US Terminology

[DNJ]

Hi there - Could I ask you guys across the pond about US railway (sorry - railroad ;) ) terminology? The reason I ask is that I'm interested in building a US route. Fictional sure, but it would be useful if I got everything labelled right. I have the list in the MSTS manual already, and I'm not too worried about engine and rolling stock differences - I'm more concerned with locations, facilities etc.

For instance, you seem to call some stations depots? Is that right? What exactly is a stockyard? This is the kind of stuff I need. Any help is gratefully appreciated.

[Smokewraith]

LAST EDITED ON May-20-02 AT 08:09PM (EDT)[p]Yes some stations are called depots, what the difference is I don't know. A stockyard is an area for the loading and unloading of cattle. Don't know if they're used anymore, as I've never seen a real cattlecar. There are also roundhouses, turntables, hump yards just to name a few. Hope this helps some.

Bill http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331560f0d567b.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331390e50aaf7.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c5331120d699a5d.gif http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c53318410136ac9.gif

[ssw]

I THINK (there I go again-- been cautioned against it)that a station is the big huge thing in big huge cities (Washington, NYC, Dallas, Houston, LA, Sacremento, etc. depots are for like West, Texas (an actual city, 15 min north of me) Belton, Montana. Atleast, thats what I think. Hope this helps. Someone PLEASE correct if wrong!

[chuckzeiler]

In the US, the piece of track that allows you to go from one track to another is called a switch. I believe it's called points in the UK.

[ge44tonner]

LAST EDITED ON May-20-02 AT 10:13PM (EDT)[p]Some of the translations I might suggest:
UK = USA
Triangle = Wye
Sleeper = Crosstie (tie)
Chair = Tieplate
Platelayer = Trackman
Footplate = Cab
Guards' Van = Caboose
Engine Shed = Engine House
Points = Turnout (Track Switch)
Stoker = Fireman
Driver = Engineer
Shunter = Switch engine (switcher)
Banker engine = Helper Engine (pusher)
Level Crossing = Grade crossing
Passing Loop = Passing Siding

I'm sure there are a lot more.

[calr]

US -- UK,others

Truck -- Bogie
Car -- Wagon, van
Truck (highway) -- Lorry
Bumper -- Buffer

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Cal Rasmussen
Beaverton, OR

Columbia Gorge Route (15% done, The Dalles yard(started) and dam(researching) in progress)

[chuckzeiler]

LAST EDITED ON May-21-02 AT 12:22PM (EDT)[p]I'm not sure about this, but I thought I read in a previous post on this site that a turnout is a model railroader's term for a switch. It's used to prevent confusion with an electrical switch, which controls current to a piece of track. Ask a real railroad person what a turnout is, and they probably won't know. Ask the same person what a switch is, and they'll have an answer. Perhaps a real railroad person reading this thread can clear this up.

[SHEPLEY1935]

Turnout is a common RR term for a switch leading to a siding or industrial track.


Don Shepley-Chicago

[Dria]

...I just step in to thank you all; a good side effect of trainsimming is improving my English... :D

Andrea "Dria" Obinu
Savona, Italy

http://dria.monrif.net

[DNJ]

Thanks to everyone who responded. Hump yards, are they some kind of marshalling yard/freight siding?

[OwainGlyndwr]

We had Hump yards in the UK.Used for shunting wagons by the use of gravity.

O.G.

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[Richard]

Yes, a hump yard is a down hill marshalling yard so to speak. The engines will push the cars up the hill towards the hump, at the top a brakeman (pin puller) will uncouple the car or cut of cars. The cars will be automatically weighed as they start to roll down the other side of the hump (hill). A computer will determine how much to set the retarders (a device that applies pressure against the flanges to slow the car) so the car rolls safely into the track it is assigned and couples onto cars standing on that track. Basically each track in a hump yard represents a destination somewhere else on the railroad or other railroad. It's pretty neat to watch a hump in operation, the hump operator sitting in a tower at the top of the hill throwing the switches, watching the cars roll down the hill and safely couple onto cars standing on the track they have been switched onto. All done by gravity. I hope this helps :-)

Rich S.

[OwainGlyndwr]

Hump shunting in the UK goes back over a hundred years,long before computers.As you say the wagons were propelled to the top of a slope,then ran down the otherside.But no retarders were installed a shunter would run alongside each wagon and use a shunting pole to pin the brake handles down manually.
Mechanical retarders only came after the war and only then in the bigger yards.

regards,
O.G.

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[angelanvil]

A great resource for USA (and some foreign) railroad lingo. See this site:

http://www.railroadextra.com/glossry1.Html

I use it to decipher letters my grandfather wrote at the turn of the last century.

[DNJ]

Wow! Thats useful - Thanks a lot.

[dvdhoven]

Hi,

Great, thanks a lot for this link. Nice to see many of the terms explained.

Dick van den Hoven
http://forums.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3c3739ad2f412aac.gif

[Starlight]

There's a couple I'd like to add that I heard some time back. Stuff that seemed pretty silly at the time.

Deadhead: Running a locomotive back without power, or a train man riding back from a job without paying for a ticket.

Mud Car: Slang for the tank cars of kaolin clay. They actually carry mud.

Mud Snake: Train load made up entirely of Mud Cars. Average train is no more than twenty cars long. (VERY HEAVY STUFF)

Ribbons: Rails

Breakers: Place where locomotives and cars are sent to be scrapped. OR: A term used to define old sleepers. (they'll break under the train's weight)

Weeble Wobbles: Trains that wobble down the track due to bent rails, or an unloaded car stuck between two loaded ones. "It'll weeble and wobble but won't fall over"

Down in the Dirt: Derailing.

Laying down on the Job: See Derailing

Paws on the Ground: Also see Derailing.

Limb and a Prayer: Typical bridge used in southern us that was very spindly (made of wood) and actually settled some when the train ran over it. (VISIBLY)

Stuck on a Limb and a Prayer: Sometimes happened when the bridge settled too much causeing the locomotive to loose traction and nearly stop on said bridge.

Playing Superman: Diving off the foot plate and seeking safe refuge when Limb and a Prayer decided to become a match stick house (see match stick house)

parting company: See Playing Superman.

Match Stick House: Fallen bridge that sometimes resembled a match stick house.

Paint Peelers: Grass fires that often occur in the deep south. So named for the way they peel paint off of passing trains.

Yard Apes: Kids who paint on passing trains and throw rocks.

Porch Monkeys: Kids who got CAUGHT by their parents painting on trains and throwing rocks, and now can't do anything but stand a good distance back and watch.

Lemmings: People who follow another person around a gate. So named because they often end up dead. (lemmings are little animals that will walk off a cliff)

Idiots: people who drive around the gates. See also Morons, Fools, Lemmings.

[Swarri1349]

Three Classes of Stations from largest to Smallest once were: Terminals like Chicago Central Station, Grand Central in New York City Pennsylvannia station. Then you had stations your mid sized cities and Depots were for small towns and villages. Cattle yards, aka cow pens, were mostly out west and were used to load live cattle to the meat packing centers of Chicago and other places. Now a days trucks do most of the hauling as most ranchers and such have meat proccessing plants near by.

Hope this helps

Stephen

KSRY Public Relations soon to be crossing the pond and scratchinh my own head about UK Terminology :-D

[stationmaster]

re: Railroad vs Railway

Although "Railroad" is more common in the U.S.A., a number of significant systems, "Southern Railway" for example used the latter term.

I have noticed that, probably because "Railway" is part of my domain name, I seem to get more UK visitors and questions than I would otherwise.

Ron Paludan
http://www.railwaystation.com