Glossary
Locomotive Engineer Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential locomotive engineer terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key locomotive engineer vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in locomotive engineer training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Air brake test
- Checking that brakes apply and release on every car.
- Consist
- The list of locomotives and cars in a train.
- Dispatcher
- The person who controls train movements.
- Dynamic brake
- Using traction motors to slow the train.
- Emergency application
- Full, rapid brake application.
- Event recorder
- A device that records train operation data.
- GCOR
- General Code of Operating Rules used by many railroads.
- Grade
- The slope of track.
- Hot box
- An overheated wheel bearing.
- Hours of service
- Federal rules limiting train crew work time.
- PTC
- Positive train control: a system that can stop trains to prevent certain accidents.
- Signal aspect
- What a signal displays to the engineer.
- Slack
- Movement between cars caused by couplers.
- Tie down
- Securing a parked train with hand brakes.
- Track warrant
- Written authority to occupy a section of track.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Locomotive Engineer practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Locomotive Engineer training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.