A
- Air brake: Railroad brakes which operate using compressed air.
- Alco: American Locomotive Company - the second largest builder
of steam locomotives in the U.S.
Alerter: Similar to the Dead man's switch other than it does not
require the operator's constant interaction. Instead an alarm is
sounded at a preset interval in which the operator must respond by
pressing a button to reset the alarm and the timer. If the operator
does not respond within a preset time the brakes are applied. May also
be called a 'Watchdog'.
- Auto brake A type of fail-safe system that uses air pressure to
hold the brakes off so that in the event the air pressure is lost in
the brake pipe the brakes will automatically apply.
- Auto-brake gauge: A gauge recording the application and pressure
of an automatic braking system; usually repeated in the guard's van in
historic rolling stock
B
- B unit (US): A cabless booster locomotive, controlled via MU
from a cab-equipped A unit. Sometimes equipped with limited controls
for hostling.
- Bacon slicer (UK): Slang term for a cutoff controlled by a wheel
operating through a worm and nut, rather than the more usual quadrant
lever. The device was slow to operate, but very precise, and therefore
only fitted to long-distance locomotives where frequent changes of
cut-off were not required.
- Bad order A tag or note applied to a defective piece of
equipment. Generally, equipment tagged as bad order is not to be used
until repairs are performed and the equipment is inspected and approved
for use.[7]
- Baldwin: American locomotive manufacturer.
- Ballast: aggregate stone, gravel or cinders forming the track
bed on which sleepers (ties) and track are laid to ensure stability and
proper drainage.
- Balloon: A large section of looped track usually at the end of a
spur or branch which allows trains to turn around for the return trip.
- Base plate (UK), tie plate (US): An iron or steel plate used to
spread the weight of rail over a larger area of sleeper (tie) and
facilitate a secure, low maintenance, fastening with bolts or clips. It
derives from the former Rail chairs.
- Bay platform: A type of platform/track arrangement where the
train pulls into a siding, or dead-end, when serving the platform.
- Blower: On a steam locomotive, a steam pipe leading into the
smokebox, causing necessary draft in the stack when the engine is not
running. However, UK practice is to turn on the blower also when
entering tunnels, etc, to avoid dangerous blow-back into the cab. The
UK loading gauge is much smaller than that in the US and the tunnel
roof would otherwise spoil the normal draft created from the exhaust.
On a Diesel engine, the blower is a mechanical device that increases
the supply of air to the combustion chamber. Also known as a
"Supercharger". The most common type of supercharger used on a diesel
locomotive engine is a Roots type supercharger.
- Bobber: (archaic, US): A slang word for a small caboose with
just four wheels, all rigidly mounted to the frame. This design was
common in the 1800s. Bobber refers to the bouncing motion of such a
caboose in motion.
C
- Cabless: A locomotive without a cab. Commonly referred to as a B
unit or a Slug. Although not all Slugs are cabless.
- Caboose: A railroad car attached usually to the end of a train,
in which railroad workers could ride and monitor track and rolling
stock conditions. Partly analogous to brake van (UK). Largely obsolete,
having been replaced by the electronic End of Train (EOT) device, or
Flashing Rear End Device called "FRED".
- Crank pin: A pin protruding from a wheel into a main or coupling
rod.
- Crew driver (US): Person(s) operating ground transportation
vehicles for transporting railroad crews to and from various locations.
- Crosshead: The pivot between the piston rod and the main rod on
a steam locomotive.
D
- Dead man's handle or Dead man's switch: A safety mechanism on a
train controller which automatically applies the brake if a lever is
released. It is intended to stop a train if the driver is
incapacitated. In some forms, this device may be pedal-actuated.
- Defect detector: A track side device used to detect various
defects such as Hotboxes (Overheated axle bearings), dragging
equipment, leaning cars, overloaded cars, overheight cars, seized
wheels, etc.
- Diesel multiple unit or DMU: A set of diesel-powered
self-propelling passenger rail vehicles able to operate in multiple
with other such sets. Such units, especially those consisting of a
single vehicle, are sometimes termed railcars.
- Direct Traffic Control (DTC): A system in which train
dispatchers communicate directly with train crews via radio to
authorize track occupancy in predefined blocks.
- Ditch lights: A pair of lights, usually found on modern
locomotives, located several feet below and outboard of the main
headlight, that may alternately flash while the train is in motion
- DOO: Driver-only operation
- Doodlebug: Gasoline-electric self-powered passenger car used for
small capacity rural commuter service.
E
- Ejector: Component of vacuum brake system. Steam passing through
a cone sucks air from the train pipe to create the vacuum. Usually
fitted in pairs: a small ejector running continuously to overcome leaks
and to restore the vacuum after light braking and a large ejector
operated when needed to release the brakes quickly after a heavy
application or to create the initial vacuum ("making a brake" – UK)
after coupling up.
- Electric multiple unit (EMU): A set of electrically powered
self-propelling passenger rail vehicles able to operate in multiple
with other such sets.
- Elephant style (US) - Railfan jargon to describe how multiple
locomotives are coupled together in a train; the front of the second
locomotive is coupled to the rear of the first locomotive, the front of
the third locomotive is coupled to the rear of the second locomotive,
and so on down the line. The term is reminiscent of a parade of circus
elephants where the elephant behind the front elephant would hold the
leading elephant's tail in its trunk.
- Elevated railway: One typically built on supports over city
streets, commonly called "the el" or simply the "The L"
- EMD: Electro-Motive Diesels, Inc, the world's second largest
builder of railroad locomotives. EMD was previously Electro-Motive
Division of GM before being sold off.
- Engineer (US), driver, engine driver, train driver (UK): The
operator of a locomotive
F
- Facing: A turnout is facing if it can select which way to
diverge a train. Opposite of trailing.
- Fairlie: A type of articulated locomotive, typically (but not
exclusively) with two boilers and connected fireboxes in a central cab.
- Fallen flag (US): A railroad which is defunct, having either
merged or discontinued operations.
- Feedwater heater: A device to preheat the water for a steam
locomotive; improves efficiency.
- Firebox: In steam railroading, a firebox was a chamber in which
a fire would produce sufficient heat to create steam once the hot gases
from the firebox were carried into the adjacent boiler via tubes or
flues.
- Fireman (also Stoker, Boilerman): A worker whose primary job is
to shovel coal into the firebox and ensure that the boiler maintains
sufficient steam pressure; a driver's assistant.
- Flat: A wheel defect where the tread of a wheel has a flat spot
and is no longer round; flats can be heard as regular clicking noises
when the wheel passes by.
- Flatcar (US): A type of rolling stock, which can be a
flat-bottomed car with no sides on which freight (including intramodal
shipping containers) can be stacked. A bulkhead is a flatcar with walls
on the front and rear. A center-beam bulkhead is a bulkhead flatcar
with an additional wall dividing one side of the flatcar from the
other, but still without any sides. Flat wagon (UK).
- Foamer (US): A colloquial term for a railfan, specifically one
whose enthusiasm is excessive, "foaming at the mouth".
- Four-foot: The part of the line between a pair of running rails.
An abbreviation for four foot, eight-and-a-half-inches. Also see
six-foot and ten-foot.
- Four-quadrant gate: A type of Boom barrier, see above.
- FRA: (US) The Federal Railroad Administration. This agency
oversees rail operation regulations and safety requirements for U.S.
freight, passenger and commuter rail operations.
- Fusible plug: A threaded plug, with a soft metal core, that is
screwed into the crown plate of a firebox. If the water level gets too
low the core melts and the noise of the escaping steam warns the
enginemen.
G
- Gandy dancer (slang, US): A track maintenance worker.
- Garratt: A type of articulated locomotive.
- Gauge: The width between the inner faces of the rails.
- Geep: A slang term for any of the GP ("general-purpose") series
of Electro-Motive four-axle diesel locomotives; originally applied only
to EMD GP7, GP9, and GP18 models.
- Glad hand A quick-coupling/uncoupling connector at the end of a
trainline air hose that resembles a pair of "shaking hands" when hoses
are connected.
- Go-devil: A hand-powered railroad car (see Handcar and Draisine
), or a small gasoline powered railroad car .
- Gondola: A type of rolling stock with a flat bottom and
relatively low sides, used to haul material such as ore or scrap, and
loaded and unloaded from the top. May be covered or uncovered. Open
wagon (UK).
H
- Heavy rail (US): A city-based transit rail system that runs on
its own dedicated track and often underground. Subways are considered
heavy rail.
- Heavyweight (US): During the period between about 1910 and the
mid nineteen thirties, most passenger cars in the US were built with
three axle trucks, concrete floors, and riveted, double walled sides
and often weighed 90 - 100 tons or more. Heavyweight construction was
used to improve ride quality.
- High rail: The upper rail in a curve or superelevation which
typically experiences the higher lateral loads and greater wear.
- Hogger (slang, US): A locomotive engineer.
- Hoodlebug (slang, US): A small commuter passenger train or
trolley.
- Hood unit (US): A locomotive whose sides and roof are
nonstructural and do not extend the full width of the locomotive.
Structural strength comes from the underframe.
- Horn blocks: Plates lining the axlebox cut-outs in a locomotive
frame to allow smooth vertical movement under control of the springs.
- Hotbox: An axle bearing that has become excessively hot due to
friction.
- Hotbox detector: A device attached to the track which monitors
passing trains for hot axles, and then reports the results via a radio
transmission (US) or a circuit to the signal box (UK). (see defect
detector).
- Hotel power (US): Electric power used to provide for the comfort
of passengers aboard a train en-route. See "HEP" above.
- Hot rail (US): 1. Any section of track over which a train
movement is imminent. The closer and/or faster the approaching train,
the "hotter" the rail. 2. On some electrified railroads and rapid
transit lines, the third rail which supplies power to locomotives or
cars.
- Hotshot (US): A fast, long-distance train given priority on the
track over other trains.
I
- Infill station (sometimes in-fill station): A train station
built on an existing passenger line to address demand in a location
between existing stations.
- Injector: A device to force water into a steam locomotive's
boiler by steam pressure
J
- Jack: A dwarf signal (slang, Boston and Maine and New York New
Haven and Hartford Railroads)
- Jerk a lung (North America): To break a train in two, usually by
shearing the knuckle pin in a coupler, often caused by the application
of excessive head end power. Example: "The engineer jerked a lung on
the upgrade."
- Johnson bar (US): On a locomotive, a long, heavy lever that
operates the cutoff, etymology unknown.
- Joint bar, fishplate (UK): Joins the ends of rails in jointed
track. Also referred to in North America as a rail joiner or angle bar