Steam has been gone from the railroads for well over 60 years now. The majority of people living today have never seen steam locomotives in other than an occasional amusement role.
Yet, even today, whenever an adult interacts with a child concerning any kind of railroading , "choo-choo" is the operative word for "train ".
Why is this? It's hilarious to me to see an adult telling a kid to look at a diesel and call it a "Choo-choo." I remember when I was 5 or 6, insisting to call a train a "train."
Why does the steam engine image persist so? Tell us what you think.
What does "choo choo" have to do with steam? I was always under the impression that "choo choo" was referring to the sound the horns made.
Sid
That's a different way of looking at it.
In my experience it always meant steam. I was once years ago telling an older guy from India that I liked steam engines and he immediately smiled and said "ah yes, the old choo-choo's".
But, Good point. What does "choo-choo" mean to you?
chugga chugga chugga chugga chooooo chooooooo~
or wooooo woooooooo~
Although today, I guess it would be...
vvvvvvrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn braaaaaaap braaaaaaaap
The rails aren't as melodious as they used to be...
"Pardon me, boy. Is that the Chattanooga choo choo?"
To me it meant, "Choo.....Choo.....Choo....Choo....Choo...Choo...Choo..Choo..Choo.Choo.ChooChooChoo"
As in the sound of each puff of steam being released. It sounds like a sneeze - "ah choo" without the "ah".
I don't get the sense of 'choo-choo' until it's rolling. Starting out it sounds more like a 'pAkita-pAkita' to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyZn1JFYvWk
Len
Choo choo cha-boogie
Len - Kind of like Harley and "potato potato".
What I'm really thinking about is how the steam locomotive image is still so strong in our subconscious mind over 60 years since steam left mainline commerce in the US. A kid sees a train with a diesel , it's a choo choo. A kid draws a train, it's got a ballon stack and a cowcatcher. I travel a lot through small towns where the railroad might have been pulled up 60 or 70 years ago, and there very often is a mural on a building wall with a folk rendition of a steam engine.
Steam engines, long departed, are still very deep in our collective psyche, in a way that diesels can't be. Why is this? What do you think?
Four words: Thomas the Tank Engine.
Kids grow up with him, and all the other 'steamies' on television.
Len
Maybe that steam engines are intricate with lots of moving parts. It takes a degree of talent to even draw or paint a steam engine. You can actually see a lot of the parts that went into making one. You can see those parts functioning. Diesels are just boxes on wheels and that's all you see.
Kind of like cars. They used to be real works of art. Now, they are look alike boxes on wheels for the most part.
Thomas came much later and has helped some, but there are diesels on that show too.
The phenomenon I'm talking about is much deeper than kiddie level. Thomas isn't the reason all the steam engine murals are in the small towns, and kids draw ballon stacks and cowcatchers instead of 6 axle road diesels,
There are also the Western movies and TV shows that many of us grew up with. No diesels there.
Steam engine murals in small towns because they were exposed to steam before diesel. Many of those murals tend to depict things in the town's history.
It is true that in nearly if not all of 8 or 10 towns I've seen them in, the railroad has been gone for a very long time. That means that only the very oldest citizens actually remember the railroad there at all. The railroad and especially its steam engines persist very long and deep in our collective memory and psyche.
The original, not the current, Missouri and North Arkansas is a great example. Gone since 1948 and with only two depots I know of surviving, I counted 3 outside murals, 1 inside a restaurant, and a very fine for an amateur run museum. Not bad for something gone that long.
I grew up with steam in the UK until I left in 1966. Flew back in 1968 for the last four weeks of steam in August 1968. Of course, unlike North America, steam still thrives in the UK with dozens of preservation lines all owned by charitable "foundations", unlike North American where the few steam lines are predominately privately owned.
Cheers
When I was very young in the early sixties my parents and I went to Oldenzaal near the German border.
There you could still see German steam locomotives switching cars destined for the Dutch railways.
Those were my first impressions of live steam.
The Dutch railways company already switched to diesel and electricity.
The war had a devastating effect on steam.
Nearly all locomotives, cars and infrastructure had been bombed into oblivion by the allies.
The nearest "preserved"railroad (tramway) is situated near Ouddorp And runs over one of the massive sea defenses between the provinces of Zuid holland and Zeeland.
It is called the RTM (Rotterdamse Tramweg Maatschappij) Rotterdam tramway company.
It used to run from Rotterdam to the Zeeland islands but shutdown in the early sixties.
After been scared away in Hellevoetsluis it was invited to set up camp near Ouddorp.
There you can see original diesel and steam being operated again.
Ton
People my age (70) and older remember US steam with some clarity.
In the early 50 s both the T&NO and the MP were both seriously still in steam back home in Louisiana. The T&NO mainline to Houston ran through and a little branchline turned off to the south to serve a salt mine and some rice growing communities. I remember what I know now to have been 2-8-2s and 2-10-2s on through freights with early T&NO cupola cabooses. I also remember what I know now to have been moguls being readied for branch freights and taking them out of town.
The MP was a branchline that came down from the old NOT&M main 50 miles north. It did a lot of street running serving a large variety of local customers. I well remember what I know now to have been ten wheelers and exceptionally light 2-8-0's going up and down the streets with locals and cuts of cars for warehouses. I also recall seeing mainline MP steam 3 or 4 times on the NOT&M, once in a fabulous pace in the car.
I also have the classic memory of distant steam whistles in the night and on high summer afternoons.
I wouldn't trade these well polished old memories for the world . And.... for all of that ... even then I remember insisting to other kids that I liked "trains ", not "choo-choos".
trainman, you were about like me. When I loved in NJ on the NJC branch ran three trains a day. One mixed freight, a coal run, and a local. All I knew was the that the first train had a helper. All of which were big engines. the local had a small engine. After moving to Okla. I began to learn what locomotives were what. The big locomotives on the CNJ were 2-8-2s while the small locomotive was a 4-8-0 CB. The train with the helper had mixed loads and empties, while the coal run was all empties.
In the new kalmbach book "Steam's Lost Empire" is a long article about a cab ride in a camelback.
Lots of articles about old time steam hoggers, they all wore classic striped caps but I guarantee you that none of them were yelling "choo-choo!" while they were trying to beat a 2 percent in a 2-10-2 trailing 100 cars, doing 10 mph at best with the sanders on full, with a rookie fireman shoveling green coal. No sir! Their language was much more "colorful!" Coming around a cigar stub between clenched teeth! Bygone men from bygone times.
God forbid you smoke in the workplace nowadays... Or cuss.
I was on a fan trip as part of the CRHA crew behind CNR 4-8-4 No. 6218 back in the early 1970s from Montreal to Portland Me., I think it was. We stopped at Berlin so the local fire department could top up the tender. We let some local kids on board and they were surprised to see seats in the passenger cars. One of the boys ran to an open door and shouted "Mom dad, there's seats in here!" They'd never seen a passenger train before. Freight only was all that now passed through Berlin.
Cheers.
I was working back in the open window coaches of a steam excursion 30 years ago. A blizzard of soot and cinders blew in the windows. A little girl said, "Mom, it's raining black snow!" 😂😂😂😂
Much easier for a small child learning to talk to teach them the word "Choo" "Choo" over the word Train! I don't think it will ever go away. Even without Thomas the Train and such, just easier. Kinda of like "potty", over "toilet, and other words they learn as kid's! I would also think it translates in different languages but I am not sure about that. Do children in different countries call them a "Choo" "Choo" or something else?
Interesting conversation!
Maybe so, but my daddy, born in 1906 and of the generation that knew the railroad as the heroic builder of the nation, never called a train a choo choo even when I was 4 or 5. I remember even at that age yelling at other kids to quit calling trains choo-choos.
Steam's been gone nearly 70 years. Most people have never seen a working steam engine. Yet they keep telling their kids that a train is a choo-choo. Back to the original question: why?🤔. And why this emoticon 🚂? With a balloon stack and cowcatcher. Instead of an ACxyzblahblahblah or whatever they call those new engines.