Glossary
Railroad Track Equipment Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential railroad track equipment operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key railroad track equipment operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in railroad track equipment operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Ballast
- Crushed stone bed.
- Gang
- Work crew.
- Gauge
- Distance between rails.
- Hi-rail
- Truck that runs on rails.
- Job briefing
- Daily safety meeting.
- Lookout
- Watches for trains.
- Maintenance of way
- Track maintenance department.
- Rail anchor
- Prevents rail creep.
- Roadway worker protection
- FRA safety rules.
- Spike
- Holds rail to ties.
- Surfacing
- Leveling track.
- Switch
- Moves trains between tracks.
- Tamper
- Packs ballast under ties.
- Tie
- Crosspiece under rails.
- Permission to occupy track.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Railroad Track Equipment Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Railroad Track Equipment Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.