Acronyms, Abbreviations & Terms Used in OGR Forums

@Will posted:

But Jerry doesn't like acronyms so he might have to rename the club.

I have no problems with acronyms, I use them all the time at home and in my profession, I do however take issue with creating solutions to problems that don't exist.

Jerry

@baltimoretrainworks posted:

I have no problems with acronyms, I use them all the time at home and in my profession, I do however take issue with creating solutions to problems that don't exist.

Jerry

I hope you knowI was just yanking your chain.

Ok what’s a DPU?

Hi Will:

The MTZ (Mark Twain Zephyr) was last year acquired by WGN (Wisconsin Great Northen), moved to Trego WI, and is being restored to service by WGN.

Because of a separate thread on the WGN's restoration and the fact that O scale MTZ models have been produced by 3RD Rail, Lionel, & MTH, there may be interest from other forumites in the acronym MTZ.

Only my suggestion.  RTR12 can add or ignore my suggestions as he sees fit.

Thanks in advance !!!

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Ok what’s a DPU?

Distributed Power Unit. Innother words, in the current world of real railroading, additional units may be placed in the middle as well as on the rear of a long train, all of which are radio controlled from the lead unit, thus only one Engineer and Conductor.

@Will posted:

Here's my 2 cents. TIFWIW (lol)

At what point does a list become so large that it is basically a dictionary? Perhaps if rtr12 ( screen name is an acronym- too funny) is still enjoying making and editing this list, breaking it into sublists might be more useful. It would also avoid acronyms that could have 2 meanings. Some possible categories for example:

First, I don't know what BRB is or what the TI part is in TIFWIW? Second, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, always welcome.

Here's my 2 cents... The list was never meant to be a dictionary, only a list of the terms and their meaning. The definitions sort of just happened for a few things and grew from there. Other tried to be helpful and the descriptions grew. That was 7 years ago when the list was small, seemed like a good idea at the time. I'm now wondering if it isn't making things more confusing than helpful and making things more difficult to find?

I think dividing up the list might be a good idea, but I don't want to get into trying to categorize everything. I don't mind editing and adding things, but categorizing would be a real struggle for me. I am the worlds worst at trying to categorize things like this. See the problems folks are having right here on the forum with categories, as in 'which Forum is correct for my post'? You may have seen the recent threads on that one. Moderators are trying to improve this for all and I am quite certain that is not an easy task for them. Lots of gray areas everywhere.

However, this did get me to thinking about possibly whittling things down to just the meaning of the term only, no definitions. Back to basics so to speak. With that info, one would then know the meaning and could go on to find more information as needed. Links might be an option too, but those change and could be a maintenance problem?

Now, when editing, it seems to me to be a bit more difficult finding things than it used to be. Some things that already exist in the list have also been suggested, so I think there are others that share in my experiences with this. Also maybe a reformatting of some sort would help? If things are too difficult they won't be of any use to anyone. Then again, I sometimes wonder if anyone ever reads this stuff?

Most recent suggestions have been added, but there are a couple yet to be added. So all should be current by tomorrow.

@rtr12 posted:

First, I don't know what BRB is or what the TI part is in TIFWIW? Second, I appreciate your thoughts and suggestions, always welcome.

I actually don't use those texting acronyms, but thought it would be amusing to add them to this post. The TI is "take it", as in "take it for what it is worth". And see, I thought everyone knew what BRB is since it has been around since the beginning if texting 25 years ago. "Be right back".  Used a lot by kids who were surreptitiously texting during class. Shows that acronyms can be puzzling.

I do appreciate your efforts. Personally I would like to see a glossary with definitions and compatibility, etc. of all the current operating systems. I was out of the hobby for almost 15 years and have no idea what is what anymore.

By the way (BTW), do you have a name? It's weird replying to rtr12.

Added them, both were new to me. I don't text much and this forum is about my only 'social media'. I'm not very well versed in all the texting stuff.

I'm with you on compatibility of all the O gauge systems available these days, I was out of the hobby for 50 years and it was like starting over again when I got back in 2011 and still catching up. All the systems and compatibility in one place would be nice, but I'll have to leave that one to someone else. I'm not fully knowledgeable on a lot of that stuff either, especially the Lionel control systems.

Tom is my real name, for something to go with the rtr12.