LETTERS: RAILROADING TERMS HAVE INTERESTING HISTORY

To the editor:

I read with great interest Donna Bedwell's excellent article on changes in railroading in Southeast Missouri. She mentioned that no one she talked to could tell her the reason that when a railroad crew reaches its maximum number of hours of service it is called "hogging." Perhaps I can add some insight.

The term hogging, also known as being hogged or going dead on the law, refers back to a time when railroads carried livestock. There were regulations regarding the number of hours livestock, particularly swine, could be locked up in railroad stock cars without water and exercise. Stock lots existed all over the country which acted as rest stops. The original hog law was really aimed at pigs.

At some point, railroad engineers also became known as hoggers (whether this was related to hauling pigs, I don't know). As unions negotiated work rules for railroad crews, length of service without rest was of utmost importance. Length of service for hoggers thus became a hog law.

Railroads carry precious little in the way of livestock these days, but the term remains for railroad employees. If you listen in on railroad radio communications, you will often hear dispatchers asking train crews when they "hog" or "go dead on the law."

WALT LILLY

Cape Girardeau