Rolling stock 

Rolling stock is the collective term that describes all the vehicles that move on a railway. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches and wagons.1234 However, the term is sometimes used to refer only to non-powered vehicles; specifically, excluding locomotives5 which may be referred to as running stock or motive power.

The term contrasts with fixed stock (infrastructure), which is a collective term for the track, signals, stations, other buildings, etc, necessary to operate a railway.

Code names

In Great Britain, types of rolling stock were given code names, often of animals, such as "Toad" for a Great Western Railway goods brake van 6. These codes were Telegraphese and were analagous to the SMS language of today. British Railways wagons used for track maintenance were named after fish, e.g. "Dogfish" for a ballast hopper 7.

See also

Look up Rolling stock in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ "Yaxham Light Railway rolling stock page".
  2. ^ "Definition of "rolling stock" from the Oxford English Dictionary accessed 5 February 2007 (subscription service)".
  3. ^ "Definition of "rolling stock" from the Concise Oxford Dictionary".
  4. ^ "Definition from the American Heritage Dictionary".
  5. ^ "Network Rail guidance for storage and recommissioning of Traction and Rolling Stock".
  6. ^ http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/stockcode.htm
  7. ^ http://www.btinternet.com/~second_engineering/fishkinds_and_tops.htm
This rail-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.