Rolling stock

This article is about train cars. For the genre of motorsports, see stock car racing.
Variety of rolling stock in railway yard

Rolling stock originally referred to the vehicles that move on a railway. It has since expanded to include the wheeled vehicles used by businesses on roadways. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for example locomotives, railroad cars, coaches, and wagons.[1][2][3][4] However, in some countries (including the United Kingdom), the term is usually used to refer only to unpowered vehicles, specifically excluding locomotives[5] which may be referred to as running stock, traction or motive power.

Overview

Rolling stock is considered to be a liquid asset, or close to it, since the value of the vehicle can be readily estimated and then shipped to the buyer without much cost or delay.

The term contrasts with fixed stock (infrastructure), which is a collective term for the track, signals, stations, other buildings, electric wires, etc., necessary to operate a railway.

As per MarketsandMarkets analysis, Market size of rolling stock market in terms of value is estimated to be at $38.5 billion in 2014, which is projected to grow to $45.7 billion by 2019 at a CAGR of 3.48%.

Code names

In Great Britain, types of rolling stock were given code names, often of animals. For example "Toad" was used as a code name for the Great Western Railway goods brake van,[6] while British Railways wagons used for track maintenance were named after fish, such as "Dogfish" for a ballast hopper.[7] These codes were telegraphese, somewhat analogous to the SMS language of today.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rolling stock.
Look up rolling stock in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ↑ "Yaxham Light Railway rolling stock page".
  2. ↑ "Definition of "rolling stock" from the Oxford English Dictionary accessed 5 February 2007 (subscription service)".
  3. ↑ "Definition of "rolling stock" from the Concise Oxford Dictionary".
  4. ↑ "Definition from the American Heritage Dictionary".
  5. ↑ "Network Rail guidance for storage and recommissioning of Traction and Rolling Stock" (PDF).
  6. ↑ http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/stockcode.htm
  7. ↑ http://archive.is/20120630225124/http://www.btinternet.com/~second_engineering/fishkinds_and_tops.htm[]