Glossary of North American railway terms

This article contains a list of terms, jargon, and slang used to varying degrees by railfans and railroad employees in the United States and Canada.

Although not exhaustive, many of the entries in this list appear from time to time in specialist, rail-related publications.

Inclusion of a term in this list does not necessarily imply its universal adoption by all railfans and railroad employees, and there may be significant regional variation in usage.

The 10-wheeler wheel arrangement
A BNSF Railway A unit
A cupola-style caboose with an angel seat above
A consist of autorack cars
A Guilford Rail System locomotive showing the Big G paint scheme
A boxcar
A BNSF Railway B Unit
An EMD TR1 , one of several models of cow–calf locomotives
An AAR Type "E" coupler
An Amtrak EMD F40PH is one of many cowl units
A CSX EMD SD40-2 in Dark Future paint
Darth Vader signals
Three Burlington Northern Railroad locomotives coupled elephant style
An ETD on a container train
A train of loaded flatcars
Foreign power from Canadian Pacific and BNSF on a Norfolk Southern train
A gondola car
A demonstrator Green Goat locomotive
A handcar
TPW 400, an ALCO RS-11 , a type of hood unit
The interlocking tower and tracks in Des Plaines, Illinois
A preserved refrigerator car that was used on the Juice Train
A brakeman's lantern from the Chicago and North Western Railway which burned kerosene to produce light
A Norfolk Southern EMD GP38-2 operating long hood forward through Ridgewood, New Jersey .
A spiker is an example of MOW equipment
A westbound Southern Pacific manifest train
Union Pacific 588, formerly owned by Southern Pacific, showing a patch paint job of the new owner's reporting marks
Detail of a photo showing the poling pocket on the corner of a freight car in the 1930s
A CP SD40-2F Red Barn
Canadian National EMD SD60F 5500 in the sergeant stripes paint scheme
A privately owned speeder on display
Wood (left track) and concrete (right track) ties beneath the rails
An Amtrak AEM-7, sometimes called a toaster due to its boxy shape
The main concourse building and façade of Cincinnati Union Terminal
Santa Fe Dash 8 #881 at CN's Battle Creek fueling depot, displaying the modern interpretation of the classic red and silver warbonnet livery
The combined Super Chief / El Capitan passenger train at Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal in 1966 showing the red and silver warbonnet livery
A wye
An X-style railroad crossing sign
A X-ing sign
A CSX unit wearing the YN2 paint scheme