Transition from "In <location name>" from "at <location name>

[NW Mailing List]

My take is on a railroad, a location is a specific point. You can either be at that location or not at that location. So even today, the first example is correct on a railroad. If the line still operated by timetable and change order and I received a train order to meet another train IN Chillicothe, I’d ask to have the order clarified as to where exactly in Chillicothe I was supposed to meet that other train. As for the second, the style of writing by railroad people probably just carried through to general writing.


-- 
Larry Stone
lstone19 at stonejongleux.com





> On May 30, 2023, at 11:33 AM, NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Oops, I sent the below to the wrong mailing list (modeling instead of the main list). 
> 
> From: Matt Goodman <mgoodman312 at icloud.com>
> Subject: Transition from "In <location name>" from "at <location name>
> Date: May 30, 2023 at 2:26:40 PM EDT
> To: nw modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
> 
> My father has a fat library of literature and magazines from bygone days. I’ve noticed that older industry writings typically used “at” to reference cities / towns the railroad passed through. Here’s an example from a 1926 employee magazine:
> 
> The eastbound crossing frog at Chillicothe with the Chillicothe Street Railway has been taken out and straight rails put in. 
> 
> We extend to Floyd Mann, chief clerk, at this station, our sincere sympathy in the loss of his father, who died at Gahanna, O.,
> 
> If I wrote that sentence today, I would say “in Chillicothe” and “in Gahanna”. 
> 
> When / why did that change? Is that type of structure unique to railroads? Or is this a shift in how the language is used more generally?
> 
> Matt Goodman
> Columbus, Ohio, US
> 
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