What is the triangle thing on a train?

In railroad structures, and rail terminology, a wye (like the 'Y' glyph) or triangular junction (often shortened to just triangle) is a triangular joining arrangement of three rail lines with a railroad switch (set of points) at each corner connecting to the incoming lines. A turning wye is a specific case.



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A cowcatcher, also known as a pilot, is the device mounted at the front of a locomotive to deflect obstacles on the track that might otherwise damage or derail it or the train.

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The steam engines have a pilot. Really early engines that had to contend with open ranges and un-fenced land had a large pilot meant to deflect animals or other objects from the tracks. That's a cow-catcher. It didn't really catch cows, it deflected them.

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What is the first car on a train called? The engine is the first car on a freight train, and the last car is usually the caboose. Besides being last, the other feature of a caboose is its use by the crew.

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Freighthopping or trainhopping is the act of surreptitiously boarding and riding a freightcar, which is usually illegal.

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Most in the US would call them cars -- flat car, passenger car, coal car, tank (or tanker) car, box car. I believe the Brits prefer wagon. – Hot Licks.

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Train surfing (also known as train hopping or train hitching) is the act of riding on the outside of a moving train, tram or other forms of rail transport.

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The people who do Freight Hopping are known as Hobos. The rail yard security guys who you really don't want to bump into are called Bulls and seeing how far you can get via freight trains and coping with whatever the yards in which you arrive throw at you is called exciting. •

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A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive engineer, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a person who operates a train, railcar, or other rail transport ...

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Technology eventually advanced to a point where the railroads, in an effort to save money by reducing crew members, stated that cabooses were unnecessary. New diesel locomotives had large cabs that could house entire crews.

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Many American passenger trains, particularly the long distance ones, included a car at the end of the train called an observation car.

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