In rail transport, a train is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and transport people or freight. The word train comes from the Old French trahiner, derived from the Latin trahere meaning "to pull, to draw". Trains are typically pulled or pushed by locomotives, though some are self-propelled, such as multiple units. Passengers and cargo are carried in railroad cars, also known as wagons. Trains are designed to a certain gauge, or distance between rails. Most trains operate on steel tracks with steel wheels, the low friction of which makes them more efficient than other forms of transport.
Rail or rails may refer to:
A railroad switch (AE), turnout, or [set of] points (BE) is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off.
The Automatic Warning System (AWS) was introduced in the 1950s in the United Kingdom to provide a train driver with an audible warning and visual reminder that they were approaching a distant signal at caution. Its operation was later extended to give warnings for;
A safety barrier is a component which prevents passage into a dangerous area, commonly used to mitigate risk. Safety barriers may be hard barriers physically restricting passage or soft barriers that control circuits based on the presence of foreign bodies.
A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters.
Guard rail, guardrails, or protective guarding, in general, are a boundary feature and may be a means to prevent or deter access to dangerous or off-limits areas while allowing light and visibility in a greater way than a fence. Common shapes are flat, rounded edge, and tubular in horizontal railings, whereas tetraform spear-headed or ball-finialled are most common in vertical railings around homes. Park and garden railings commonly in metalworking feature swirls, leaves, plate metal areas and/or motifs particularly on and beside gates.
The Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility is a GO Transit rolling stock maintenance facility located in the Willowbrook Yard in Toronto, Canada. The facility is west of Mimico station and is across the main tracks from the VIA Rail Toronto Maintenance Facility.
Garsdale is a railway station on the Settle and Carlisle Line, which runs between Carlisle and Leeds via Settle. The station, situated 51 miles 29 chains (82.7 km) south-east of Carlisle, serves the village of Garsdale and town of Sedbergh, South Lakeland in Cumbria, and the market town of Hawes, Richmondshire in North Yorkshire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. Grooved rails are often used to provide a protective flangeway in the trackwork in city streets. Like standard rail tracks, tram tracks consist of two parallel steel rails.
A stair lift is a mechanical device for lifting people, typically those with disabilities, up and down stairs. For sufficiently wide stairs, a rail is mounted to the treads of the stairs. A chair or lifting platform is attached to the rail. A person gets onto the chair or platform and is lifted up or down the stairs by the chair which moves along the rail.
Traffic barriers keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent them from colliding with dangerous obstacles such as boulders, sign supports, trees, bridge abutments, buildings, walls, and large storm drains, or from traversing steep (non-recoverable) slopes or entering deep water. They are also installed within medians of divided highways to prevent errant vehicles from entering the opposing carriageway of traffic and help to reduce head-on collisions. Some of these barriers, designed to be struck from either side, are called median barriers. Traffic barriers can also be used to protect vulnerable areas like school yards, pedestrian zones, and fuel tanks from errant vehicles.
Sandite is a substance used on railways in the UK, Ireland, US, the Netherlands and Belgium to combat leaves on the line, which can cause train wheels to slip and become damaged with flat spots. Sandite consists of a mixture of sand, antifreeze and steel shot.
The rail profile is the cross sectional shape of a railway rail, perpendicular to its length.
A concrete step barrier is a safety barrier used on the central reservation of motorways and dual carriageways as an alternative to the standard steel crash barrier.
Electric current collectors are used by trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives or EMUs to carry electrical power from overhead lines, electrical third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical equipment of the vehicles. Those for overhead wires are roof-mounted devices, those for rails are mounted on the bogies. Current collectors are also electric bridging components that collect electrical current generated at the electrodes of electrochemical devices, such as lithium-class battery cells, and connect with external circuits.
The CPW is a multi-caliber submachine gun developed by ST Kinetics of Singapore as a PDW-class firearm. The prototype is chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum but the manufacturer assures that the weapon's modular design allows for a simple caliber conversion to either 5.7×28mm or 4.6×30mm.
A run-off-road collision is a US term for a type of single-vehicle collision that occurs when a vehicle leaves the roadway.
A guide rail is a device or mechanism to direct products, vehicles or other objects through a channel, conveyor, roadway or rail system.
A snow guard is a device used to retain snow and ice from falling from one surface to a lower one; in contemporary usage, they are installed to prevent snow/ice pack from avalanching and damaging people, plants, and property below. They are most commonly installed in multiples or rows on a structure's roof surface, as a form of avalanche control. Snow guards are installed with a specific quantity and pattern based on the shape, size and pitch of the roof to provide the most uniform system of retention possible. Snow guards are not fully intended to completely hold back the snow as this would cause major leak issues when the snow melts. They are however built to separate the snow to allow it to break apart into smaller pieces/sections so that, if they do fall in rising temperatures and thawing conditions, the likelihood of having someone injured by the falling pile of snow is minimized.
