Swedish Rail Firm Approves Trainy McTrainface As Name Following Online Poll (theguardian.com)

Those disappointed when Britain rejected the name Boaty McBoatface for a polar research ship should find joy in the name of a new train in Sweden. After a public vote, a Swedish rail operator has vowed to name one of its trains Trainy McTrainface. The Guardian reports: Trainy McTrainface won 49% of the votes in the naming competition, conducted online by train operator MTR Express and Swedish newspaper Metro, beating choices such as Hakan, Miriam and Poseidon. The train will run between the Swedish capital Stockholm and Gothenburg, the country's second-biggest city. MTR said another train had been voted to be named "Glenn," an apparent tribute to an IFK Gothenburg soccer team of the 1980s that featured four players of that name -- uncommon in Sweden -- including Glenn Hysen, who later captained Liverpool.

Comments

Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

What a monumental waste of time/resources....

Re: Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're vastly over estimating the time and resources that likely went into this... which is value at around 3 squares of toilet paper and half a cigarette.

Re: Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

do you have any idea how much cigarettes cost in sweden ?

Re:Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome to meat sack land. There's things you'll enjoy like twinkies and things you won't, like seemingly unrelated consequences.

Re: Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

I've heard when you buy 2 cartons they throw in a white virgin, usually female.

Re: Jesus

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd give away my virgins, too. Keep the sluts to myself.

We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we actually need to name trains? Also do we need articles on Train names? On slashdot?

Re:We are naming trains now?

[quenda]

I think they mean "locomotive", rather than train. A bad translation.

We have been naming locomotives ever since Rocket .
It follows the precedent of naming ships.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[MightyYar]

Trains hate it when you anthropomorphize them.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[ma1wrbu5tr]

Thomas resents your remark.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Roger W Moore]

He was an engine, not a train, as in "Thomas the Tank Engine".

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Aye, he was a tank engine. I knew him well. Those big dumb eyes and that sorrowful whistle, all the Republicans fell into victimstance.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

How many definitions of "train" can you find? A train that runs on a track, a train of gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator, a train that trails a bride's gown, etc.

But clearly, Thomas wasn't a tank. Isn't English a fun language?

Re:We are naming trains now?

[chipschap]

This is the sort of thing that /. thinks is essential news nowadays.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[BlueStrat]

Trains hate it when you anthropomorphize them.

Only when you're;

Drivin' that train

High on cocaine

Casey Jones you better watch your speed

Trouble ahead, trouble behind

And you know that notion just crossed my mind

-- 'Casey Jones' by Grateful Dead

Strat

Re:We are naming trains now?

[amalcolm]

A tank engine is so named because it has an integrated water tank, as opposed to a tender. There were typically used for short routes as they could carry less fuel/water than a 'mainline' locomotive with a tender for water and coal.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[bickerdyke]

Trains hate it when you anthropomorphize them.

If I was a train, I would hate that, too. At least after seeing "Starlight Express"

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

A separate locomotive in a passenger train? That hasn't been common for half a century or so. If you had bothered to look at TFA, you would have seen the video showing it's a normal integrated train.

Re: We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sadly, Locomotivey McLocomotiveface was one of the rejected names.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[mjwx]

Do we actually need to name trains? Also do we need articles on Train names? On slashdot?

There are a lot of things we dont need on public transport... but being able to call it Trainy McTrainface is a lot nicer than British Rail Class 458. This makes for nicer journies in Europe where intercity trains are a common form of transport.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[enrique556]

It illustrates the broader effects of the internet age - silly names for public infrastructure are the tip of the iceberg. You could also argue that extremism (of varying types) is a symptom of the internet age, for the same reason: society behaves very differently in aggregate when we don't have to put our faces to our opinions. So yes this article belongs on slashdot.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[squiggleslash]

The train pictured doesn't have a locomotive, it appears to be a multiple unit, probably an EMU. (Multiple units are trains where one or more cars are self propelled.)

Re:We are naming trains now?

[MightyYar]

A really _useful_ engine.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Hognoxious]

Philistine!

# Good morning, America, how are you?
  Don't you know me, I'm your native son...

Re: We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheldon would be very dissapointed if they did not cover trains.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

In the US Amtrak still uses separate cars.

http://imgarcade.com/amtrak-train-car-exterior.html

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it will be shortened to "Trainy", the whole name is too long.

Re:We are naming trains now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Amtrak by any chance run by avid steampuk enthusiasts?

Ok, yes, that's funny

[blind biker]

especially since the Brits didn't go with the winning "Boat McBoatface". In this instance, Sweden beats Britain :)

Re: Ok, yes, that's funny

[Anonymous Coward]

It was not the Brits, it was us canadians, Boaty McBoatface. Don't take away our pride :-)

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[msauve]

I've tried to search (go ahead and call me a Googletard, but I don't think that's it), but where did this whole "Xy McXface" meme begin? It predates the boaty thing, doesn't it?

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[Anonymous Coward]

where did this whole "Xy McXface" meme begin?

This rich tradition goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks, who commonly called one of their mathematicians Archimedey McArchimedesface. Ever since then, it's been applied to all kinds of things, including the well known Augustus Ceasary McCeasarface, and Alexander Graham Belly McBellface.

And who could forget the much talked about European Uniony McUnionface? Then to lead into your question, the subject of our story Trainy McTrainface is a humorous take-off on the beloved John Coltraney McColtraneface.

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[David_Hart]

I've tried to search (go ahead and call me a Googletard, but I don't think that's it), but where did this whole "Xy McXface" meme begin? It predates the boaty thing, doesn't it?

However it started, it needs to end. It's like speaking baby gibberish as an adult. Every time I see or hear this meme I think of Idiocracy...

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[91degrees]

Probably From Blackadder. "Madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of last year's Mr. Madman competition"

Re: Ok, yes, that's funny

[Anonymous Coward]

The first sentence was enough.

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[rtb61]

I think people are reacting at societies being run all too seriously, to harsh and they a looking for the lighter side of life. I would take that vote as being a canary in a mine, government better lighten the fuck up on the people or the people will harden the fuck up on government https://www.youtube.com/watch?.... Don't whine about government, work to change it.

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[Anonymous Coward]

How about the lazy people who are "stakeholders" in the project that tender the naming of their person, place, or thing to anonymous people on the internet with no controls or forethought? If that stops, the inane naming problem will resolve itself.

Re:Ok, yes, that's funny

[SuiteSisterMary]

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/...

Re: Ok, yes, that's funny

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no "lighter side" anymore. There is only the Surveillance State, grim and fiercely determined to keep everybody in line. There are lowering wages, widespread unemployment, rising cost of living and taxes through the roof. There is nothing to be happy about it and nothing we can do about it either. We're about to plunge into the most horrible and miserable age mankind has ever known with no end in sight and no hope. Even thinking about a "lighter side" should be a capital crime.

The Transport of Choice for

[Anonymous Coward]

Rapey McRapeface?

Yet more proof

[Anonymous Coward]

The myth of human progress. The collective age of humanity is still about 7 years old.

And I'm being generous.

LOL@vword: observer

Re:Yet more proof

[Anonymous Coward]

Eleven actually. At least for Americans.

How do I know ? Heard it from the mouth of a guy that used to write speeches for G.W. Bush. It is a well known and accepted fact among political speech writers that the mental age of the average voter is about eleven, Vocabulary, grammar and semantics must be adjusted accordingly.

Glenn

[Anonymous Coward]

Glenn is more likely also a gag name, since it's a stereotypical name of men from Gothenburg.

Re:Glenn

[Anonymous Coward]

I once met a man from Gothenburg who was name Martin but everyone called him Leather-Glenn, I do not know why.

Re: Glenn

[Jesus H Rolle]

I once met a Gothenburg man, Who had an incredible tan. His mom said Martin, We said Leather Glenn, And last year he did buy a toucan.

Re:Glenn

[Zontar The Mindless]

Say what? "Glenn" isn't even a Swedish name. You're probably thinking of the 4 Glenns Era of the Gothenburg football club.

Re:Glenn

[beowulfcluster]

Everyone in Gothenburg is named Glenn. There's even a song about that.

Re:Glenn

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. It's a running joke that men from Gothenburg are named Glenn. They are probably part of the origin of that joke however.

Until today I didn't know IFK Gothenborg had 4 Glenns in the team, makes sense though the team is from Gothenburg.

People like to name things.

[Kernel Kurtz]

Planes, trains, automobiles.

Titanic, Enola Gay, Hindenburg, Atlantis, General Lee.........

I thought Boaty McBoatface was a really good name actually. It really does look like a scaled up children's toy.

Re:People like to name things.

[DontBeAMoran]

Planes, trains, automobiles.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a 1987 American comedy film written, produced and directed by John Hughes.

Re:People like to name things.

[Zontar The Mindless]

With Steve Martin and John Candy. Good holiday viewing.

Re:People like to name things.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention, imagine the eventual NOVA episode from the research,

Come join the crew of the Boaty McBoatface as they plumb the depths of...

Re:People like to name things.

[sysrammer]

I thought it pretty hilarious, too. And, can you imagine the interest that research ship would have garnered on its missions.

Fwiw, I can't remember what they ended up calling the ship, something grand like "Intrepid" or whatever. I don't remember the name, and I don't know where it is, and I don't know what it's doing.

OTOH, we have a somewhat run-of-the-mill submersible. I know more about that craft than the research ship. I know more about what it is doing.

I think the institution that ran the survey, then ignored its results, missed a good bet. The research ship could have gotten quite a good following.

But, hey, subs are cool too. What's in a name? A Rosey McRoseface by any other name would smell as sweet.

Re:People like to name things.

[sysrammer]

Just the concept makes me laugh: "a traveling salesman who sells shower curtain rings".

Re:People like to name things.

[DontBeAMoran]

"Before the Internet" was a very different world.

Another bold step...

[easyTree]

...towards democracy :D

No, train

[Roger W Moore]

No, they mean train since the Guardian is an English newspaper. I'm not sure what you call a collection of carriages with integrated engines in American but in English, it is definitely a train. Technically I believe it is an Electrical Multiple Unit train but I'll leave that to the experts to debate.

Re:No, train

[_merlin]

Yeah, it's an "electric multiple unit trainset" if you want to be specific, but that can be shortened to "EMU train" or just "EMU", and it's still a "trainset" or "train" if you don't want to specify the type.

Re:No, train

[quenda]

How can you name a train? A train is an ephemeral object - they come and go as carriages are added and removed.

Ah, googling I see they may mean "train route" names:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

These are specific regular journeys identified by a special name in the timetable, not to be confused with the names of engines or individual physical train rakes. One-off charter or sporadic special trains are not included.

Is Sweden the same?
So these are names that go on a timetable or station departure board, not on a brass plaque on the physical locomotive?

Re:No, train

[Roger W Moore]

How can you name a train?

Some modern trains are more integrated than the old model of an engine plus carriages. This allows them to have larger, flexible connections between the rigid carriages than the narrow corridors which can be more easily decoupled. The cost is that these wider connections are more permanent. I expect that they could be disconnected in a major service but certainly not on a day-to-day basis. Hence a 'train' is far less ephemeral than it used to be especially when the article mentions they only have four of them.

Re: No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

> How can you name a train?

Apparently you don't understand women. They always want to commemorate special occasions, celebrate anniversaries, etc.

What better occasion to name and commemorate than when they dropped their pants and let a series of dudes have at it?

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you name a train? A train is an ephemeral object - they come and go as carriages are added and removed.

The first know writing of your concern is 2000 years old.
As the Wikipedia article points out this comes down to the definition of "same".
It is a pretty interesting subject because once you dive down into it you will find that philosophy is a much more "serious" subject than you (probably) believe.
What you know as mathematics is only applied philosophy and the foundation it rests on, like commutation and equality is something defined in philosophy.

Another take on it:
How can you name a person?
During its lifetime every cell and atom is replaced. After a couple of decades everything in it is replaced.
How can you call it the same person?

The answer would often be that it isn't the matter that matters but the configuration of it.

Re:No, train

[tehcyder]

How can you name a train? A train is an ephemeral object - they come and go as carriages are added and removed.

There appears to be a more limited use of the word "train" for US readers. In British English, you can use train to refer either to the whole locomotive-plus-carriages, or just the locomotive.

Here in the UK, most people would say that (for instance) the "Flying Scotsman" was a train.

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

The overwhelming majority of passenger trains consist of a fixed and integrated set of carriages.

Re:No, train

[quenda]

The overwhelming majority of passenger trains consist of a fixed and integrated set of carriages.

You'll have to excuse me: I'm Australian. That only applies to suburban commuter trains on electric lines here. Our few intercity trains still uses diesel-electric locomotives. (Like Americans, we prefer to drive or fly.)
And of course, most trains are freight trains. I think you will find similar applies to much of the world outside Europe. Are all European intercity rail lines electrified?

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

It depends a bit on the country. Generally, every railway line that carries a significant amount of traffic is electrified. Some countries are fully electrified (e.g. Switzerland), others still have sizeable stretches of rural railways without overhead wires. Those rarely carry intercity trains, though. Having to use separate diesel material for intercity trains would probably make electrification economically worthwile.

Re:No, train

[Zontar The Mindless]

In Stockholm, each subway car is individually named--the name is painted on the exterior of the car. Can't recall off the top of my head whether they do the same for cross-country trains, or whether they just name the locomotives.

Re:No, train

[squiggleslash]

You can remove the timbers from a boat and replace them, that doesn't mean you can't name the boat! But for what it's worth, trains aren't broken up as often as you might think - typically once a train is on a route it stays the same consist for years. If the train is a DMU or EMU, then it usually stays as that consist for its entire life.

The other problem with your assumption is that the word "train" can differ depending on context. If I say "I'm taking the train to New York tonight", and you say "Oh, which one?", am I providing the most obvious answer if I say "Well, the one lead by locomotive 40126", or "The 6.23, I guess I better be at the station by quarter past six!"

Trains are named according to multiple criteria: a train can be a physical item, such as a trainset or just "Any train with this locomotive"; but a train can refer to the marketing of a specific timetabled route: for example, the US has lots of "named trains" like the Silver Star and the Texas Eagle.

I hope this makes sense,

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in the UK, most people would say that (for instance) the "Flying Scotsman" was a train.

Wait, you send some Scot ass over teakettle, god forbid wearing a kilt, and that's a train?

Re:No, train

[Hognoxious]

A less hoity-toity example would be Trigger's broom.

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

Except of course that the configuration changes at least as frequently as the matter itself. So then you go down to the mind, but the mind similarly is in a constant state of change, so then you start calling it "consciousness", but consciousness is a funny thing, because it has no sense of time or space (that comes from the mind), and worse it can't even exist in an empirical model (you can measure responses to stimuli, but not whether or not something has a consciousness or is merely acting out preprogrammed behavior, for instance).

This is where things start to get complicated if you insist on clinging desperately to identity as a concept...

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

A locomotive is the vehicle which pulls the train. It is not the train itself.

Re:No, train

[Anonymous Coward]

Is Sweden the same?
So these are names that go on a timetable or station departure board, not on a brass plaque on the physical locomotive?

Would love if it was... "Trainy McTrainface is now arriving at track 4"..
But no... They just have numbers that show up on the boards..

Re:No, train

[Godwin O'Hitler]

A train needn't be a specific piece of hardware, whether it be a locomotive or the whole thing.
"The Flying Scotsman" was the name of a daily train that ran for many years in Britain from London to Edinburgh.
Or at least everyone called it a train; but in reality, it was the name of a timetable entry.

Tranny McTransrace

[Anonymous Coward]

Tranny McTransrace: The Genderfluid Sharia-Powered Engine

Since he wasn't mentioned yet ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I propose a vote to rename the POTUS to "Trumpy McTrumpface".

Things could escalate quickly!

[LordHighExecutioner]

Sweden will soon be renamed into Swedy McSwedface, and so on...

Posted on Slashdottyy McSlashdotface

Re:Things could escalate quickly!

[Anonymous Coward]

Muhammad McAllahFace more likely...

Re:Things could escalate quickly!

[Anonymous Coward]

Featuring brief interludes from Snowy McSnowface: https://youtu.be/SlepmpoPf9A

Re:Things could escalate quickly!

[Anonymous Coward]

Kim Kardashian's butt is now known as Assy McAssface.

Re:Things could escalate quickly!

[CaptnCrud]

The Mcassheads

Börk

[Anonymous Coward]

Börk, börk börk. BÖRK! Börk.

Sense of Humor

[StormReaver]

This just goes to show that the Swedes have a sense of humor that is lacking in Britain.

Re:Sense of Humor

[Anonymous Coward]

I've never really wanted to leave my beloved 'Murica to travel abroad, but the opportunity to ride Trainy McTrainface in Sweden has piqued my interest and the idea brought a smile to my face.

Well played Sweden. Well played.

Cooperation

[Tenebrousedge]

I'm glad peoples in different countries can show signs of unity on such important topics. /s

This is awesome. This is exactly what the Internet should be :)