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A railroad car or railway carriage (or, more briefly, car or carriage not to be confused with railcar, sometimes also wag(g)on), is a vehicle on a railroad (or railway) that is not a locomotive — one that provides another purpose than purely haulage, although some types of car are powered. Cars can be coupled together into a train, either hauled by one or more locomotives or self-propelled.

Most cars carry a "revenue" load, although "non-revenue" cars exist for the railroad's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. Such uses can generally be divided into the carriage of passengers and of freight.

"Revenue" cars are basically of two types: passenger cars, or coaches, and freight cars or wagons.

Passenger cars

Main article: Passenger car

Passenger cars, or coaches, vary in their internal fittings:

In standard gauge cars, seating is usually three, four, or five seats across the width of the car, with an aisle in between (resulting in 2+1, 2+2 or 3+2 seats) or at the side. Tables may be present between seats facing one another. Alternatively, seats facing the same direction may have access to a fold-down ledge on the back of the seat in front.

• If the aisle is located between seats, seat rows may face the same direction, or be grouped, with twin rows facing each other. Sometimes, for example on a commuter train, seats may face the aisle.
• If the aisle is at the side, the car is usually divided in small compartments. These usually contain 6 seats, although sometimes in second class they contain 8, and sometimes in first class they contain 4.

Passenger cars can take the electricity supply for heating and lighting equipment from two main sources - either directly from the locomotive via bus cables; or by an axle powered generator which continuously charges batteries whenever the train is in motion.

Cars usually have either air-conditioning or windows that can be opened (sometimes, for safety, not so far that one can hang out), or sometimes both. Toilet facilities are also usual, though the setup varies (see passenger train human waste disposal).

Other types of passenger car exist, especially for long journeys, such as the dining car, parlor car, disco car, and in rare cases theater and movie theater car. In some cases another type of car is temporarily converted to one of these for an event.

Observation cars were built for the rear of many famous trains to allow the passengers to view the scenery. 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.

Sleeping cars outfitted with (generally) small bedrooms allow passengers to sleep through their night-time trips, while couchette cars provide more basic sleeping accommodation. Long-distance trains often require baggage cars for the passengers' luggage. In European practice it is common for day coaches to be formed of compartments seating 6 or 8 passengers, with access from a side corridor. In the UK, Corridor coaches fell into disfavor in the 1960s and 1970s partially because open coaches are considered more secure by women traveling alone.

Another distinction is between single- and double deck train cars. An example of a double decker is the Amtrak superliner.

A "trainset" (or "set") is a semi-permanently arranged formation of cars, rather than one created 'ad hoc' out of whatever cars are available. These are only broken up and reshuffled 'on shed' (in the maintenance depot). Trains are then built of one or more of these 'sets' coupled together as needed for the capacity of that train.

Often, but not always, passenger cars in a train are linked together with enclosed, flexible gangway connections that can be walked through by passengers and crew members. Some designs incorporate semi-permanent connections between cars and may have a full-width connection, making in essence one longer, flexible 'car'. In North America, passenger equipment also employ tightlock couplings to keep a train reasonably intact in the event of a derailment or other accident.

Many multiple unit trains consist of cars which are semi-permanently coupled into sets; these sets may be joined together to form larger trains, but generally passengers can only move around between cars within a set. This "closed" nature allows the separate sets to be easily split to go separate ways. Some multiple-unit trainsets are designed so that corridor connections can be easily opened between coupled sets; this generally requires driving cabs either set off to the side or (as in the Dutch Koploper) above the passenger compartment. These cabs or driving trailers are also useful for quickly reversing the train.

Rail transport passenger equipment
Head-end equipment	Baggage • Express reefer • Horse car • RPO • TPO
Passenger-carrying equipment	Coach • Couchette • Diner • Dome • Lounge • Observation • Sleeper / Pullman
Miscellaneous equipment	Combine • Troop kitchen / Troop sleeper

Freight cars

Freight cars or (UK: "wagons" or "trucks") exist in a wide variety of types, adapted to the ideal carriage of a whole host of different things. Originally there were very few types of car; the boxcar (UK: "van"), a closed box with side doors, was among the first.

Common types of freight cars include:

• Lorry - An open railroad car (gondola) with a tipping trough, often found in mines.
• Coil cars - a specialized type of rolling stock designed for the transport of coils of sheet metal, particularly steel. They are considered a subtype of the gondola car, though they bear little resemblance to a typical gondola.
• Autoracks - (also called auto carriers) specialized multi-level cars designed for transportation of unladen automobiles
• Boxcars (or vans) - box shape with roof and side or end doors
• Hicube boxcars
• Refrigerator cars (or, colloquially, reefers) - a refrigerated subtype of boxcar
• Airplane parts cars
• Flatcars (or flat) - for larger loads that don't load easily into a boxcar. Specialised types such as the depressed-center flatcar (aka "well car") exist for truly outsize items or the Schnabel car for even larger and heavier loads. With the advent of containerised freight, special types of flatcar were built to carry standard shipping containers and semi-trailers.
• Centerbeam cars
• Gondolas - railroad cars with an open top but enclosed sides and end, for bulk commodities and other goods that might slide off. Some (well cars) allow containers to be stacked two high (double stacked).
• Hoppers - similar to gondolas but with bottom dump doors for easy unloading of things like coal, ore, grain, cement, track ballast and the like. Short hoppers for carrying iron ore are called ore jennys.
• Covered hoppers - similar to open top hoppers but with a cover for weather- and temperature-sensitive loads.
• Brake Van (UK) British version of a Caboose. It usually has only four wheels.
• Conflat (UK) A flat truck for carrying containers
• Lowmac (UK) A low-floor wagon for carrying machinery
• Tippler (UK), Gondola (US), An open wagon with no doors or roof which was unloaded by being inverted on a Wagon Tippler (UK) or Rotary car dumper (US). They were, or are (US), used for minerals, such as coal, limestone and iron ore as well as other bulk cargo.
• Tank cars - for the carriage of liquids
• Slate wagons - specialized freightcars used to transport slate
• Stock cars - for the transport of livestock
• Well cars - specialized cars designed for carrying shipping containers. These have a very low bottom floor to allow double stacking, and articulated 3- and 5-car sets are common.
• CargoSprinter - a self propelled container flatcar.
• Transporter wagon - a wagon designed to carry other railway equipment.
• Roll-block - a train designed to carry another railway train.
• Modalohr road trailer carriers

The vast majority of freight cars fit into the above categories.

Rail transport freight equipment
Enclosed equipment	Autorack · Boxcar · Coil car · Container · Covered hopper · Refrigerator car · Roadrailer · Stock car · Tank car
Open equipment	Flatcar · Gondola · Hopper car · Schnabel car
Non-revenue equipment	Caboose

Non-revenue cars

• Cabooses (or guard's vans or brakevans) which attach to the rear of freight trains to order to watch the train and assist in shoving moves.
• Maintenance of way (MOW) cars, for the maintenance of track and equipment
• Handcars, which are powered by their passengers
• Railroad cranes
• Rail car mover — some of which resemble HiRail trucks.
• Road-rail vehicle

Military cars

Military armoured trains use several types of specialized cars:

• artillery — fielding mixture of guns and machine guns
• infantry — fielding machine guns, designed to carry infantry units
• machine gun — dedicated to machine guns
• anti-air — equipped with anti-air guns
• command — similar to infantry wagons, but designed to be a train command center
• anti-tank — equipped with anti-tank guns, usually in a tank gun turret
• platform — unarmoured, with purposes ranging from transport of ammunition or vehicles, through track repair or derailing protection to railroad ploughs for railroad destruction.
• troop sleepers

See also

• List of rolling stock manufacturers
• Air brake (rail)
• Railway brakes
• Vacuum brake
• Tram

External links

• List of railroad car manufacturers by country (in French)
• History of the Ralston Steel Car Company, Columbus, Ohio

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