European Train Names: a Historic Outline Christian Weyers
ONOMÀSTICA BIBLIOTECA TÈCNICA DE POLÍTICA LINGÜÍSTICA European Train Names: a Historic Outline* Christian Weyers DOI: 10.2436/15.8040.01.201 Abstract This paper gives a first overview of the onomastic category of train names, searches to classify the corpus and reviews different stages of their productivity. Apart from geographical names (toponyms, choronyms, compass directions) generally indicating points of origin and destination of the trains in question, a considerable number of personal names have entered this category, of classical literary authors, musicians and scientists, but also of many fictional or non-fictional characters taken from literature or legendary traditions. In some cases also certain symbolic attributes of these persons and finally even heraldic figures have given their names to trains. In terms of their functionality, train names originally were an indicator of exclusiveness and high grade of travel quality, but they developed gradually, as they dispersed over the European continent, into a rather unspecific, generalized appellation, also for regional and local trains. After two periods of prosperity after 1950, the privatisation of railway companies starting in the 1990s had again a very positive effect on the category, as the number of named trains initially reached a new record in this decade. ***** The first train names appeared in England in the 1860s in addition to names for steam locomotives, and on two different levels. The Special Scotch Express between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh (inaugurated in 1862) was called by the public The Flying Scotsman from the 1870s, but it succeeded as the official name not before 1924. Also the names of the German diesel trainsets Der Fliegende Hamburger and Der Fliegende Kölner were colloquial name creations, as were the Train Bleu and the Settebello operated from 1922 and 1953 but officially named in 1947 and 1958, respectively.
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