Locomotive classification lights Locomotive classification lights — colored flags by day, lights by night — were once used throughout North American railroading. U.S. railroads used a single light and outer lens, with colored lenses in between that could be changed as needed. Canadian roads used three separate lights; on diesels these were often located near […]
Ruling Grade: The maximum meaningful grade on a line; the grade that limits train tonnage. Traditionally, a ruling grade was the grade up which the standard road locomotive assigned to that division could just stagger with a maximum-tonnage train. This grade may not have been the steepest on the division, however. There may have been […]
Outfit cars Cars equipped with facilities for feeding and housing construction and maintenance employees in the field are known as outfit cars or camp cars. Over the years they have taken a number of forms. Because outfit cars are not revenue-producing equipment, railroads have tended to not spend much money on them, and a common […]
Virtually all the railways in the world employ the same system for moving the vehicles that travel over them: Power is applied to some or all of the wheels that support and guide the vehicle along the rails. Adhesion between the wheels and running rails then allows the vehicle to move along the track, often […]
Perhaps no part of railroading is as important as that which gave the industry its name: rail. Together with flanged-wheel vehicles, rails allowed the development of a transport system quite distinct from the conventional roadway. Though rails of steel are standard today, iron and even wood found widespread use in the 19th century. Many early […]
Traffic control systems Running a safe operation is not as simple as you might think. Every train must have authority to occupy the main track before it can begin moving. There are several types of authorities, but usually only one type is in effect on any given piece of track. Maintenance people must also have […]
Because shippers’ distribution patterns are rarely congruent with any one rail carrier, railroads have developed two traditional methods of extending their reach over each others’ lines. The first is the joint rate and route. Two railroads, by agreement, establish one rate from an origin on the first to a destination on the second. One of […]
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