
Related to rail: IRCTC


common name for a migratory marsh bird related to rails and gallinules and found in North America and Europe. The American coot (Fulica americana), or mud hen, is slate gray with a white bill, black head and neck, and white wing edgings and tail patch.
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A bar of wood or other material passing from one post or support to another support; a horizontal piece in the frame or paneling, as in a door rail or in the framework of a window sash.



a wooden or metal plank mounted above the bulwarks or stanchions and lifelines of a vessel.



a bar of grooved and rolled steel that is used for the movement of railroad and subway rolling stock, streetcars, locomotives, pit cars, monorail cars, crane trolleys, and other structures that are capable of locomotion, turning, or revolving.

Metal rails were first produced in 1767 in Great Britain. In Russia cast-iron rails were used in mine and factory lines in 1788 at the Alexander Cannon Factory in Petrozavodsk. Rolled-steel rails were widely used in the second half of the 19th century—in Russia they were manufactured in, for example, the Putilov Factory. Rails are now produced by means of rolling production and are made of special rail steel, which has a chemical composition that is determined by government standards.

Railroad rails are part of a track superstructure and are laid on supports and are attached to the supports and to each other, forming a track. Railroad rails receive the load stress of the rolling-stock wheels. In the USSR there are four types of rails—R43, R50, R65, and R75—each classified according to a rounded-off weight of 1 m. The cross section of the rails is similar to that of an I-beam, and its dimensions are regulated by government standards. The selection of a rail type depends on the freight-traffic density of the line. In the mid-1950’s rails 12.5 m long were produced. Since the early 1970’s there has been a transition to rails 25 m long. Short rails are produced for laying track in curved sections. The basic information about the rail is registered on each rolled bar. Railroad rails produced outside the USSR differ somewhat from those produced within the country, although their cross section is also shaped like an I-beam.

Streetcar rails are made in the same way as railroad rails, but they have a depression and are usually higher and have a greater cross section area. These rails are 15–18 m long and are usually welded together upon laying the track.

Rails lighter than railroad rails are used for pit cars, mobile hoisting cranes and their mechanisms, and turning and rotary units; in some cases, these rails have a special cross section.


Shakhuniants, G. M. Zheleznodorozhnyi put’. Moscow, 1969.
Chernyshev, M. A. Zheleznodorozhnyi put’. Moscow, 1974.




A bar extending between posts or other supports as a barrier or guard.
A steel bar resting on the crossties to provide track for railroad cars and other vehicles with flanged wheels.
(mechanical engineering)
A high-pressure manifold in some fuel injection systems.


rail, 3
ragwork, 1


1. one of a pair of parallel bars laid on a prepared track, roadway, etc., that serve as a guide and running surface for the wheels of a railway train, tramcar, etc.
a. short for railway
b. (as modifier): rail transport
3. Nautical a trim for finishing the top of a bulwark


any of various small wading birds of the genus Rallus and related genera: family Rallidae, order Gruiformes (cranes, etc.). They have short wings, long legs, and dark plumage
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005


Automatix. High-level language for industrial robots.


(1) See The Rail and Ruby.

(2) A DC voltage in a power supply. A computer's power supply converts AC power into several DC voltages (typically plus and minus 3.3v, 5v and 12v), each of which is known as a rail. The term comes from the power lines on motherboards. Power must be available throughout a motherboard; hence, voltage lines tend to run in long strips like railroad tracks.
References in classic literature ?
He fetched up against Captain Doane, whose grip had been torn loose from the rail. Both men crumpled down on deck with the wind knocked out of them.
While Daughtry was passing a turn of rope around the Ancient Mariner and the mizzen rigging and giving the turn to him to hold, Captain Doane crawled gasping to the rail and dragged himself erect.
The starboard rail buried under the sea as the schooner heeled to the blow, and, as she righted with a violent lurch, the water swashed across the deck to the knees of the sailors about the boat and spouted out of the port scuppers.
Inside the railed enclosure a lawyer was reading a typewritten speech.
Before a hand could stay him, the boy was over the rail and curving beautifully downward after the coin.