Jargon and Rail .:. grubbykid.com

Jargon and Rail

So tooling around some rail-geek forums, one constantly encounters jargon and acronyms, seemingly used as barriers of entry for the uninitiated. Case in point:

First off, the Grand Jct. would be totally out of the way. Secondly it is FRA Excepted track, which means no revenue service could be run over it in it's current condition.
- CSX Conductor

I also forgot to mention that many avatars and usernames either come directly from railroads or railroad-type nouns - ie: CSX Conductor. Uber-geeky, indeed. The point of this story, is that often I have to google search things to figure out what the crap people are talking about. In this case I wondered what "FRA Excepted track" was - a combination of an acronym and apparent jargon.

Well, FRA is the Federal Railroad Administration which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation which oversees all railroads in the U.S. - interstate commerce clause and all. As for Excepted track, here is a summary:

The revised track safety regulations include a stricter, safer standard for "excepted track." Track lines designated by railroads as "excepted" are exempt from compliance with minimum requirements for roadbed, track geometry and track structure. The excepted track provision, which has been part of the track safety regulations for more than 15 years, permits railroads to conduct limited, slow-speed operations over substandard trackage on low density lines where it is unlikely that a derailment would endanger anyone along the right-of-way.

Under the revised regulations, excepted track will have to meet a minimum gauge requirement, and railroads will be obligated to perform periodic inspections of switches on excepted track. This change is designed to reduce the number and severity of derailments on trackage of many marginal lines.
- FRA 25 JUN 1998 Briefing

So there you go, we have two new words for our vocabulary, kids. Go forth and use them well!

Jargon and Rail

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