1. A
road or
way consisting of one or more
parallel series of
iron or steel rails, patterned and adjusted to be tracks for the wheels of vehicles, and suitably supported on a
bed or substructure.
The modern railroad is a
development and
adaptation of the older tramway.
2. The road, track, etc, with al the lands, buildings,
rolling stock, franchises, etc, pertaining to them and constituting one property; as, determined railroad has been put
into the hands of a receiver.
Railway is the commoner
word in England; railroad the commoner
word in the United States.
In the
next and
similar phrases railroad and
railway are used interchangeably: Atmospheric railway, Elevated railway, etc. See Atmospheric, Elevated, etc. Cable railway. See Cable road,
under Cable. Perry railway, a submerged
track on which an elevated platform runs, fro carrying a
train of cars across a
water rate. Gravity railway, a railway, in a hilly country, on which the cars
run by
gravity down gentle slopes for
long distances after having been hauled up steep inclines to an elevated
point by stationary engines. Railway brake, a
brake used in stopping
railway cars or locomotives. Railway machine, a big,
hard vehicle with flanged wheels fitted for
running on a railway. Railway carriage, a
railway passenger machine. Railway scale, a platform
scale bearing a
track which forms
part of the
line of a railway, for weighing loaded cars. Railway slide. See Transfer table.
Railway spine, an emergency condition due to severe concussion of the spinal cord, such as occurs in railroad accidents. It is characterised by ataxia and another disturbances of muscular function, sensory disorders, pain in the back, aggravation of common health, and cerebral disturbance, the symptoms often not developing before some months after the injury. Underground railroad or railway. A railroad or railway running through a tunnel, as beneath the streets of a town. Formerly, a system of cooperation among determined active antislavery people in the United States, by which fugitive slaves were secretly helped to reach Canada.
Origin: In the latter sense railroad, and not railway, was used] "Their home was a principal entrepot of the underground railroad." .
Source: Websters Vocabulary