Glade Configuration

[NW Mailing List]

>From the word detective web site:

?Shoo-fly? meaning ?temporary bypass? first appeared in railroad jargon around 1905. The logic of this use is unclear, but I think it?s significant that around the same time ?shoo-fly? was also being used to mean ?a local or commuter train.? My guess is that such trains, traveling slowly with frequent stops, were considered a rustic or ?hick? mode of travel, likely to be carrying as many flies as human travelers (requiring passengers to constantly ?shoo flies?). Perhaps the ?shoo-fly? name then broadened to mean bypasses from the main line where trains would have to slow down and, eventually, to any sort of bypass, even on a highway. In any case, your use of ?shoo-fly? in this sense is clearly an extension of the railroad use more than 100 years old, and your friend should thank you for expanding her vocabulary.
 
Kurt S. Kramke


On 11/21/12, NW Mailing List wrote:





I always understod a "shoo-fly" to be a temporary track laid around a wreck site or a wash out. By its nature, it had undesirable curves compared to the permanent right of way, and the expectation was that it would eventually disappear when the permanent right of way was restored. Why the term "shoo-fly" I never asked. I just knew this was what the term referred to.



Jim Nichols




From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wed, November 21, 2012 12:27:40 PM
Subject: Re: Glade Configuration







Can some of the old-timers explain to us newbies why it is called a "shoo-fly"?

I would like to hear the explanation. 

Many thanks.

Rick Huddle

Delaware



----- Original Message ----- 

From: NW Mailing List 

To: NW Mailing List 

Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 9:00 PM

Subject: Glade Configuration


I difer to others for the reason the shoo-fly exists at Glade Spring but here is a shot made this afternoon showing the convolutions. 




Mike Pierry,Jr.________________________________________
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