Railroad car

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A railroad car, railcar (American and Canadian English),^[a] railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck (British English and UIC), also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network (a railroad/railway). Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.

The term "car" is commonly used by itself in American English when a rail context is implicit. Indian English sometimes uses "bogie" in the same manner,^[1] though the term has other meanings in other variants of English. In American English, "railcar" is a generic term for a railway vehicle; in other countries "railcar" refers specifically to a self-propelled, powered, railway vehicle.

Although some cars exist for the railroad's own use – for

Passenger cars

Passenger cars, or coaches, vary in their internal fittings:

In standard-gauge railway cars, seating is usually configured into ranges from three to five seats across the width of the car, with an aisle in between (resulting in arrangements of 2+1, 2+2 or 3+2 seats) or at the side. Tables may be provided between seats facing one another. Alternatively, seats facing in the same direction may have access to a fold-down ledge on the back of the seat in front.

• If the aisle is located between seats, seat rows may face the same direction, or be grouped, with twin rows facing each other.
• In some vehicles intended for commuter services, seats are positioned with their backs to the side walls, either on one side or more commonly on both, facing each other across the aisle. This gives a wide accessway and allows room for standing passengers at peak times, as well as improving loading and unloading speeds.
• If the aisle is at the side, the car is usually divided into small compartments. These usually contain six seats, although sometimes in second class they contain eight, and sometimes in first class they contain four.

Passenger cars can take the electricity supply for heating and lighting equipment from either of two main sources: directly from a head-end power generator on the locomotive via bus cables, or by an axle-powered generator which continuously charges batteries whenever the train is in motion.

Modern cars usually have either

Other types of passenger car exist, especially for long journeys, such as the

Observation cars were built for the rear of many famous trains to allow the passengers to view the scenery. These proved popular, leading to the development of dome cars multiple units of which could be placed mid-train, and featured a glass-enclosed upper level extending above the normal roof to provide passengers with a better view.

Often, but not always, passenger cars in a train are linked together with enclosed, flexible gangway connections through which passengers and crewmen can walk. Some designs incorporate semi-permanent connections between cars and may have a full-width connection, effectively making them one long, articulated 'car'. In North America, passenger cars also employ tightlock couplings to keep a train together in the event of a derailment or other accident.

Many

First- and second-class carriages

It has been common in some systems to differentiate between first- and second-class carriages, with a premium being paid for first-class tickets,^[2] and fines imposed for non-compliance.^[3] Facilities and appurtenances applying to first-class carriages may include

• Lounge-type seats, improved upholstery and additional hip- and leg-room
• Reading lamps, double-glazing, sound treatment
• Removable tables and seating amenable for card games
• Choice of smoking and non-smoking compartments^[4]

More recently, mains power outlets and Wi-fi facilities have been offered.^[5]

Passenger car gallery

• Passenger car gallery
• 
  A Metropolitan line S8 Stock at Amersham in London
• 
  An interior of a Circle line S7 Stock in London
• 
  British Rail Mark 3 coach, an all-steel car from the 1970s
• 
  Inside a modern-day car from Finland
• 
  A British Rail Class 150 in the United Kingdom

Freight cars

Freight cars (US/Canada), goods wagons (UIC), or trucks (UK) exist in a wide variety of types, adapted to carry a host of goods. Originally there were very few types of cars; the flat car or wagon, and the boxcar (US/Canada), covered wagon (UIC) or van (UK), were among the first.

Types of freight cars

Freight cars or goods wagons are generally categorized as follows:

• Boxcar (US and Canada), covered wagon (UIC) or van (UK): fully enclosed car with side or end doors. Standard boxcars have about 3.5 times the capacity of a standard Semi-trailer.^[6]
  • Covered wagon (UIC), van (UK) or boxcar (US/Canada): fully enclosed wagon for moisture-susceptible goods.
  • Hicube boxcars: high-capacity high-clearance boxcar
  • Refrigerator car or reefer (US/Canada): refrigerated boxcar for fruits and vegetables.
• CargoBeamer
• Coil car: specialized flat or gondola for heavy sheet metal rolls
• passenger car and boxcar
  in one wagon
• Flatcar (or flat): for larger bulky loads. Specialized flat cars include:
  • Aircraft Parts Car: with fixtures for large aircraft parts.
  • Autorack (also called auto carriers): multi-level flat for automobiles.
  • Centerbeam cars
    (US): specialized flat for building materials.
  • Conflat (UK): specialized flat for containers.
  • CargoSprinter: self-propelled container flat.
  • Container flatcar
  • Depressed-center flatcar or Wellcar or Lowmac (UK): for high-clearance loads (e.g. transformers and boilers)
  • Semi-trailer flatcar
  • Rolling highway: a train designed to carry trucks and/or semi-trailers
  • Single container car;
    Spine car, a center sill and side sill only car with lateral arms to support intermodal containers
    . See also Well car.
  • Double container car; Well car or double-stack car. Cars for transporting Intermodal containers with a low deck to allow double stacking, commonly used in articulated form. See also Spine car
• Schnabel car: for unusually large and heavy industrial equipment (transformers, boilers, reactors, distillation columns,...)
• Gondola (US): car with open top, enclosed sides and ends for bulk goods.
  • Covered hopper: specialized hopper car with a cover for weather sensitive loads (grain, pellets,...)
  • Open wagon (UIC): railway wagon with an open top but enclosed sides and ends, for bulk commodities and other goods that might slide off.
  • Hoppers: similar to gondolas but with bottom dump doors for easy unloading of things like coal, ore, grain, cement, ballast and the like. Short hoppers for carrying iron ore are called ore jennies in the US.
  • Lorry (US/Canada): An open wagon (UIC) or gondola (US/Canada) with a tipping trough, often found in mines. See also Tippler.
  • Mine car
  • V skip wagon
    ).
  • Side dump cars: used to transport roadbed materials such as, ballast, riprap, and large stone
    , and are able to unload anywhere along the track.
  • Tippler (UK): An open wagon with no doors or roof which are unloaded by being inverted on a Wagon Tippler (UK) or Rotary car dumper (US/Canada). They are, used for minerals, such as coal, limestone and iron ore as well as other bulk cargo. See also Lorry.
  • Quarry tub: a type of small railway or tramway wagon used in quarries for the transport minerals, such as coal, limestone and iron ore.
• Modalohr Road Trailer Carriers.
• Presflo^[7] and Prestwin (UK),^[8] bulk cement wagons
• Roll-block
  : a train designed to carry another railway train
• Slate wagon
  : specialized freight cars used to transport slate
• Stock car: ventilated box car for livestock
• Tank car (US/Canada), tank wagon (UIC) or tanker: for liquid or gas.
  • British milk tank wagon
  • Milk car: specialized tank car for milk
  • Tank cars for bulk loading
  • "Whale Belly" car: high capacity tank car with a "belly".
• Transporter wagon: a wagon designed to carry other railway equipment.
• Well car

Freight car gallery

• North American freight car gallery
• 
  American style two-bay

  Reading Railroad
• 
  U.S. type Railbox boxcar
• 
  A

  tanktainer

  and an open-top 20 ft container with canvas cover
• 
  North American

  container train services often employ double-stacked container cars, as here in Rochelle, Illinois

  .
• 
  John Deere Combine harvesters being transported by railway in Tyrone, Pennsylvania.

Aluminium cars

The first two main-line all aluminum passenger cars were exhibited at the 1933-35 Chicago World's Fair by Pullman Company.^[9] Aluminum freight cars have a higher net-to-tare ratio of 4.9 than traditional steel based wagons, which have 3.65.^[10]

Non-revenue cars

Non-revenue cars are those that do not derive income for the railroad. They include:

• ballast regulator
• ballast tamper
• barrier vehicle or match wagon, with a different coupler at each end
• caboose (US) or brake van (UIC), attached to the rear of a freight train to watch out for hazards, assist in reversing moves, and provide rear braking; replaced by end-of-train devices
• catenary maintenance vehicle or tower car, used to maintain overhead lines
• clearance car, special car to check for obstructions
• crew car, also known as outfit car, camp car, or bunkhouse car:^[11] a bunk, kitchen, or tool car for railroad employees
• departmental vehicle
• motorised
  manually powered handcar
• maintenance of way (MOW) cars for maintaining track and equipment
• office car
  , a mobile office for a train company
• rail ambulance
• rail bycicle carrier car, rail bicycle rack wagon, bicycle carrying rail trailer, rail bicycle rack, or bicycle carrier wagon.^[12]
• HiRail
  trucks
• railroad cranes
• railroad excavators
• railroad power shovels
• railway post office
• road-rail vehicle
• scale test car
• track geometry car
• track tester
  .

Military cars

Military armoured trains use several types of specialized cars:

• Anti-air: equipped with
  anti-aircraft guns
• Anti-tank: equipped with anti-tank guns, usually in a tank gun turret
• Artillery: fielding mixture of artillery guns and machine guns
• Command: similar to infantry wagons, but designed to be a train command center
• Military Traffic Management Command^{[citation needed}
  ]
• Infantry: fielding machine guns, designed to carry infantry units
• Machine gun: dedicated to machine guns
• Military draisine: Armoured trains were sometimes escorted by a kind of a draisine called a 'rail tank'.
• Platform: unarmoured, with purposes ranging from transport of
  track repair or derailing protection of railroad ploughs
  for railroad destruction
• Troop sleepers
• The German Wehrmacht sometimes used a flatcar to carry a light tank which was used to quickly drive down the ramp to chase partisans escaping away from the tracks.

Mobile missile systems

During the

The

Notes

Footnotes

Citations