain the tracks, or whether it was simply given that name due to its proximity to the railroad. At any rate, the tracks were removed a few decades ago and it is now a rather nice rail-to-trail....which you can still access from Pennsy Road.


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## JayPea (Feb 7, 2017)

Metra Electric Rider said:


> Dotsero....
> 
> Are all of the Pullmans after Chicago's Pullman neighborhood?


And Dotsero's alter ego, Orestod. The Pullman that I live close to, Pullman, WA, IS named after George Pullman. I guess you could consider that railroad-related.


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## JayPea (Feb 7, 2017)

Just northwest of Spokane there is a small elementary school called Great Northern. It and its corresponding school district was named for the railroad.


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## VAtrainfan (Feb 7, 2017)

I live near Airline Blvd in Portsmouth. While this seems like it's named after those tubes with wings in the sky, it's actually because it parallels the old Norfolk branch of the Seaboard Air Line. The branch still exists (now owned by CSX) but it no longer crosses the Elizabeth River, it's truncated in Portsmouth and turns slightly north to the Portsmouth Marine Terminal.


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## KmH (Feb 7, 2017)

Dotsero's name may be more related to surveying than to railroading.
However, there is no doubt Orestod (Dotsero spelled backwards) is related to railroading.

In 1877 Ferdinand Hayden published a survey he had made of Colorado's Western Slope.
The starting point of his survey (dot zero) was at the confluence of the Colorado and Eagle rivers.

In 1881 the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad started building a narrow-gauge line from Leadville, over Tennessee Pass to reach the mining areas around Aspen, Colorado before its rival railroad, the Colorado Midland, could build a standard gauge line reaching there.

The D&RG built a line through Glenwood Canyon to Glenwood Springs, finally reaching Aspen in October 1887.

It was not until 1890 that the Colorado Midland standard gauge rail line reached the confluence of the Colorado and Eagle Rivers.

In 1932, the D&RGW began construction of the Dotsero Cutoff east of Glenwood Springs to near Bond on the Colorado River, at a location called Orestod (Dotsero spelled backward).

According to the Dotsero, CO Wikipedia page, the town originated once a railroad junction was established at the confluence of the Eagle and Colorado Rivers, but it doesn't mention if the starting point of Hayden's survey was used was called Dotsero before a town existed.


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## Metra Electric Rider (Feb 8, 2017)

I hadn't thought of Lawn Guyland, but definitely!

Well, Pullman Illinois was George's little playground/fiefdom...

I highly recommend visiting Pullman if you have or get a chance - it's very interesting architecturally in addition to all the railroad history.


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## TinCan782 (Feb 8, 2017)

"Railroad Avenue" seems common in many places :giggle:


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## Pere Flyer (Feb 8, 2017)

Moore, Oklahoma, was named in 1889 after an ATSF employee.

From Wikipedia:



> According to the town history Al Moore was a "conductor or a brakeman, lived in a boxcar at the camp and had difficulty receiving his mail. He painted his name – "Moore" – on a board and nailed it on the boxcar. When a postmaster was appointed, he continued to call the settlement Moore. When the town incorporated in 1893 the name was legalized."


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## Metra Electric Rider (Feb 9, 2017)

I would suspect that a lot of small towns and depots in the Midwest have RR related names, now that I think about it.


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