A trip to the California State Railroad Museum has Grant musing about the way language can change in the mouth of a single individual— in this case, railroad conductors. He recommends a collection of sound files from metros and subways around the world. For different type of stroll down mem’ry lane, check out Mel Blanc’s version of a train conductor here. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Railroad Conductor Language”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.
And I’m Grant Barrett.
You know, Martha, this past weekend I went to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.
It’s a great fun. It’s the shape of a roundhouse, massive trains.
And while I was there, I was with the family and cousins and the like,
I heard something that really just struck me as perfect.
It’s a kind of language that I think is mostly gone now, but I think most Americans will recognize it.
It’s the sound of a train conductor calling out the stops for a train as you’re boarding.
He’s listing off the cities that this train is going to visit, and then he tells you to climb aboard.
But what happens is he says it in a particular way.
It’s like the peanut vendors at Yankee Stadium.
I’m just kind of making this up because I don’t remember his exact wording,
But it was something like San Francisco, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Los Angeles, born.
Like that.
Very nice.
And, you know, just list the cities because this is the, you know, you’re getting on the train.
It’s the start of the route, right?
And these are the cities that it’s going to visit, you know.
And, of course, you can’t talk about this without mentioning Mel Blanc and his joking train conductor.
But that’s kind of the thing that I’m remembering, you know.
Anaheim, Azusa, and Cucamonga.
All aboard!
And he doesn’t say all aboard.
He says board.
He just kind of corrupts it.
And what really struck me about it,
Besides the fact that it’s got this just,
There’s something kind of beautiful about it,
What really struck me is that it’s a really perfect micro example
Of how language changes in the mouth of one person.
He says this thing so many times and so often
That it’s not all aboard anymore.
It’s bored.
Or it’s even just bore, you know, without the D and the all.
It’s all kind of gone.
But you know what he’s saying because of the circumstances, the environment, the things that you’re expecting him to say.
It was just kind of beautiful.
Yeah, it’s really lyrical.
Although I remember the first time I used to take the train from New York City to Poughkeepsie on a regular basis to go to school.
And the first time I came up from the South and heard them saying,
I had no idea where we were going.
You know, people get so used to hearing it that it’s really jarring the first time you do hear it
Because you’re listening for the names of towns and you don’t recognize them.
Right.
Well, all aboard!
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