Glossary
Railroad Switch Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential railroad switch operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key railroad switch operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in railroad switch operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Air hose
- Brake line.
- Blue flag
- Protects workers.
- Car length
- Radio distance unit.
- Coupling
- Joining cars.
- Cut lever
- Uncouples cars.
- Derail
- Device that stops runaway cars.
- FRA
- Federal Railroad Administration.
- Hand brake
- Manual brake.
- Hump
- Gravity yard.
- Job briefing
- Daily safety talk.
- Knuckle
- Coupler part.
- Lining a switch
- Setting it for a route.
- Point of protection
- Watching ahead of a move.
- Switch
- Moves trains between tracks.
- Yard
- Switching area.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Railroad Switch Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Railroad Switch Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.