Collective nouns: trains, sets, units, coaches, locomotives, power-cars and the like.

[David Pemberton]

(I’m probably going to regret starting this thread, don’t read it unless you like long stories, and apologies if this has been raised before, but here goes...)

This is my understanding of the terms used to describe the way rolling stock is put together to form the trains we travel on. I’ve probably got this all muddled and wrong, and please stay with me if some of it is a bit convoluted.

In the olden days:

A formation of a locomotive plus carriages/coaches* together made up a “train”. The carriages can be added/removed and the locomotive swapped so a train is not a fixed formation.

IC 125 & 225

225: a formation of a locomotive, carriages, and a driving van trailer, together make up a fixed-formation “set” and the set is the “train” that we passengers ride on. (Confusingly sometimes called a “train set”, but not made by Hornby).

Similarly 125: a formation of a power-car, carriages, and another power-car, together make up a fixed-formation “set” and again the set is the “train” that we passengers ride on.

(Stay with me, now it gets trickier)

Meridians and their ilk

5 units: a formation of a driving unit, three trailer units, and another driving unit, together make up a fixed formation “set”, and again the set is the train that we passengers ride on. A “unit” being a self-powered carriage. The units being joined together to make the generic type “diesel multiple-unit” (note the hyphen between multiple and unit, so many units rather than many diesels, although there are, of course, many diesels).

5+5 units: a formation of two 5-unit sets, making up the train that we passengers ride on. The two sets, because of their driving cabs, having “no walk-way between them both”, as the ever-cheery EMT train manager Oliver likes to put it.

So when I’m sitting on my train south in the morning, which is a Meridian 5+5 formation, and the announcement is “This train is made up of two units joined together”, I think to myself, “it’s either ten units joined together, or two sets joined together, but if it is just two units it’s going to get very crowded by the time we’re at Market Harborough”, then I’m probably being a bit of a pedant.

But then listening to the same announcement 200 times a year does that to you – can’t they make they make them shorter – the announcements rather than the trains this is.

*lastly, is it a coach or a carriage? I’m in Coach A at the moment, but I’m sure that we talk of carriage sidings and carriage works.

 

[EM2]

I'd disagree slightly.
A five (or four or three or two) coach set is one multiple unit. A single vehicle (e.g a class 121) can also be a multiple unit (because they can work in multiple).
A train is any number of vehicles coupled together. One loco cannot be a train...although is a single-car unit a train? :-?

 

[WatcherZero]

So a Railcar is only a railcar if it cant work in multiple?

Tbh its like Eskimos and snow, we have more words than we need, for example we could lose one of coach/carriage.

 

[bnm]

Tbh its like Eskimos and snow, we have more words than we need, for example we could lose one of coach/carriage.

And occasionally you'll hear catering staff on East Coast refer, over the PA, to the restaurant car!

 

[jopsuk]

a set of coaches, especially a semi-fixed formation (or even fully fixed, as with eg TGVs) often gets referred to as a "rake". Just thought I'd add that one in...

 

[asylumxl]

I'd also like to add that, a MU carriage does not necessarily need to be powered.

For example a 319 has 4 carriages, with only one being powered (second carriage houses the motors and pantograph+ancillaries). All 3 other carriages are trailers.

 

[Daimler]

And occasionally you'll hear catering staff on East Coast refer, over the PA, to the restaurant car!

Not merely to the restaurant car, but on FGW I've heard staff on the train report faults referring to the vehicle as 'Car No. *****'.

 

[TDK]

Not merely to the restaurant car, but on FGW I've heard staff on the train report faults referring to the vehicle as 'Car No. *****'.

But it all leads to the same conclusion they are all trains

A MU is a train, a loco is a train, a coach is a part of a train, so to stop all this BS and confusion they are all or parts of trains

 

[Daimler]

But it all leads to the same conclusion they are all trains

A MU is a train, a loco is a train, a coach is a part of a train, so to stop all this BS and confusion they are all or parts of trains

Are you sure?

I don't have a dictionary to hand, but I'm fairly certain the definition of 'train' stipulates that it must be a series of vehicles connected together, as EM2 stated above.