Kettles, Shacks and Pax

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

I'm curious to know why for much of what I read on this forum a steam engine has become a kettle, a station has become a shack and passengers have become pax! Is this just a case of posters being lazy or are there other reasons that I'm not aware of?

Have a great weekend everyone

Richmond Commuter

 

[Minilad]

Kettles have been kettles for as long as I have had an interest in the railway

 

[Oswyntail]

If you speak the language of the group,you feel you are accepted by the group. "Pax" is particularly irritating, as it is usually used to sneer at the general public; likewise "kettles" is used by those dunderheads who prefer "clag" and "thrash".

 

[bb21]

What is wrong with "pax"? As for sneering, AFAIK it is just a shorthand for "passengers", without any special connotation.

 

[Minilad]

Pax is used a lot within the travel industry so I don't think it's sneering.
Some people don't like steam as it's a generational thing. I was brought up on diesel and electric so I prefer them. Nothing to do with being a dunderhead

 

[RichmondCommu]

Some people don't like steam as it's a generational thing. I was brought up on diesel and electric so I prefer them. Nothing to do with being a dunderhead

I'm not so sure that it's a generational think though. I was born in 1966 so have no recollection of steam and I was a keen spotter in the mid 1970's to early 1980's before I lost interest. However the only thing that interests me nowadays is steam.
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What is wrong with "pax"? As for sneering, AFAIK it is just a shorthand for "passengers", without any special connotation.

In terms of pax I'm not personally suggesting that there is anything wrong with it but it would be interesting if a guard addressed his / her passengers as "pax".

 

[cf111]

I thought that "pax" was airline industry terminology that had just been appropriated on to the railways, don't see it as sneering. Now "self loading freight"...

 

[bb21]

In terms of pax I'm not personally suggesting that there is anything wrong with it but it would be interesting if a guard addressed his / her passengers as "pax".

That wasn't aimed at you. It was aimed at the comment about the sneering connotation, as I am certainly not aware of such implications. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

 

[RichmondCommu]

That wasn't aimed at you. It was aimed at the comment about the sneering connotation, as I am certainly not aware of such implications. Maybe someone can enlighten me.

No worries

In all fairness though I'm not sure that too many travelers would take too kindly to being openly described as "pax"

 

[Spamcan81]

Kettles have been kettles for as long as I have had an interest in the railway

The term kettle seems to be a relatively modern term for steam locos. When I started spotting the generic term was "steamer" although individual classes had their nicknames. Can't say I recall hearing the term kettle until the late 90s.
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If you speak the language of the group,you feel you are accepted by the group. "Pax" is particularly irritating, as it is usually used to sneer at the general public; likewise "kettles" is used by those dunderheads who prefer "clag" and "thrash".

"Clag" and "thrash" are terms that have been around a long, long time and not confined to the diesel community either.

 

[Minilad]

The term kettle seems to be a relatively modern term for steam locos. When I started spotting the generic term was "steamer" although individual classes had their nicknames. Can't say I recall hearing the term kettle until the late 90s.
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"Clag" and "thrash" are terms that have been around a long, long time and not confined to the diesel community either.

I started in the late 70s and we certainly called steam engines kettles then. maybe it was just us Brummies!!

 

[yorksrob]

Wasn't there a famous cartoon from the early railway years which depicted one of the first locomotives as a kettle!

 

[bb21]

No worries

In all fairness though I'm not sure that too many travelers would take too kindly to being openly described as "pax"

I don't think it was ever intended for use in any slightly more formal and/or professional context. "Pax" is also an odd word to communicate verbally.

For example, if I read a report from control, or am compiling one myself, the term will creep in a lot, simply because it saves time, is natural with finger movements on keyboards, and every little thing helps in our busy schedules.

 

[Minilad]

Pax is definitely a written thing rather than a verbal one. I've never heard train crew calling passengers "Pax" there are plenty of other words for them!!
But it does creep into written reports often enough

 

[Spamcan81]

I started in the late 70s and we certainly called steam engines kettles then. maybe it was just us Brummies!!

Late 70s? Beginner!

 

[Johnuk123]

I caught the last 2 or 3 years of steam as a very young schoolboy and the only thing we called them were Steam, never Steamers, never ever Kettles.

 

[Oswyntail]

Oh dear, I seem to have put my foot in it. I have only ever come across the term "pax" on threads here, being a bit of a recluse. It struck me right from the beginning that it was being used either to describe passengers as irritants to rail staff, or to seem genned up by wannabe rail staff. Perhaps its meaning has evolved in recent years.

 

[bb21]

It is not being used in that way, you can rest assured.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

I caught the last 2 or 3 years of steam as a very young schoolboy and the only thing we called them were Steam, never Steamers, never ever Kettles.

Roughly the same time as me, then...yes, we only ever called them 'steam' but the other form of traction were 'smellies'!

 

[g4mby]

Pax is definitely a written thing rather than a verbal one.

Widely used by travel agents to report the number of passengers booked as opposed to the number of bookings made since a booking can be and usually is for more than one passenger.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Pax is definitely a written thing rather than a verbal one. I've never heard train crew calling passengers "Pax" there are plenty of other words for them!!
But it does creep into written reports often enough

When I was in my very much younger days in the 1950's when I was in the Classics stream at St Bede's College, Manchester, the word "pax" often cropped up in both my Latin studies and in the church services that I attended.

I think that we have a well respected forum member with the username of Pax Vobiscum, to which on seeing it, I always mentally make the response of "Et cum spiritu tuo."

 

[Oswyntail]

When I was in my very much younger days in the 1950's when I was in the Classics stream at St Bede's College, Manchester, the word "pax" often cropped up in both my Latin studies and in the church services that I attended.

I think that we have a well respected forum member with the username of Pax Vobiscum, to which on seeing it, I always mentally make the response of "Et cum spiritu tuo."

I, being of a more cynical mind, always remember "ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant" (Where they create desolation, they call it "Pax")