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What, in rule book terms, is a "vehicle"?

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Lewis5949

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Some parts of the rule book, such as brake defects, mention "vehicles", but the glossary of railway terminology doesn't actually clarify what a "vehicle" is and a Google isn't helpful. I'm taking a guess "vehicle" means "coach" as in you are in coach 1 of 10, but the way it is used could be read as "unit" as in two five car units coupled up.

Any clarification appreciated!
 
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GC class B1

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Some parts of the rule book, such as brake defects, mention "vehicles", but the glossary of railway terminology doesn't actually clarify what a "vehicle" is and a Google isn't helpful. I'm taking a guess "vehicle" means "coach" as in you are in coach 1 of 10, but the way it is used could be read as "unit" as in two five car units coupled up.

Any clarification appreciated!
I understand a vehicle to be any discreet item of Rolling Stock. This could be a locomotive, wagon or coach that can be disconnected from the adjacent vehicles. As an example a 4-car multiple unit comprises 4 vehicles. The situation with articulated units such as the Stadler Class 755 is more complicated and whilst I still think each separate passenger body is a vehicle I stand to be corrected.
 

etr221

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While it might be thought a circular argument, I would consider a vehicle to something which has - or might have - a vehicle number (UIC 12 digit or other) or code. Normally this is as GCclass B1 says:
I understand a vehicle to be any discreet item of Rolling Stock. This could be a locomotive, wagon or coach that can be disconnected from the adjacent vehicles.
.. and as he says for articulated combinations, it gets complicated: some are formed of multiple vehicles (most railway multipleunits), but others are far more single vehicles (locos and trams). For this whether it has one or muliple number(s), code(s) and data plate (s) are perhaps a useful guide (and for rulebook purposes, if there is doubt as to whether it is, 'yes' is probably a safe answer)
 

Efini92

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We got taught a vehicle had all the necessary equipment to propel itself.
However these days vehicle/coach/carriage seem to just be interchangeable.
 

Gloster

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As an old-school railwayman, from an operating viewpoint I would say that a vehicle is anything that has buffers and coupling gear. If it can be uncoupled from what is to either side of it, it’s a vehicle. I realise that permanently coupled multiple-units and goods wagons may be a borderline case.
 

norbitonflyer

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As an old-school railwayman, from an operating viewpoint I would say that a vehicle is anything that has buffers and coupling gear. If it can be uncoupled from what is to either side of it, it’s a vehicle. I realise that permanently coupled multiple-units and goods wagons may be a borderline case.
Class 139?
 

4F89

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Surely a rail vehicle is anything designed to run on rails, in the same way a road vehicle for roads, an off road vehicle for.... you guessed it.

An individual vehicle would count as a singular item for each body. Just because a part of an MU would need another vehicle attached in order to work correctly, doesn't stop it being an independent vehicle.

OTMs are still vehicles, some designed for on and off rail applications. It's basically anything designed to run on rails.
 

swt_passenger

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The rail group standard which defines the rules for “vehicle identification numbers” surely implies what a vehicle is? Anything that the rolling stock library gives a unique identity in their database.
 

sw1ller

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Something with wheels, with flanges.
This. If it’s got wheels then it’s a vehicle. I think you’re over complicating it. The rule book isn’t there to catch you out, it’s MEANT to be written in simple terms so this type of stuff doesn’t happen and no confusion arises.
However, it’s littered with all sorts of cack.
It would help if you gave an example that’s made you ask the question? I’m guessing door or brake isolations?
 

WestRiding

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This. If it’s got wheels then it’s a vehicle. I think you’re over complicating it. The rule book isn’t there to catch you out, it’s MEANT to be written in simple terms so this type of stuff doesn’t happen and no confusion arises.
However, it’s littered with all sorts of cack.
It would help if you gave an example that’s made you ask the question? I’m guessing door or brake isolations?
Yep, from a pway trolley to freight wagon, to a locomotive. All vehicles.

Thanks. Not often people agree :lol:
 

Highlandspring

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For ‘Line Clear Verification’ purposes it’s anything rail mounted with more than two wheels.
 

norbitonflyer

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There is some ambiguity with articulated rolling stock - the DLR, and indeed many tram systems treats their articulated units as single vehicles (so a "two-car" train actually has four bodies), but National Rail and its predecessors gave individual numbers to the individual elements of articulated sets, from Gresley Quad-Arts to Cartics to APTs to Eurostars to FLIRTs.

Was a Class 13 one vehicle or two? A steam locomotive and its tender? Any double-bogie vehicle? Some class 40 bogies were converted into snowploughs, and presumably were then treated as two separate vehicles.

I am sure that if the distinction were important the Rule Book would define the term. .
 

LAX54

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This. If it’s got wheels then it’s a vehicle. I think you’re over complicating it. The rule book isn’t there to catch you out, it’s MEANT to be written in simple terms so this type of stuff doesn’t happen and no confusion arises.
However, it’s littered with all sorts of cack.
It would help if you gave an example that’s made you ask the question? I’m guessing door or brake isolations?
Think the main issue was it was checked over by the 'Plain English' society commited to clearer communication , and made it more confusing !
 

507020

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I’m not sure specifically about vehicles because I’ve seen the terminology “bogie vehicles and class 14x vehicles” may run on such a line before now. This would indicate that while Pacers fit under the umbrella of “vehicles” they do not constitute “trains”, but that there may also be something which runs on the railway but is strictly speaking not a “vehicle”.
 

XAM2175

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I’m not sure specifically about vehicles because I’ve seen the terminology “bogie vehicles and class 14x vehicles” may run on such a line before now. This would indicate that while Pacers fit under the umbrella of “vehicles” they do not constitute “trains”, but that there may also be something which runs on the railway but is strictly speaking not a “vehicle”.
No, it says that because Pacers don't have bogies.
 

507020

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No, it says that because Pacers don't have bogies.
Pacers don’t have bogies and yet the document effectively states that everything that runs on the railway should have bogies, which is true, but due to the misguided existence of the Pacers and the insistence in the 1980s that no better quality vehicles were to be built, had to make an exception for them.

If such a thing exists that is of such poor quality to not even constitute being a “vehicle” then it would have to be considerably worse than any 4 wheeled Pacer, which while just about able to qualify as “vehicles” cannot claim to be “bogie vehicles” which all rail vehicles should be.

I put to you this. If you were to build a simple frame and attach to it plain flat blocks similar to the ones visible in the attached image, but with the addition of flanges to allow it to sit stationary on rails without detailing and then coupled it to a locomotive and dragged it to another location (presumably causing significant damage to the track in the process) would it be able to call itself a “vehicle” despite not being “wheeled” if that is one of the criteria or even having any moving parts?
 

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XAM2175

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Pacers don’t have bogies and yet the document effectively states that everything that runs on the railway should have bogies, which is true, but due to the misguided existence of the Pacers and the insistence in the 1980s that no better quality vehicles were to be built, had to make an exception for them.
... your point being?
 

Efini92

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Pacers don’t have bogies and yet the document effectively states that everything that runs on the railway should have bogies, which is true, but due to the misguided existence of the Pacers and the insistence in the 1980s that no better quality vehicles were to be built, had to make an exception for them.

If such a thing exists that is of such poor quality to not even constitute being a “vehicle” then it would have to be considerably worse than any 4 wheeled Pacer, which while just about able to qualify as “vehicles” cannot claim to be “bogie vehicles” which all rail vehicles should be.

I put to you this. If you were to build a simple frame and attach to it plain flat blocks similar to the ones visible in the attached image, but with the addition of flanges to allow it to sit stationary on rails without detailing and then coupled it to a locomotive and dragged it to another location (presumably causing significant damage to the track in the process) would it be able to call itself a “vehicle” despite not being “wheeled” if that is one of the criteria or even having any moving parts?
What document are you referring to?
there’s plenty of freight wagons that don’t have bogies.
 

507020

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There’s plenty knocking about
I’ve actually been looking every time I see a freight train knocking about to see how many axles the wagons have for this reason and have failed to see any with less than 8.
 

norbitonflyer

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I’m not sure specifically about vehicles because I’ve seen the terminology “bogie vehicles and class 14x vehicles” may run on such a line before now. This would indicate that while Pacers fit under the umbrella of “vehicles” they do not constitute “trains”, but that there may also be something which runs on the railway but is strictly speaking not a “vehicle”.
The terminology used there is presumably because the statement refers to a rule, permission, or whatever, where a distinction is made between bogie and non-bogie vehicles, but an exception is made for Pacers. (Other non-bogie vehicles that operate on NR include steam locomotive tenders, snowploughs, conventional coal hopper wagons, road/rail vehicles .....)

The question about what is a "train" is a completely different can of worms. It originally meant something which followed along behind ("enter the King and his train", or that part of a long dress that trails along the ground behind the wearer). In rail usage it was used for carriages and or wagons pulled by a horse or locomotive (most "trainspotters" are in fact locospotters) but in common usage a train also includes the motive power itself, whether pulling, or pushing the payload-carrying vehicles, or incorporated in them. Generally a single unpowered carriage or wagon would not be thought of as a "train" (even if it were running away) but for want of a better term a single-car unit like a 139 or 153 can be a "train" as, in some contexts, can a light locomotive.
 

GC class B1

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Pacers don’t have bogies and yet the document effectively states that everything that runs on the railway should have bogies, which is true, but due to the misguided existence of the Pacers and the insistence in the 1980s that no better quality vehicles were to be built, had to make an exception for them.

If such a thing exists that is of such poor quality to not even constitute being a “vehicle” then it would have to be considerably worse than any 4 wheeled Pacer, which while just about able to qualify as “vehicles” cannot claim to be “bogie vehicles” which all rail vehicles should be.

I put to you this. If you were to build a simple frame and attach to it plain flat blocks similar to the ones visible in the attached image, but with the addition of flanges to allow it to sit stationary on rails without detailing and then coupled it to a locomotive and dragged it to another location (presumably causing significant damage to the track in the process) would it be able to call itself a “vehicle” despite not being “wheeled” if that is one of the criteria or even having any moving parts?
I do not understand why you are making this an issue. Rolling stock includes all vehicles with wheels and only those with wheels. A railway vehicle must have wheels so your point is irrelevant. You seem to to trying to make a simple practical concept into something complicated and irrelevant.
 

O L Leigh

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The OP was not asking about what you think is a vehicle but how the rule book defines it in order to understand what certain instructions may mean. In this regard a vehicle is a single coach, wagon or locomotive, and this includes multiple unit trains irrespective of how their wheels and axles are laid out. Therefore a Cl321 is formed of four vehicles, a Cl156 of two vehicles and a 2+8 HST of ten vehicles.

The reason for this is to understand the rules when working out things like how to move a train which has some brakes isolated. Brakes are isolated on individual vehicles rather than across the entire train, so you need to know the proportion of braked to unbraked vehicles in the train as this dictates whether or not specific speed restrictions apply.

I’m sure someone who signs Stadlers will correct me on this, but my understanding is that articulated units such as these are still counted in vehicles. Precisely how these work within the rules will no doubt depend largely on how things like brake isolations are carried out and how the ratio of braked and unbraked is calculated. Given that these use Jacobs bogies shares between the vehicles it may be that brakes are isolated on individual bogies rather than individual vehicles and that this is the basis on which the calculation is based. If so, I’m sure you will find that this is stated in the traction instructions specific to those classes. In instances such as this, the rules set the principles which are then interpreted and applied to specific situations such as this.
 
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