What makes it a "Train"?


new guy

Active Member
How many cars behind a loco does it take to constitute a "train", just one?

Would a tender behind a loco, while being technically "IN train", behind the engine, BE a "Train" on it's own?

IF it is the case that one car behind an engine is not technically a "train" what is it called among those worthy's who drive the REAL ones and what DOES constitute a "Train"?

Thanks in advance for the excellent info I am about to receive!
 
One car, not including the tender, my definition. Per google: Train, a succession of vehicles or pack animals traveling in the same direction.
 
One car, not including the tender, my definition. Per google: Train, a succession of vehicles or pack animals traveling in the same direction.

Thanks, I thought that was it but was wondering if those who drove em had a name that they used to describe different lengths of strings of cars.

"Shorty" or "Aw crap this is going to take forever to uncouple" Something the workers would use to tell each other the size, just saying how many cars in number form sounds TOO easy! LOL!
 
One loco, be it a single diesel or steamer with a drawbarred tender is a track unit.
As soon as anything is coupled it becomes a train.
(Taken from my notes for CROR)
 
I remember when I was a Sales Rep. for the Burlington Northern Railroad in Portland OR in the 1980s, one of the RR operating people there told me that when just one locomotive had a crew called for it, it was then a train and registered as such in the BN's records.

DougC
 
When the lights are flashing and we watch a locomotive moving 'light' past our front, is a train coming....or just a locomotive? The answer is...a train. No, wait...just a locomotive. Remember that there is a railroading term called "consist". That term means a set of coupled wagons/cars, even if just one, AND a locomotive to move them/it. That is also a train. However, even a locomotive, by itself, constitutes a train legally. It is a typical conveyance one ought to expect to encounter moving only on the rails, and that is what trains do.
 
Crandell is right, even a lone locomotive is a train. From the General Code of Operating Rules: "Train - One or more engines coupled, with or without cars, displaying a marker, and authorized to operate on a main track." The GCOR is in use by over 300 US and Canadian railroads.
 
WOW, Wrong again! Do any of you model; or, are we just into reading all the esoteric information!?!
 
Crandell is right, even a lone locomotive is a train. From the General Code of Operating Rules: "Train - One or more engines coupled, with or without cars, displaying a marker, and authorized to operate on a main track." The GCOR is in use by over 300 US and Canadian railroads.

Thanks for the rulebook quote. I was going to respond but I forgot a littlebit through the years. I remember in engineer school the guy teaching said you can have six engines and 150 cars but without the authorization and marker you ain't got nothin! Now as to what constitutes main track authorization.....lol
 
Well, since you bring it up, if you read my bio, you'll see that I model an electric railway, so most of my trains ARE one car! Brills and Birneys and PCCs oh my!
 
Okay so I got curious and dug up my notes from the "CROR" or "Canadian Railway Operating Rules".

Train; definition:
"An engine or more than one engine coupled, with or without cars, or a track unit(s) so designated by its operating authority, displaying a marker(s)"

Track Unit; definition:
"A machine or self propelled unit that operates on a railway track and is used in connection with construction or work on, or inspection of, a railway track or right of way."

My use of the word track unit until coupled is more of a term used when not displaying but not officially correct.
The key, as was mentioned above, is how it's designated and what it displays.
Cool topic!
 
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