RIP track

However, mechanical defects often do not show up, or are not discovered, until after a freight car has been loaded and is in transit.

Often the repairs required are of a minor nature and such as may be taken care of in a short time with the proper facilities without unloading a car.

[4] As is well understood in railroading, loaded freight cars requiring repair before they can safely continue to destination, are removed from the train and delivered to the incoming side of a rip track which area is commonly referred to as the "bad order" area.

[4] Switcher locomotives are used for delivering defective loaded cars to the RIP track and for removing them after they are repaired.

In the film the protagonists and their locomotive use a RIP track to avoid a head-on collision with 777, the film's runaway locomotive, after being unable to fit into an earlier siding due to the length of their train.

General view of part of the rip tracks at the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company Proviso Yard, Chicago, Ill. April 1943