Jump to content
Wiktionary The Free Dictionary

stack talk

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit ]

Etymology

[edit ]
Smoke rising from the stack or chimney of a steam locomotive in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The sound made by the puffing stack when the locomotive is in operation is called "stack talk".

From stack (noun) +‎ talk (noun). Stack is a clipping of smokestack ("conduit atop a structure (such as a steam locomotive) allowing smoke to flow out").

Pronunciation

[edit ]

Noun

[edit ]

stack talk (uncountable )

  1. (US , rail transport , slang ) The sound made by the exhaust of a steam locomotive.
    • 1956, Railway Progress, volume 10, Cleveland, Oh.; Washington, D.C.: Federation for Railway Progress, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 23:
      [...] Father [Clement C.] Kubesh began making long dashes after trains to insure the correct pitch of sound or the proper placing of his car for the approach of a locomotive. He soon had recorded the "stack talk" of every type of locomotive on the Great Northern, Chicago and North Western, Northern Pacific and Union Pacific.
    • 1956 October, "Railroad Hobby Club", in Freeman [H.] Hubbard, editor, Railroad Magazine: The Magazine of Adventurous Railroading , volume 67, number 6, Canton, Oh.: Popular Publications, →OCLC, page 80, columns 1–2:
      [T]he priest [Clement C. Kubesh] makes highly stylized recordings of train sounds. [...] To him, every steam engine whistle has a recognizable quality and each puffing stack has its own "talk." [...] One October, Father Kubesh spotted a potato warehouse about a quarter-mile from Drayton, N.D., on the Northern Pacific. Plugging in his recorder, he caught No. 13, a passenger train, and recorded the whistle, stack talk, and bell, while the train was rounding a bend and while rushing by the warehouse.
    • 2022, "Norfolk & Western 611—On Home Rails—Train Blu-Ray", in A-Trains.com‎[1] , Greenwood, Ind., archived from the original on 24 February 2025:
      Enjoy the action as this giant 4-8-4 steam locomotive pulls heavy passenger trains over Christianburg Grade and Blue Ridge Grade. [...] Highlights include [...] Long, heavy trains with great stack talk
      Description of a video recording of a train journey.

Translations

[edit ]
sound made by the exhaust of a steam locomotive

AltStyle によって変換されたページ (->オリジナル) /