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rail (a continuous line)

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RailAdept

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Hi there,



I’m trying to figure out some railway-related terms when translating texts into English and have come up against a term I’m not quite sure how to put in English so that it comes across clearly and unambiguously.

Here’s a definition I found in the Oxford Dictionary:

rail

[…]

2. A steel bar or continuous line of bars laid on the ground as one of a pair forming a railway track.


I need a term which only means the other part of this definition, i.e. A […] continuous line of bars laid on the ground as one of a pair forming a railway track.

https://www.lexico.com/definition/rail


The term in the source language (Polish) is composed of two words and its verbatim English translation could read:

rail course

rail run

A provisionally translated definition of it:

rail - a series of rails laid down one behind the other and constituting an uninterrupted strip. (right and left)​


Is there any fixed English equivalent (meaning continuous line of bars)? If not, how could it be rendered into English so that its unambiguous (especially, so that you can differentiate between rail meaning a steel bar and rail meaning a continuous line of bars)? It may be made up of more than one word, though succintness would definitely be an asset.


Input appreciated.
 
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WAO

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I think that the words you are looking for are just railway or railroad. Once these were two words but familiarity (and colloquial and American English) has merged them.

These have the twin elements of steel rail and communication link - road or way (Latin Via).
Russian (which is close to Polish) uses Iron Road ( Z.. D..) as does the German Eisenbahn and French, Chemin de Fer etc

Language is just noises we make to allude to objects!

WAO
 

S&CLER

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Greetings from a (retired) translator to another. I've looked at the UIC Lexique Général des Termes Ferroviaires, but it isn't much help, as it doesn't do any Eastern European languages (at least the 1965 edition I have ). I would be tempted to say that track or track panel, or length of track might come close to what I think you want, but it isn't really satisfactory, since it would include ballast and sleepers. I know exactly how you feel, as I have faced problems like this myself.

PS. WAO just beat me to it with his reply, but I agree with him that railway will probably convey everything you need. This takes me back a few decades, when I had to go over to Balfour Beatty in Kirkby to sort through a huge mass of documents, all in Danish only, for an electrification scheme in Denmark (Copenhagen-Roskilde, IIRC). I had to make a list of all the titles and find the all-important Invitation to Tender. I did the legal and financial docs and another man did the technical specs. Balfour Beatty got the job. The fee I earned was enough for a rail holiday in Denmark, on a first class all line rover.
 
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notlob.divad

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I know / am learning Polish, and live in Poland. I am trying to understand the context from your post, maybe you could post the original Polish to give me a better insight. (Obviously don't break any confidentiality in your work.

You seem to imply that you need the name for a singular, as in the left or the right, but not both. I would therefore disagree with the above, as the Railway (or Railroad), to me imply either the track construction (both rails, sleepers and ballast) or the whole formation, including embankments cuttings bridges etc. - dependent upon context.

I agree with you that what you appear to be looking for is some derivation from the word 'rail' implying one of the two continuous metal rails that form the track, and that is it the 2nd word that is more neuanced.

Perhaps you are looking for "a run of rail" or some synonym there of.
 

RailAdept

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Thank you both. I hasten to add one more piece of information which may not be clear from my previous message: it’s only one rail of a track, not both.



As I see the definition of railway in the Oxford Dictionary:

railway

noun

  • 1British A track made of steel rails along which trains run.
‘services were disrupted after an eight-year-old boy was spotted trespassing on the railway’

North American term railroad

as modifier ‘a railway line’

  1. · 1.1A set of tracks for other vehicles.
· 2British A network of tracks with the trains, organization, and personnel required for its working.

‘the carriage of freight on the railways’



https://www.lexico.com/definition/railway



a railway is composed of at least two rails. Basically, the term I'm looking for should encompass the continuous nature of a rail making up a track/railway, while the term rail is reserved for a bar which is used to build rails of a track/railway.
 

RailAdept

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I know / am learning Polish, and live in Poland. I am trying to understand the context from your post, maybe you could post the original Polish to give me a better insight. (Obviously don't break any confidentiality in your work.

You seem to imply that you need the name for a singular, as in the left or the right, but not both. I would therefore disagree with the above, as the Railway (or Railroad), to me imply either the track construction (both rails, sleepers and ballast) or the whole formation, including embankments cuttings bridges etc. - dependent upon context.

I agree with you that what you appear to be looking for is some derivation from the word 'rail' implying one of the two continuous metal rails that form the track, and that is it the 2nd word that is more neuanced.

Perhaps you are looking for "a run of rail" or some synonym there of.
I've just seen your post. I think you're on the money here, notlob.divad. I was kind of thinking about 'running rail'. However, I looked up 'running rail' and it seems its meaning is a tad different from the one I'm looking for:
running rail
noun
Maybe your suggestion, 'a run of rail', could fit in. I need some time to have a thought about it. Please do let me know if something else occurs to you. :)
 
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trebor79

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I think the word you are looking for is "rail"? Lots of words in English have different meanings dependant upon context. So rail can mean either an individual length of rail, or a longer length forming one side of the track.
Eg.
1. A railway is formed from rails laid on sleepers, with each rail bolted or welded to the next.
2. The left rail was found to be damaged for 300m following the derailment.

In example 2, "rail" could apply equally to a single 300m welded section, or a series of shorter rails bolted together with fishplates.
 

O L Leigh

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I think the word you are looking for is "rail"?

I would tend to agree. I was puzzling over your original post this morning but was unsure what meaning you were driving at.

The word “rail” tends not to hold any connotations of length within its meaning. It could be anything from a short off-cut to a length of ribbon rail many metres long to the seemingly endless length installed on the track.
 

30907

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"continuous length of rail" possibly? Just "length of rail" probably means a single 60ft section.
Would the German for this be Schienenstrang (though I think that is also used for length of track, ie rails plus sleepers)?
 

S&CLER

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"continuous length of rail" possibly? Just "length of rail" probably means a single 60ft section.
Would the German for this be Schienenstrang (though I think that is also used for length of track, ie rails plus sleepers)?

I've just had a look at https://britishsteel.co.uk/media/40459/rail-handling-handbook-online.pdf You should find authoritative terminology used by the manufacturer there. They have a version in Polish, I see from their website, which is very clear and easily followed, so you may be able to cross-check English and Polish versions. Google rail manufacturers and you will soon find it. Before Google this kind of thing used to take ages if you were unsure of a precise term.
 

oldman

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The PWI uses 'running rail' as in 'Track gauge is the distance between two running rails'.
 
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