Naming
A Clocker was originally a Pennsylvania Railroad express train between New York and Broad Street Station in Philadelphia. Soon after Penn Station opened in 1910 the Philadelphia expresses began leaving each terminal on the hour, giving rise to the name (which the railroad itself seems never to have used). Until electrification in 1933 most Clockers were scheduled to leave and arrive on each hour; on a weekday in 1929 trains left each terminal from 7 AM to 10 PM. (Reading/CNJ had the same two-hour schedule between Philadelphia and the Liberty St ferry in downtown Manhattan; their trains ran 7 AM to 6 PM.) Faster schedules after electrification eliminated the on-the-hour arrival. In 1951 weekday Clockers left Philadelphia and New York 7 AM to 7 PM.
Amtrak did not use the term "clocker" until the October 1981 timetable. Between 1979 and 1981 the public timetable showed individual names for each Clocker. The Clockers briefly were called Acela Commuter when Amtrak decided in 2001 to use that moniker for most trains along the Northeast Corridor. Following mass rider confusion between this service and the high-speed Acela Express service, the name reverted to Clocker in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Clocker (train)
Famous quotes containing the word naming:
“The night is itself sleep
And what goes on in it, the naming of the wind,
Our notes to each other, always repeated, always the same.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Husband,
who am I to reject the naming of foods
in a time of famine?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“See, see where Christ’s blood streams in the firmament!
One drop would save my soul—half a drop! ah, my Christ!—
Ah, rend not my heart for naming of my Christ!—
Yet will I call on him!—O, spare me, Lucifer!—
Where is it now? ‘T is gone; and see where God
Stretcheth out his arm, and bends his ireful brows!—
Mountains and hills, come, come and fall on me,
And hide me from the heavy wrath of God!”
—Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593)