West Penn Today - The back Line

[Edward H. Lybarger]

I think I just said two conflicting things.  Please delete 'or "Railways"'
from the first line of the message below!!!

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Edward H.
Lybarger
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 2:46 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: RE: West Penn Today - The back Line


The point, of course, is that "System" or "Railways" is a grammatically
correct noun, whereas "West Penn" is adjectival and as such cannot stand
alone.  To correctly use "the" with West Penn Railways, one must add the
word "Company."

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
[mailto:owner-pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org]On Behalf Of Derrick J
Brashear
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 2:40 PM
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
Subject: RE: West Penn Today - The back Line


On Mon, 10 Jul 2000, Edward H. Lybarger wrote:

> I have a major pet peeve.  It involves the continued use of the highly
> pompous and insulting "THE West Penn," "THE This," "THE That" that
railfans
> like to use to assert their familiarity with subjects.  Yes, some of the
> companies promoted themselves like this, West Penn included, in the early
> years.  It was a promotional tactic employed to intimidate the public into
> believing a company was more important and/or more powerful than was
> actually the case. But West Penn had the good taste to cease it at an
early
> date and call themselves the West Penn System or the West Penn Railways
> Company, as appropriate, which frankly sound more prosperous that the
phony
> appellation.  Besides, the other is bad English.

West Penn Railways but the West Penn system, is my usage. "West Penn
system" doesn't sound right without the preceding "the".

Anyhow, thanks for your summary.

-D