Rail technologies

15kVAC albeit at 16.7Hz is a railway electrification system chosen by Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway in 1912. The high voltage enables high power, while the lower voltage reflects technical limitations at the turn on the 20th Century. In particular, the lower voltage reduced flashover problems in the motors, albeit at the cost of a non-standard line frequency requiring frequency conversion, and separate supplies. ...more on Wikipedia about "15kVAC"

25 kV AC is one of the most common voltages used for railway electrification, usually at 50 Hz or 60 Hz depending on that country's normal mains frequency. ...more on Wikipedia about "25 kV AC"

An A unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive (generally a diesel or electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab, or crew compartment, and the control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled from a single position. This terminology is generally used in North America, since only there was it commonplace to build B units—cabless locomotive units which could not lead a train. ...more on Wikipedia about "A unit"

On railways and trams an air brake is a brake operated by compressed air. A safer air brake was patented by George Westinghouse on March 5, 1872. Westinghouse's invention revolutionized the railroad industry, making stopping reliable and thus permitting trains to travel at higher speeds. Westinghouse made many alterations to improve his invention leading to various forms of the automatic brake. The United States Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act in 1893 making the use of some automatic brake system mandatory. By 1905, over 2,000,000 freight, passenger, mail, baggage and express railroad cars and 89,000 locomotives in the United States were equipped with the Westinghouse Automatic Brake. ...more on Wikipedia about "Air brake (rail)"

An atmospheric railway is a railway in which air pressure or vacuum is used to drive trains. The first commercial application of the system was the line from Kingstown ( Dun Laoghaire) to Dalkey in Ireland. This system was also used by Brunel in the 19th century on a 52-mile section of the South Devon Railway between Exeter and Plymouth, England and on the London & Croydon Railway in 1845, but was soon abolished. ...more on Wikipedia about "Atmospheric railway"

Automatic Train Control (ATC) is a safety system for railways, ensuring the safe and smooth operation of trains on ATC-enabled lines. There are several implementations and versions of ATC, and each is different. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatic Train Control"

Automatic train operation (ATO) insure partial or complete automatic train piloting and driverless functionalities. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatic train operation"

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Automatic Train Protection (ATP) is a system installed in some British trains in order to protect the train and avoid a possible catastrophe. This system uses light and sound to warn the train driver of passing a red signal, and applies brakes if the driver fails to respond to these warnings. The system takes into account the speed and position of the train in issuing the warnings and applying the brakes. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatic Train Protection"

An automatic train stop is a system on a train that will automatically stop a train if certain situations happened (unresponsive train operator, earthquake, disconnected rail, train running over a stop signal, etc) to prevent accidents from happening. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatic Train Stop"

The Automatic Warning System (AWS) refers to the specific form of limited cab signalling introduced in 1948 in the United Kingdom to help train drivers observe and obey warning signals, yellow or green. It was based on a 1906 system developed by the Great Western Railway. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatic Warning System"

Automatische TreinBeïnvloeding or ATB is a Dutch system of Automatic Train Protection developed in the 1950s. Its installation was spurred by the Harmelen train disaster of 1962. ...more on Wikipedia about "Automatische treinbeïnvloeding"

A B unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive unit (generally a diesel locomotive) which does not have a driving cab, or crew compartment, and must therefore be controlled from another, coupled locomotive with a driving cab (an A unit). The term booster unit is also used. The concept was largely confined to North America. Elsewhere, locomotives without driving cabs were rare. ...more on Wikipedia about "B unit"

A balise is an electronic beacon placed between the rails of a railway as part of an Automatic Train Protection system. ...more on Wikipedia about "Balise"

A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a train carriage or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar tracked vehicle. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bogie"

A bow collector is one of the three main devices used on tramcars to transfer electric current from the wires above to the tram below, the other devices being the pantograph and trolley pole. While once very common in continental Europe, it has now been largely replaced by the pantograph. ...more on Wikipedia about "Bow collector"

Brakes are the devices on railway trains to bring the train to a standstill. ...more on Wikipedia about "Brake (railway)"

The buffer in railway transport is part of the coupling system for railway vehicles. On English railways, wagons had two buffers at each end, formed by extensions of the frame of the wagon. In between were hooks and chains to hold the wagons together. The buffers were originally unsprung, but gradually spring buffers were provided. A law requiring sprung buffers was sometimes observed to the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law, by fitting spring buffers at one end of the wagon only. ...more on Wikipedia about "Buffer (rail transport)"

Cab signalling refers to communication systems used by modern trains to send track status information to the train cab. This removes the need for engineers to scan for passing track signals as train speeds have increased over the ages. This advance also allows in-train systems to take control of situations (i.e. excessive speed) that are not caught by the engineers. It uses a system of transponders by the track and matching receivers on the train. The first such systems were installed in the 1920s in the US, and later in Holland in the 1940s. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cab signalling"

Cant (rail) on a road or railway is the difference in elevation of the two sides of the track to help go around curves. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cant (rail)"

A catch point is a device installed at a railway signal. In the case that a red signal is passed it deliberately derails a train or wagon, thus it causes an accident to protect the line ahead from a collision. It is applied in situations where the derailment is less serious than the collision that otherwise would be likely to occur. ...more on Wikipedia about "Catch point"

Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a signalling system used by railroads around the world. The system consists of a dispatcher in a centralized location (usually) somewhere along the railroad's mainline who controls the track turnouts and the signals that railroad engineers ( train drivers) must obey in order to keep the railroad's traffic moving safely and smoothly across the railroad. In the dispatcher's office is a graphical depiction of the railroad (or only a portion of the railroad on larger systems) on which the dispatcher can keep track of trains' locations across the territory that the dispatcher controls. ...more on Wikipedia about "Centralized traffic control"

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A cog railway or rack-and-pinion railway is a mountain railway with a special toothed rack rail mounted on the sleepers between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the locomotives to haul the trains up steeply inclined slopes. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cog railway"

A Control Car Remote Control Locomotive (CCRCL) is an old diesel locomotive with the traction motors and fuel tank removed, cab windows plated over, and remote control equipment installed. It is coupled to a locomotive (or a consist of locomotives) which lack remote control equipment; it is set to be the lead locomotive in command of the others, controlling them through their multiple unit control connections. ...more on Wikipedia about "Control Car Remote Control Locomotive"

A coupling (or a coupler) is a mechanism for connecting railway cars in a train. ...more on Wikipedia about "Coupling (railway)"

In North American railroading, a cow-calf set is a pair of switcher-type diesel locomotives: one (the cow) equipped with a driving cab, and the other (the calf) without. The two are coupled together (either with regular couplers or a semi-permanent drawbar) and are connected with MU cables and brake lines so that both locomotive units can be operated by a single cab. Cow-calf sets were used in heavy switching, hump yard switching, and transfer runs between yards. ...more on Wikipedia about "Cow-calf"

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