Railroad car

Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.

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.

In European practice it used to be common for day coaches to be formed of compartments seating 6 or 8 passengers, with access from a side corridor.

In North America, passenger cars also employ tightlock couplings to keep a train together in the event of a derailment or other accident.

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.

[9] Aluminum freight cars have a higher net-to-tare ratio of 4.9 than traditional steel based wagons, which have 3.65.

These trains carried the missile and everything necessary to launch, and were kept moving around the railway network to make them difficult to find and destroy in a first-strike attack.

A similar rail-borne system was proposed in the United States of America for the LGM-30 Minuteman in the 1960s, and the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison in the 1980s, but neither were deployed.

[13] The Strategic Air Command's 1st Combat Evaluation RBS "Express" deployed from Barksdale Air Force Base with Radar Bomb Scoring units mounted on military railroad cars with supporting equipment, to score simulated thermonuclear bombing of cities in the continental United States.