railwayn.
/ˈreɪlweɪ/, U.S. /ˈreɪlˌweɪ/ 1. A roadway laid with rails (originally of wood, later also of iron or steel) along which the wheels of wagons or trucks may run, in order to facilitate the transport of heavy loads, originally and chiefly from a colliery; a wagonway. Formerly also: †the lines of rails along such a road (obsolete). Cf. rail n.2 Now historical.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > a railway
railway1681
railroad1824
rail line1825
road1825
car line1833
chemin de fer1835
line1861
pike1940
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > road laid with parallel planks, slabs, or rails > [noun] > laid with rails
railway1681
railroad1757
plate railway1825
plateway1825
road railway1850
strap road1861
strap railroad1909
1681 Let. 4 Jan. in M. J. T. Lewis Early Wooden Railways (1970) xiii. 247 I tould Skelding that my Lord Windesor would bee very angry with him for distroying his raile way.
1756 A. Darby Diary 31 Jan. in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. (1913) 10 83 First Waggon of Pigs [of iron] came down the Railway.
1776 Act 16 Geo. III c. 32 To make..a rail-way from hence to or near Caledon.
1798 Term Rep. VII. 599 To the sleepers or dormant timbers they affixed railways or waggon ways.
1821 T. Gray Observ. Iron Rail-way i. 12 The canal boats might be towed by steam-engines running on a rail-way along the canal.
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 655 Five tons to a horse is the average work on railways, descending at the rate of three miles per hour.
1850 A. C. Lowell Elem. Astron. 45 In a few minutes the metal set in a compact form, and while intensely hot, was conveyed by a railway to an annealing oven, a few feet distant from the foundry.
1889 Engineer 68 454/1 Rope railways, as they were called, or ropeways, for transmitting minerals and goods, seem to be rapidly growing in favour, especially for mining purposes.
1920 D. H. Lawrence Women in Love xvii. 246 Down the valley ran the colliery railway, linking mine with mine.
1976 Illustr. London News Nov. 51/3 The first iron railway in France was designed, as in Britain, for the transport of coal from the mines to the water... But it used horse traction as often as steam.
1998 Canal Boat & Inland Waterways Aug. 85/1 This was a railway/canal interchange and goods were transhipped on the wharf here. The railway was unique in that it had several gradients so steep that the wagons had to be rope hauled up them.
2. A line or track typically consisting of a pair of iron or steel rails, along which carriages, wagons, or trucks conveying passengers or goods are moved by a locomotive engine or other powered unit. Also: a network or organization of such lines; a company which owns, manages, or operates such a line or network; this form of transportation.The first line in the United Kingdom to carry passengers was the Stockton and Darlington Railway (officially opened on 27 September 1825). Throughout the period of railway expansion in the 19th and early 20th centuries most locomotives were steam-powered. Steam trains were generally superseded by diesel and electric trains from the mid 20th cent.Frequently as the second element in compounds, as cable-, electric, funicular, light, model, tram-, underground, etc.: see the first element. British Railways: see British Railways n. at British adj. and n. Compounds 2.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun]
railway1822
railroad1824
road1825
rail1840
R1850
pike1940
1822 Times 29 July 3/3 Iron railway between Manchester and Liverpool.—For many years past an undertaking of this sort has..been a subject of consideration.
1825 Niles' Reg. 21 May 192/2 We have iron in abundance, timber and stone in abundance, land is cheap, therefore every advantage in making iron rail ways is thrown in our way.
1826 Act 7 Geo. IV c. 49 §38 Passing-places,..for the purpose of enabling waggons..drawn along the said..railway or tram road to pass each other.
1830 M. Edgeworth Let. 18 Oct. (1971) 418 We were invited..to go on the Liverpool railway in the very carriage in which the Duke of Wellington went.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Locksley Hall in Poems (new ed.) II. 108 In the steamship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind.
1868 M. E. Grant Duff Polit. Surv. 45 The construction of a railway would encounter no great difficulties.
1892 B. Potter Jrnl. 13 Sept. (1966) 260 To Perth with Papa, the first time I have been on the railway since we have been here.
1899 Harper's Weekly 28 Oct. 1099/3 The northern terminus of the Manila-Dagúpan railway.
1918 W. Cather My Ántonia Pref. p. xi He loves with a personal passion the great country through which his railway runs.
a1930 N. Munro in B. D. Osborne & R. Armstrong Erchie & Jimmy Swan (1993) i. v. 21 It's like travellin' on the railway; if ye gang first-class..ye micht as weel be in a hearse for a' ye see or hear; but gang third and ye'll aye find something to keep ye cheery if it's only fifteen chaps standin' on yer corns gaun to a fitba'-match.
1955 Times 9 May 4/5 The start of a new era for the railways.
1979 P. Theroux Old Patagonian Express (1980) iii. 56 The sleeping cars..were old American ones, from a railway in the States which had gone bankrupt.
1995 Time Out 9 Aug. 161/1 Each winner and a friend will be whisked to Edinburgh first class, courtesy of East Coast, Britain's fastest railway.
3. figurative and in extended use.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > rails for facilitating motion of wheels
railway1825
railroad1852
1825 Lancet 12 Mar. 301/1 Constructing a new ‘rail-way’ to heaven, out of flowers and scraps of scripture.
1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 177 To turn the wheel round at such rates that the spindles will not take up faster than the carriage moves on its rail-way.
1945 G. Millar Maquis ii. 30 On the side of the aircraft near the hole there were several little metal railways for holding the fixed end of the static lines.
1972 New Yorker 21 Oct. 114/2 A dilapidated car—a part of ‘the railway’—driven by a minister.
1980 A. N. Wilson Healing Art xviii. 212 The port railway scuttling its way up and down across the hearth.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive.
railway accident n.
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1830 Times 2 Nov. 1/5 The numerous casual railway accidents which it has been our painful duty to record.
1939 T. S. Eliot Family Reunion i. i. 43 We know about the railway accident.
1994 New Scientist 15 Jan. 42/3 Jean Martin Charcot had coined the term ‘railway spine’ to describe the hysterical trauma of male patients who had suffered railway accidents.
railway age n.
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1845 Times 9 Aug. 5/2 The navigators of the present railway age.
1952 G. H. Dury Map Interpr. xiii. 150 A long period of slow urban growth in which the street plan evolved, as it were, by natural selection, and a later recrudescence in the railway age.
2006 Star Phoenix (Saskatoon, Sask.) (Nexis) 6 Nov. a6 The railway age is gone, so much of the industrial land along the tracks at the south end of Caswell Hill is no longer right for the area.
railway arch n.
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1840 Times 29 Oct. 6/6 It was not very probable that the conduct of the complainant towards the female on this railway arch was such as to justify her father in inflicting summary punishment upon him.
1918 ‘R. West’ Return of Soldier iv. 83 All the streets are long and red and freely articulated with railway arches.
1998 S. Reynolds Energy Flash ii. 51 Private parties under the railway arches near London Bridge.
railway bank n.
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1814 Times 29 Dec. 3/5 The Duke of Portland's small cutter..was also drove up alongside the Railway bank,..without receiving any material damage.
1933 H. G. Wells Bulpington of Blup ix. 387 The men who were not actually working the guns were adapting the railway bank and the sheds and so forth for defence.
2001 Exotic & Greenhouse Gardening June 46/4 In India, it often brightens up the railway banks and has acquired the name porter's joy.
railway book n.
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1842 Times 30 Mar. 6/1 An old railway book tacked together with two pieces of pasteboard.
1915 Econ. Jrnl. 25 573 He corrects some technical errors..which have found their way into most railway books.
2006 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 18 Oct. 18 Second hand railway books will be on sale.
railway bookstall n.
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1851 Times 9 Aug. 7/2 As we progressed north, a wholesome change, we rejoice to say, became visible in railway bookstalls.
1974 in A. Briggs Ess. Hist. of Publishing 289 The first railway bookstall was opened at Euston by W. H. Smith in 1848.
2002 A. N. Wilson Victorians xxxiv. 498 The spies seem to have wandered into the ‘felt life’ of a masterpiece from adventure stories on a railway bookstall.
railway bridge n.
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society > travel > means of travel > route or way > other means of passage or access > [noun] > bridge > over lock, road, or railway
lock bridge1804
railway bridge1830
overbridge1876
flyover1901
overpass1929
overcross1950
1830 Times 27 Apr. 2/6 17 or 18 men employed on the Railway-bridge, new being erected over the river Irwell.
1901 Dict. National Biogr. Suppl. II. 233/2 He designed the Pimlico railway bridge, which was finished in 1860, and was the first railway bridge across the Thames within the metropolis.
2002 N. Lebrecht Song of Names vii. 207 Out of Tawburn, up the A529, under the railway bridge and we are soon chuntering along the fringe of a raging North Sea.
railway bus n.
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1873 Dixon (Illinois) Sun 15 Oct. The coach was to cease running and be superseded by the railway 'bus.
1934 R. M. Agar-O'Connell in C. S. Stokes & B. A. Wilter Veld Trails 109 Twelve months' exile at the mines and in the train and bombela (railway 'bus).
2004 Daily Star (Nexis) 8 Aug. 47 For two euros each the whole family can jump aboard the railway bus and be taken to the bigger beaches of Cala Millor.
railway car n.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage
rail wagon1824
railway wagon1824
wagon1825
car1826
railway car1828
railroad car1829
railcar1833
steam-car1833
road car1834
motor car1878
1828 Deb. Congr. U.S. 9 Apr. 2249 The rail way car at Charleston, South Carolina..weighs upwards of one ton.
1908 Morning Post 2 Apr. 7/3 The brittle pulp-paper; the machine-set type, are all as standardised as the railway cars of the Continent.
1991 P. C. Newman Merchant Princes viii. 207 Climb aboard wooden railway cars equipped with cookstoves but no mattresses for the long journey west.
railway carriage n.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage > carriage designed to carry passengers
steam-carriage1788
railway carriage1824
carriage1825
railroad carriage1826
railroad car1829
railroad coach1829
rail carriage1831
coach1832
passenger car1832
steam-car1833
passenger carriage1838
passenger coach1841
day coach1869
bogie1919
clockwork orange1978
1824 A. Scott in Prize-ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 6 57 If springs..were fixed to the front of railway-carriages.
1915 F. H. Burnett Lost Prince i. 9 Cramped in a close third-class railway carriage, they had dashed across the Continent as if something important or terrible were driving them.
1999 K. Hickman Daughters of Britannia (2000) i. 8 It was shallow, and could easily be stowed beneath the seat in a railway carriage.
railway cat n.
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1895 News (Frederick, Maryland) 21 Sept. ‘You have heard of a railroad dog, of course,’ said Cy Warman. ‘Everybody has, but I'll venture to say that you've never heard of a railway cat.’
1939 T. S. Eliot Old Possum's Bk. Pract. Cats 41 You can leave all that to the Railway Cat, The Cat of the Railway Train!
1993 Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator (Nexis) 27 July a3 The tradition of railway cats goes back to the formation of British railway companies in the 1840s. They used the cats to prevent rats from chewing cables.
railway company n.
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society > occupation and work > business affairs > a business or company > [noun] > companies involved in specific business
misbeliefa1450
safeguarda1450
squatc1450
smearc1476
bleach1486
poulterer1534
water company1710
land-company1805
publishing house1819
railway company1824
oil company1827
bus line1843
rails1848
accountancy1860
art house1882
poulter1884
automaker1899
energy company1910
record label1926
label1930
utility1930
re-roller1931
prefabricator1933
seven sisters1962
energy firm1970
chipmaker1971
fragmentizer1972
fixit1984
infomediary1989
multi-utility1994
1801 Times 27 May 1/2 (heading) Surry Iron Rail-way Company.]
1824 R. Stevenson in Prize-ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 6 131 The first Public Railway Company seems to have been instituted at Loughborough, in the year 1789.
1904 Electr. Investm. 4 771/2 Railway companies whose lines junctioned with each other did not always give either the passenger or goods traffic the advantages that the physical junctions rendered possible.
2002 Independent 29 May 16/3 Mr Prescott..spent four years running on the spot,..threatening the railway companies and being conciliatory to the railway companies.
railway contractor n.
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1836 Times 23 July 8/5 (advt.) This patent may be of immense value to any engineer or railway contractor.
1910 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 10 248 The streets are paved and straightway..the railway contractor begins to destroy the pavement.
1992 Beaver Aug. 52/3 The ambitious Mackenzie had made a name for himself as a hard-working and successful railway contractor.
railway cottage n.
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1844 Times 29 Nov. 5/4 In the Railway-cottage adjoining the bridge there has been a general instruction from the company to the guards to be careful of the double-arched bridge.
1929 Ld. Rutherford Let. 30 July (1939) 330 Nothing but a few cattle and a railway cottage at intervals.
1993 F. Weldon in M. Bradbury & A. Motion New Writing 2 121 Parrot Port boasted..a host of railway cottages and navy dwellings.
railway cutting n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > cutting
cutting1836
railway cutting1839
rock cut1841
cut1881
1839 Railway Mag. Mar. 12 What is obtained from the railway cuttings..may..be disposed of more cheaply..than by being laid in a spoil-bank.
1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. xxxiv. 664 Clay is..frequently burnt to prevent its slipping down into railway cuttings.
1999 C. Thubron In Siberia (2000) i. 2 In the dark the railway cuttings seem to plunge deeper, and the trees to rush up more vertiginously above them.
railway director n.
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1830 Times 19 June 3/2 (heading) Visit of the railway directors to Manchester.
1927 Dict. National Biogr. 1912–21 232/1 It was said that no railway director had ridden more miles upon the footplate than Lord Richard Grosvenor during the early years of his directorship.
2004 London (Ont.) Free Press (Nexis) 16 Feb. c3 The train left Hamilton in the early afternoon bearing the mayor, railway directors and other notables.
railway economics n.
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1886 Polit. Sci. Q. 1 692 We cannot..in this place stop to prove what is almost an axiom of railway economics.
1976 Illustr. London News Nov. 53/3 One aspect of railway economics in which the SNCF has made remarkable progress in recent years is productivity.
2002 Independent (Nexis) 15 Jan. 9 The golden rule of railway economics is that as more people are attracted on to the trains, a greater subsidy is needed.
railway engine n.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > locomotive
locomotive engine1814
iron horse1825
locomotive1829
loco1833
railway engine1833
bullgine1848
bull1889
pig1931
locie1934
1833 Hazard's Reg. Pennsylvania 20 Apr. 243/2 The rail-way engine with its tender for carrying coke and water..drags after it a train of eight coaches.
1922 Gas Manuf., Distribution & Use (Brit. Commerc. Gas Assoc.) i. 11/2 On some of the larger gas works railway engines and trucks are used for conveying the coal from the unloading jetties.
1995 N. Whittaker Platform Souls (1996) i. 23 The train crews..must have had many a hairy moment with young kids dodging around between moving railway engines.
railway enthusiast n.
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1869 A. D. Richardson Beyond Mississippi (new ed.) xlix. 602 A few railway enthusiasts from New York and Massachusetts were already pressing the same request.
1950 Oxf. Junior Encycl. IX. 399/2 Ian Allan..brought into being the first club for young railway enthusiasts who wished to collect the numbers of locomotives.
2003 Slavic Rev. 62 404 J. N. Westwood directs his study of the transition from Soviet to Russian railways to..railway enthusiasts everywhere.
railway excursion n.
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1841 Times 23 Sept. 6/4 (heading) Railway excursion extraordinary.
1913 B. Mallet Brit. Budgets 241 The money formerly spent in drink was being spent in railway excursions, music hall entertainments, etc.
1995 N. Whittaker Platform Souls (1996) xii. 109 Railway excursions, once a vital part of British life, are now virtually extinct.
railway fare n.
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1836 Times 5 May 2/4 (advt.) Let the railway fares be only 4s. for the first-class carriage.
1913 Maclean's Mar. 105/2 To pad this account by magnifying the cost of hotel accommodation, meals and railway fare, was most distasteful to him.
2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 2 Sept. 14 In the 1880s, the wives of East Anglian clergymen provided summer holidays for London ‘factory girls’ so long as they paid part of their railway fares.
railway garden n.
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1892 B. Potter Jrnl. 26 July (1966) 239 It [sc. a hedgehog] was gobbling up little spring cabbages in a promising little Railway Garden.
1974 Garden Hist. 3 41 The tiny ‘pleasure gardens’ of the poor..—railway gardens and the like.
2006 Vancouver Province (Nexis) 26 Feb. a18 Station agents were pressured by supervisors to build and tend gardens, until railway gardens were the rule rather than the exception.
railway horse n.
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1856 Times 14 Apr. 7/5 In your evidence you stated that railway horses would have suffered in a far less degree than did the cavalry horses under the same conditions.
1976 Field 18 Nov. 994/1 (caption) Nationalization came that year [i.e. 1947] and this was almost the end of a long railway-horse tradition.
2002 Birmingham Evening Mail (Nexis) 6 June 16 Although the last railway horse retired from service 35 years ago their role in shunting wagons and delivering goods was important.
railway interest n.
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1840 Times 21 Sept. 4/5 We challenge any one in the railway interest to disprove it.
1904 Econ. Jrnl. 14 176 Among the most important interests represented in the management of the Steel Corporation is the railway interest.
1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 344/2 Coleman..may even have been sponsored by rival railway interests, perhaps the North Eastern.
railway journey n.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > a journey by railway
railway journey1846
train journey1849
road trip1865
train ride1875
1846 Times 27 June 5/3 Most persons would willingly substitute a railway journey from Ipswich to Yarmouth to a passage by sea from Harwich.
1916 E. V. Lucas Vermilion Box cxxv. 141 As a rule I have found that the soldier who sits opposite one on railway journeys is an innutritious person.
1993 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 27 June 3/1 There was a man I once accompanied on a railway journey who, having..vexedly complained about the quality of the food, ordered the same meal all over again.
railway junction n.
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1844 Times 13 Apr. 7/6 (heading) Important railway junction.
1937 Dict. National Biogr. 1922–30 711/1 The last German effort to drive the British from that vital railway junction ended..on 25 April.
2006 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 25 Nov. (Travel section) 15 Golden is a busy blue-collar railway junction that even the locals admit is lacking in basic charm.
railway labourer n.
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1838 Times 24 Oct. 5/6 The influx of excavators and railway labourers into the neighbourhood.
1916 Econ. Jrnl. 26 535 Railway labourers are offered 6d. an hour and a bonus.
1999 I. Durant Death among Fossils 29 Dhanni's family had lived in Asalia for three generations, descendants of railway laborers imported from the Indian Raj.
railway line n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track
way1700
track1806
rail track1824
railway track1824
line1825
main track1830
railroad track1830
single track1832
railway line1836
electric line1850
1836 Times 23 July 3/4 The Duke of Richmond presented a petition..against Cundy's Brighton railway line.
1923 National Geographic Jan. 5/2 Chilivani, a junction point where four railway lines converge.
2000 S. Mackay Heligoland iii. 27 Wild flowers and marram grasses are growing along the path between the railway line and the beach wall.
railwayman n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway worker > [noun]
railwayman1829
trainman1838
railroader1839
railman1867
trainster1893
rail1925
1829 Times 4 Sept. 3/6 The prisoners..had successively signed as game-keepers, railway-men, navigators, and cattle-jobbers.
1906 Daily Chron. 30 Apr. 3/1 Two stones and a piece of iron had been placed on the rails. They were removed by a railwayman.
1992 J. Torrington Swing Hammer Swing! xxiii. 215 A bloodstained youth lay calmly on his back, totally unconcerned by..the attempts of a railwayman to render first-aid.
railway manual n.
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1855 (title) Bradshaw's shareholders guide, railway manual and directory.
1918 S. N. D. North in J. Koren Hist. Statist. i. 38 Poor's Railway Manual has occupied for many years an enviable position as the repository of all the available statistical information regarding the steam roads.
2001 Journal (Newcastle) (Nexis) 14 Dec. 4 We used to call him sad, because he would even take railway manuals to bed with him to read.
railway map n.
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1838 Times 28 July 1/3 (advt.) Cheap railway map of England.
1908 Daily Chron. 20 Aug. 9/1 Railway maps showing the raw-material areas of the country.
1990 Dict. National Biogr. 1981–85 32/2 The railway map he included in the reshaping report showed by the thickness of the lines on it how much traffic flowed on each route.
railway marshalling yard n.
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1911 Times 30 Aug. 17/5 Railway marshalling yards.
1969 New Scientist 10 July 10/1 Night surveilling systems for railway marshalling yards.
1991 FlyPast (BNC) Nov. 50 Sugar's 1st raid of the year was a daylight attack on the railway marshalling yards at Rheydt.
railway office n.
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1819 Times 29 Oct. 1/1 (advt.) A meeting holden at the Railway-office, in the Exchange, Plymouth.
1908 G. Wallas Human Nature in Polit. (1919) I. ii. iii. 263 An official in the Railway section of the Board of Trade should acquire some personal knowledge of the inside of a railway office.
2003 Eurobusiness Aug.–Sept. 31/3 Their railway office also had an English speaker who coped fairly well with our little test.
railway official n.
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1844 Let. to W. E. Gladstone on Railway Legislation 10 It never seemed to occur to any one that directors, engineers,..and other railway officials, were most likely to know something about the matter.
1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 11 Mar. 2/3 The railway official quoted said he could not state whether the Canadian roads would follow the lead of the United States roads in cutting wages.
2004 W. Allen Sweat 300 We found some helpful people to ask (in the conspicuous absence of any railway officials).
railway passenger n.
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1841 Times 2 Jan. 5 A railway-passenger's adventure between New York and Philadelphia.
1922 Flight 14 218/2 New ones [sc. aeroplanes] which should bring down the rate of aerial freight to the value of those now charged in France for first-class railway passengers.
2001 Harvard Law Rev. 114 703 Newly established accident insurance companies wrote a new kind of policy for railway passengers.
railway platform n.
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1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 44 It raises the coals..and delivers them on an elevated railway platform into a waggon.
1922 C. Mackenzie Altar Steps xix. 218 The Bishop of Silchester had been looking like a man on a railway platform who has been ambushed by a whistling engine.
1998 Independent 14 Apr. i. 1/5 Uncool people never hurt anybody—all they do is collect stamps, read science fiction books and stand on the end of railway platforms staring at the trains.
railway police n.
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1837 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 13/2 Flags of different colours hoisted to various heights, and worked by the railway police, to notify any..stoppages or accidents.
1905 B. L. Putnam Weale Re-shaping of Far East I. iv. 117 A case of unjustifiable assault by the railway police, which had taken place at the instigation of the European conductor.
2004 S. Mehta Maximum City 73 The railway police..demolished nine different hutments put up by Sunil.
railway policeman n.
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1838 Penny Mag. 31 Aug. 331/2 The railway policeman, holding up at intervals red or white flags.
1909 H. Begbie Twice-born Men iii. 73 In spite of his army record,..he was able to obtain employment as railway policeman at one of the great metropolitan stations.
1996 Japan Times 29 Apr. 2/4 The kindergartner was spotted by a railway policeman on the bullet train platform in Tokyo.
railway porter n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway worker > [noun] > porter
portera1382
railway porter1839
baggage-smasher1851
transfer porter1921
1839 Times 16 Aug. 6/3 The mob had been..threatening to pull up the rails, which they would have proceeded to carry into execution but for the intrepidity of the railway porters.
1945 A. L. Rowse West-Country Stories 148 They were having a tremendous bust-up with the railway porters about their belongings.
2006 Scunthorpe Evening Tel. (Nexis) 2 Dec. 4 A one-time railway porter and reggae musician,..Ronnie brings a truckload of fun to the stage wherever he performs.
railway poster n.
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1899 North Adams (Mass.) Evening Transcript 2 Mar. This is the Mareorama of the painter Hugo d'Alesi, whose railway posters..have been adopted by the government.
1948 M. Laski Tory Heaven xii. 159 There were some benches round the walls..and a lot of gaudy railway posters.
1992 Steam Railway News (BNC) 12 Local schools..have been involved in a railway poster competition to design images reflecting 150 years of local rail travel.
railway sandwich n.
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1869 A. Trollope He knew he was Right I. xxxvii. 292 The real disgrace of England is the railway sandwich.
1915 J. Buchan Thirty-nine Steps vii. 177 I never ate a meal with greater relish, for I had had nothing all day but railway sandwiches.
1999 Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 14 Mar. 33 A curious thing about Inverness was that both the railway sandwiches and the railway burger I had there were quite edible.
railway servant n.
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1840 Act 3 & 4 Victoria c. 97 §13 Railway servants guilty of misconduct.
1950 Oxf. Junior Encycl. IX. 399/2 They are bound by a code of honour..not to trespass on railway property or hinder railway servants.
2005 Guardian (Nexis) 22 Oct. 15 They would instruct me in Tagore. A railway servant would bring lunch.
railway share n.
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society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > share > shares in specific country or industry
railway share1822
railroad shares1828
railway stock1836
railroads1848
Canada1868
coalers1878
Mets1886
industrial1887
golds1888
Kaffir1889
electrics1892
rails1893
Westralians1894
kangaroo1896
coppers1899
the junglea1901
electricals1901
Rhodesians1901
diamonds1905
Siberians1906
steels1912
utility1930
properties1964
engineer1976
mining1983
1822 Times 4 Mar. 4/5 Croydon to Merstham railway shares.
1902 Ann. Amer. Acad. Polit. & Social Sci. 19 65 To..stop all speculation in railway shares, would seem to be a distinct advance in the direction of business morality.
1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 78/1 A parliamentary enquiry into alleged improper acquisition of railway shares.
railway shareholder n.
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1836 Times 2 Aug. 2/1 (advt.) Rights of the public and railway shareholders.
1922 D. H. Robertson Money i. 13 If he is a railway shareholder..he will probably hold that he was ‘hit’ by the fall in the value of money.
2001 Evening Standard (Nexis) 22 Nov. 13 Nobody will give him a penny of risk capital after he declared his loathing of railway shareholders.
railway shed n.
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1845 Times 23 Oct. 8/1 Under one of the railway sheds were..four wooden bars.
1943 Winnipeg Free Press 26 Apr. 7/1 Other bombers attacked the Wuntho railway junction Saturday, scoring hits on the tracks and the railway shed.
2000 R. W. Holder Taunton Cider & Langdons v. 24 Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the railway sheds and platforms were crowded with goods.
railway siding n.
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1854 Times 16 Nov. 5/5 To construct and complete their railway sidings and works on the narrow gauge exclusively.
1942 C. Milburn Diary 26 Feb. (1979) 130 The King and Queen slept in our railway siding on Tuesday night.
2004 H. Strachan Make a Skyf, Man! xi. 112 After a bit we stop at a railway siding with no platform.
railway signal n.
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1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 358/1 A railway signal erected at the Grand Junction station.
1926 C. F. Harding & D. D. Ewing Electr. Railway Engin. (ed. 3) xix. 258 The development of the two-rail signal system making use of impedance bonds..marked the beginning of a new era in the development of the new railway signal systems.
1997 C. Carson Star Factory (1998) 61 I could hear the clicking of defunct railway signals.
railway stall n.
ΚΠ
1853 Times 15 Dec. 8/2 Equally amusing and clever narratives..are to be picked up any day at the railway stall.
1939 F. D. Walker San Francisco's Literary Frontier 337 Nuggets and Dust and The Fiend's Delight were small booklets, possibly intended for the railway stalls.
1997 Guardian (Nexis) 18 Sept. t9 The tale races happily along in the style of a railway-stall bodice ripper.
railway station n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > station
station1830
station house1833
train depot1833
railway station1836
railroad station1837
depot1842
rail station1848
rail1850
train station1856
gare1870
1836 Times 2 Apr. 6/5 His daughter accompanied him to the railway station.
1926 E. A. Powell In Barbary ii. 21 The dragomans and runners from the various hotels and tourist-agencies,..who spend their lives on steamship-wharves and railway-station platforms.
1995 Maclean's 17 Apr. 54/2 Hotels, railway stations, general stores, even schools and churches closed as communities withered.
railway system n.
ΚΠ
1824 R. Stevenson in Prize-ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 6 3 An offer of a reward for the advancement of the Railway-system.
1904 Collier's 7 May 7/2 Consider the question of a possible increase of commerce by a great pan-American railway, finishing out the links in existing railway systems.
2003 Lancs. Life Mar. 58/1 The Beeching Report sounded the death knell for much of our railway system and effectively ushered in the car age.
railway tea n.
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1905 E. Wharton House of Mirth i. 30 He had a mental palate which would never learn to distinguish between railway tea and nectar.
2002 Southland (N.Z.) Times (Nexis) 9 May 4 I was drinking mugs of milkless railway tea from when I was about four.
railway terminal n.
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1858 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 21 156 (title) Metropolitan Railway terminal accommodation and its effect on traffic results.
1928 Travel Feb. 40/2 Aerodromes will be made as inviting as the Grand Central Railway Terminal.
2006 Daily Mail (Nexis) 6 June 29 A..company is considering loading tankers of water from a railway terminal in Lanarkshire.
railway terminus n.
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1836 Times 2 Mar. 2/4 (advt.) Proposed Brighton to Dover Railway terminus.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 944/1 The Inner Circle line..has stations close to all the great railway termini north of the Thames.
1999 T. May Victorian & Edwardian Horse Cabs 13 After the railway termini opened in Glasgow, the number of cabstands increased five-fold in two decades.
railway ticket n.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > train ticket
railway ticket1839
train ticket1841
pasteboard1856
1839 F. Witts Diary 4 May (1978) 158 The passengers receive a railway ticket to London which purports to be worth 5s 6d.
1920 Glasgow Herald 1 July 6 The issue of a circular cancelling the inter-availability of practically all railway tickets between Scotland and England.
2006 Kent & Sussex Courier (Nexis) 11 Aug. 24 A man from Tonbridge has been fined £120..for failing to pay for a railway ticket.
railway timetable n.
ΚΠ
1839 (title) Bradshaw's railway time tables.
1932 D. L. Sayers Have his Carcase xxvi. 352 Do you happen to have a railway time-table on you?
2001 Buses Feb. 20/1 Having had 13 years on the railways.., David Wilkinson has a thorough knowledge of the railway timetable.
railway town n.
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1845 Times 18 Jan. 10/1 (advt.) A first-rate business..in a leading railway town.
1919 B. L. P. Weale Truth about China & Japan iii. 87 Along the course of such railways, new railway towns inevitably spring up.
2006 Private Eye 7 July 14/2 How cheering that the trust's Gadarene flight from the capital to an office block in the former railway town should have generated such artistic expression.
railway track n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track
way1700
track1806
rail track1824
railway track1824
line1825
main track1830
railroad track1830
single track1832
railway line1836
electric line1850
1824 A. Scott in Prize-ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 6 43 All public lines of railway will require two distinct sets of railway-tracks.
1910 Encycl. Brit. IV. 538/1 The Williamsburg bridge..carries two elevated railway tracks, four electric tramcar lines, two carriageways, two footways and two bicycle paths.
1995 A. Warner Morvern Callar (1996) 215 Way up the railway track in the port direction you saw the dull light of the steamed-up signal box windows.
railway train n.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > train
train1814
railway train1834
railroad train1836
train1841
rail train1843
train wreck1876
train set1959
1834 Times 6 Sept. 3/3 From 2 to 4 o'clock the first class railway trains continued to arrive in rapid succession from Manchester and Liverpool.
1918 T. E. Lawrence Let. 15 July (1938) 244 This is a very long porch to explain why I'm always trying to blow up railway trains and bridges.
1991 R. Davies Murther & Walking Spirits iii. xi. 121 To my eyes, Samuel looks uncommonly like the engine of one of the new railway trains.
railway travel n.
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1840 New World 12 Sept. 236/1 No intelligence of any kind can be conveyed by the improved and rapid mode of railway travel except under the direction of the government.
1959 Times 27 Apr. (Rubber Industry Suppl.) p. vi/7 The persistent clickety-clack traditionally associated with railway travel.
2000 W. D. Middleton Yet there isn't Train I wouldn't Take 149 To devotees of railway travel, there have been few names..more likely to embody..romance and excitement..than that of the Taurus Express.
railway traveller n.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > traveller by rail
railer1834
railway traveller1838
1838 Times 4 June 6/6 His Honour doubted whether that was a proper phrase to apply to the railway travellers.
1925 W. H. Dawson S. Afr. xix. 374 Relating this incident to a well-informed fellow railway traveller,..he commented, ‘I can well believe it.’
2006 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 21 Feb. 6 Britain's railway travellers..pay some of the highest fares in Europe.
railway travelling n.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun]
railway travelling1837
railroading1842
railwaying1843
rail travel1849
train travel1857
1837 Times 6 July 6/3 The one mile and a-half..was done in two minutes and a-half—so much for railway travelling.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 708/2 He should be remembered as the pioneer of cheap and comfortable railway travelling.
1992 Compar. Stud. Society & Hist. 34 718 The guidebook also provides useful information on..railway travelling, hotels, [etc.].
railway truck n.
ΚΠ
1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 390/1 A new Railway Truck, the invention of Mr. Robert Grant, of Maine.
1917 D. Haig Diary 17 Sept. in War Diaries & Lett. 1914–18 (2005) 326 I..was present at a trial of two narrow-gauge railway trucks designed for carrying heavy artillery.
2004 Evening News (Edinb.) (Nexis) 14 Oct. 36 I lived in a railway truck for a while but got into trouble with the police.
railway tunnel n.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > tunnel
railway tunnel1827
railroad tunnel1836
tube1847
1827 Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pa.) 19 Dec. The Liverpool Railway Tunnel has acquired great popularity, from the spirit with which it is conducted.
1907 Polit. Sci. Q. 22 771 The completion of the five-mile railway tunnel..opened up a new Alpine route.
1995 Sci. Amer. June 42/2 An epidemic of what was called miners' anemia struck Italian laborers building the Saint Gotthard railway tunnel in the Swiss Alps.
railway viaduct n.
ΚΠ
1836 Times 5 Aug. 2/6 (advt.) The erection of a viaduct, in length about 816 feet, to join the London and Greenwich Railway viaduct.
1932 Jrnl. Ecol. 20 44 The rock bottom of the Mawddach was traced by the cylinder foundations of the railway viaduct to 40 ft. below the level of low water.
1998 Canal Boat & Inland Waterways Aug. 62/2 The nearby railway viaduct spans the river before disappearing into the Vale Royal Woods.
railway wagon n.
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society > travel > rail travel > rolling stock > [noun] > railway wagon or carriage
rail wagon1824
railway wagon1824
wagon1825
car1826
railway car1828
railroad car1829
railcar1833
steam-car1833
road car1834
motor car1878
1824 G. Robertson in Prize-ess. & Trans. Highland Soc. Scotl. 6 88 A railway-waggon..has two axles to sustain the burden.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 412/2 The competition was of railway waggons to convey perishable goods long distances at low temperatures.
2006 Sunday Life (Belfast) (Nexis) 3 Dec. 28 A soldier died when he peed onto a railway wagon from a bridge in Peking.
railway worker n.
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1856 Times 9 Feb. 8/6 The railway worker in all ranks..must always be on the ‘look out’.
1909 Hansard's Parl. Deb. 5th Ser. 2 1627 The conciliation scheme arranged in November, 1907, between representative railway companies and the railway workers.
1999 P. Quarrington Spirit Cabinet vi. 65 The George Theatre lay in the heart of Block 16, the haunt of faro players and horny railway workers.
b. In objective and instrumental compounds, as railway-building, railway modelling, etc., nouns; railway-borne, adjective.
ΚΠ
1841 Times 14 Apr. 5/4 The railway building on the French side..may not have the entire monopoly.
1843 (title) Ensamples of railway making.
1881 Daily News 9 Sept. 2/6 An inland market for..railway-borne fish.
1910 Encycl. Brit. 825/2 Skirmishes..varied the daily routine of railway-breaking and supply-finding, in which a belt of country 60 m. wide was..cleared.
1947 E. Beal (title) New developments in railway modelling.
1976 J. Lukasiewicz Railway Game 104 Another aspect of railway manning is the employment of redundant crewmen.
1994 D. Saunders Russia in Age of Reaction & Reform 1801–1881 (BNC) 234 In 1857..investors had taken their money out of state banks and put it into railway-building.
2005 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 29 Dec. 13 It [sc. Cardiff] is..the city in the UK with the highest number of railway-borne commuters, after London.
C2. † railway volume n. Obsolete a railway edition of a book; (also) a copy of such an edition.
Railway Act n. (also with lower-case initial(s)) a legislative act concerned with railways.
ΚΠ
1826 Edinb. Advertiser 2 June The expenses in the company for obtaining the Manchester and Liverpool Railway Act..amounted to from £30,000 to £40,000.
1922 Jrnl. Compar. Legislation & Internat. Law 4 167 The first railway Acts that were passed, entitled the public to bring on the railway their own engines and carriages.
2001 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 19 July 27/2 They rightly saw Major's Railway Act of 1993 as an unworkable absurdity.
railway beetle n. the larva or larviform adult of any of several South American beetles of the genus Phrixothrix (family Phengodidae), characterized by luminescent red and green patches on the body; also called railroad beetle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Coleoptera or beetles and weevils > [noun] > Polyphaga (omnivorous) > superfamily Diversicornia > family Phengodidae > member of (railway beetle)
railway beetle1896
1896 M. Crommelin Over Andes 34 These fire-flies pale before the famed railway beetle of Paraguay, which carries green lights on his side.
1942 Eng. Jrnl. 31 612/2 The South American railway beetle was flashing red and green signal lights thousands of years before the human population had grown dense enough or speedy enough to need them.
1987 St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 13 July (Times Action section) 2 In Paraguay, the 3-inch railway beetle has red lights front and back with green lights at points in between.
railway bill n. (also with capital initials) a legislative bill concerned with railways.
ΚΠ
1803 Times 7 Apr. The Surrey Railway Bill was read a third time.
1888 Dict. National Biogr. XV. 164/2 He was..in successful business in London as a solicitor, chiefly in connection with railway bills and cases of appeal.
1926 J. H. Clapham Econ. Hist. Mod. Brit. ix. 387 During the two years 1836–7, thirty-nine more railway bills for new lines in Great Britain received the royal assent.
1992 Social Sci. Hist. 16 542 The procedure used to consider private bills has been quasi-judicial since 1855 (1844 for railway bills).
railway brain n. Medicine (now historical) functional disorder of the nervous system attributed to physical or psychological trauma occurring in a railway accident; cf. railway spine n.
ΚΠ
1885 N.Y. Med. Abstract 5 321/1 Many of the nervous symptoms called ‘railway spine’ and which..might more properly be named ‘railway brain’, are simply, whether in men or women, manifestations of hysteria.
1905 J. M. Clarke Hysteria & Neurasthenia xxiii. 249 Some years later the brain was considered to be the primary seat of the functional troubles, and ‘railway brain’ replaced ‘railway spine’.
1994 R. Davies Cunning Man 129 Patients might appear in the consulting-room suffering from ‘railway brain’.
2011 A. Stiles Pop. Fiction & Brain Sci. Late 19th Cent. Notes 214 There are numerous reasons for the mid-Victorian proliferation of ‘railway spine’ and ‘railway brain’. Such physical diagnoses helped patients avoid the stigma of mental disorders like hysteria.
railway bull n. North American slang = railroad bull n. at railroad n. Compounds 2.
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society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman > on railways
railroad bull1897
railway bull1957
1957 Independent Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.) 7 Apr. a2/5 (heading) Famed sleuth asks railway ‘bulls’ to aid.
1992 I. Howard Struggle for Social Justice in Brit. Columbia viii. 170 They escaped being picked up by the railway ‘bulls’ or police until Red Deer, Alberta, where they spent the night in jail.
railway cab n. (a) a taxi cab providing transport to and from a railway station; (b) the driver's (and formerly stoker's) compartment in a railway train.
ΚΠ
1845 Times 21 Mar. 1/2 (advt.) The gentleman who engaged the Eastern Counties Railway cab..is requested..to send his address immediately.
1893 C. M. Yonge & C. R. Coleridge Strolling Players xxviii. 254 A railway cab dashing up to the door.
1910 L. B. Walford Recoll. of Sc. Novelist 269 Can anyone spare a moment to notice a sad little face peeping out of the window of a railway cab just driving into Paddington Station?
1913 Janesville (Wisconsin) Daily Gaz. 23 Aug. 4/2 The boy who enters a railway cab as a fireman, expects some day to be an engineer.
2000 Newsday (Nexis) 24 May a6 Issues including..recording devices in railway cabs, and truck safety were also discussed.
railway creeper n. an ipomoea, Ipomoea cairica (family Convolvulaceae), with pale purple or mauve flowers, commonly found on railway stations in India.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > climbing or creeping plants > non-British climbing or creeping plants > [noun] > Asian or Indian
tiger's-foot1799
railroad creeper1891
railway creeper1895
1895 B. M. Croker Village Tales 47 Verandahs, embowered in pale lilac ‘railway’ creeper.
1982 N. L. Bor & M. B. Raizada Some Beautiful Indian Climbers & Shrubs (1990) 7 It is exceedingly common on trellises in gardens and fences on railway platforms (hence the name ‘Railway Creeper’).
railway crossing n. = level crossing n. at level adj. 3b.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > level-crossing
farm crossing1839
level crossing1840
level crossing1841
surface crossing1841
railway crossing1851
1851 Times 6 Mar. 5/5 A fatal accident occurred at the railway crossing near the Collins-green station.
1937 Discovery May 144/2 A railway crossing west of Scarborough.
1991 Pilot Nov. 48 A mile-long paved taxiway..leads past the Military Flying School hangars, over a seldom-used railway crossing to a proper concrete runway.
railway edition n. now historical and rare a cheap edition of a book produced to be read on railway journeys; cf. railway novel n.
ΚΠ
1852 Times 10 Sept. 11/2 (advt.) Uncle Tom's Cabin... The Railway Edition (Routledge and Co.), 1s.
1897 Dict. National Biogr. LI. 105/1 They published a Library edition..in 1852–4,..a Railway edition (1854–60),..and a Centenary edition..in 1870–1.
2001 Bull. Amer. Schools Oriental Res. No. 321. 88/2 His publisher..issued..a special ‘railway edition’ of his book.
railway guide n. = railway timetable n. at Compounds 1a.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > railway guide or timetable
timetable1838
railway guidea1852
a1852 W. H. Murray Diamond Cut Diamond (1866) i. 4 That woman..[is] as difficult to understand as an Act of Parliament, or a Railway Guide, or a Weather Almanack.
a1930 D. H. Lawrence Etruscan Places (1932) i. 13 The inestimable big Italian railway-guide says the station is Palo.
2003 Press & Jrnl. (Aberdeen) (Nexis) 8 Oct. 6 Author Michael Pearson presented the chairman of the Highland Rail Partnership..with the last in a series of railway guides for the Highlands.
railway hotel n. a hotel situated close to a railway station (earliest as the name of such a hotel).
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > accommodation or lodging > public lodging-places > [noun] > hotel
hotel1687
hotel garni1744
lodgea1817
gasthof1832
temperance house1833
temperance hotel1837
railway hotel1839
palace hotel1844
parador1845
caravanserai1848
resort hotel1886
metropole1890
Ritz1900
trust house1902
apartment hotel1909
welfare hotel1915
motel1925
motor hotel1925
auto court1926
motor court1936
motor lodge1936
residential1940
botel1956
floatel1959
apartotel1965
motor inn1967
1839 Times 5 Jan. 6/4 The Railway Hotel within 40 yards of us.
1846 C. Dickens Dombey & Son (1848) xv. 155 There were railway hotels, coffee-houses, lodging-houses, boarding-houses.
1911 M. Beerbohm Zuleika Dobson ii. 13 She took a night's sanctuary in some railway-hotel.
2002 N. Lebrecht Song of Names xi. 290 I was forced into..a coerced kind of fake compliance that sought evasions in marital infidelity in dingy railway hotels.
Railway Institute n. a social club building originally built for railway workers; a club for railway workers.
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society > society and the community > social relations > an association, society, or organization > specific societies or organizations > [noun] > specific building for organization
Railway Institute1863
1863 Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 11 51 The Kentish town Musical Union gave a concert at the Railway Institute.
1900 Davenport (Iowa) Daily Republican 22 Apr. 2/4 A dozen or more other officials and foremen..held a regular railway institute here Thursday afternoon and evening.
2001 L. Caplan Children of Colonialism 222 For marriages in Perambur (which area contains the largest concentration of Anglo-Indians in the city) the favourite venue is the spacious Railway Institute.
railway label n. an address or destination label attached to luggage to be taken by rail.
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society > communication > indication > that which identifies or distinguishes > labelling > [noun] > label, tag, or ticket > on luggage
railway label1859
baggage-tag1879
1859 F. S. Cozzens Acadia iii. 71 Several trunks adorned with geographical railway labels of all colors and languages.
1917 Science Progr. 11 685 The railway labels jealously preserved on travellers' portmanteaux.
2000 J. Powell Cycling Rhine Route 22 The bike must be unladen and have a railway label attached.
railway letter n. now chiefly historical a letter handed in at a railway station, to be carried towards its destination on the next available train, for a small fee in addition to the usual postage.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > correspondence > letter > [noun] > letters, etc., by method of dispatch or conveyance
post-letter1648
ship-letterc1675
by-letter1685
penny-post letter1686
way letter1710
by-night1766
cross-letter1789
twopenny1818
box letter1827
non-paid1829
balloon-letter1870
pigeongram1875
railway letter1891
pneumatogram1894
airmail1918
aerogram1919
airgram1919
air letter1920
pneumatique1924
pneu1926
snail mail1929
aerogramme1934
airgraph1941
1891 Times 15 Jan. 6/6 Every letter intended for transmission as a railway letter must be taken to a passenger station of the railway company over whose line it is to be sent.
1933 Post Office Guide Jan. 42 The following Railway Companies..accept and convey letters,..either to be called for at the Station of address or to be transferred there to the nearest Post Office letter box. Such letters are called Railway Letters.
1994 Stamp Mag. Nov. 27/2 The card's railway letter stamp was the multicoloured view of locomotive No. 7 Tom Rolt crossing the Dolgoch Falls viaduct.
Railway Library n. (also with lower-case initials) now historical a series of books published in cheap editions intended to be suitable for reading on a train journey.
ΚΠ
1849 Times 13 Aug. 10/2 (advt.) Amusement while travelling—Publishing monthly, one shilling each, the Railway Library.
1952 J. W. Dodds Age of Paradox 374 Routledge launched his Railway Library—novels by Cooper, James, Hawthorne.
1953 H. T. Tuckerman Month in Eng. ix. 233 Cheap literature is yet a novelty in England; it properly began with the railway libraries.
2002 Observer (Nexis) 10 Mar. (Review section) 15 The thin, balding 23-year-old..was instantly hailed as ‘greater than Dickens’ on the strength of his Indian Railway Library stories.
railway mania n. now chiefly historical (an instance of) excessive or irrational enthusiasm for railways.Used esp. to denote a period of widespread speculation in railways in Britain in the mid 19th cent.
ΚΠ
1825 I. Gascoyne Let. 11 Feb. in T. C. Barker & J. R. Harris Merseyside Town in Industr. Revol. (1954) xiv. 183 We are all possessed of a Railway Mania.
1837 Times 24 Feb. 5 The railway mania required a wholesome check, there being no less than 77 petitions to parliament presented for bills for railways this session.
1903 Daily Chron. 13 Oct. 5/1 In the last decade of that century a canal mania raged, in many ways resembling the railway mania of some sixty years ago.
2001 Daily Tel. 29 Aug. 14/1 By the time Queen Victoria appeared, there were 500 miles of lines, but in the next decade railway mania took over, and thousands of miles of track snaked all over the country.
railway novel n. now historical a light novel, typically in a cheap edition, suitable for reading on a railway journey.
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society > communication > book > kind of book > book for specific occasion > [noun] > specific
Christmas book1769
lounging-booka1797
lounge-book1800
railway novel1849
birthday book?1859
livre de chevet1883
bed-book1906
pillow book1906
bedside book1920
bedside literature1920
1849 Times 14 Dec. 7/1 (heading) Railway novels.
1912 Manitoba (Winnipeg) Free Press 20 Apr. (Literary & Theatres section) 4/3 This latest addition to Stanley Paul's paper-cover ‘Colonial Library’ might be properly classified as a railway novel.
2001 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 18 June 13 The rise of the railway novel was not the rise of a genre, but the appearance of cheap books and reading material on thousands of station platforms.
railway pass n. a written authorization for the holder to travel by rail, or to make a particular rail journey.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > train ticket > pass
railway pass1854
railroad pass1857
railway warrant1861
railcard1975
1854 N.-Y. Daily Times 6 Apr. There can be forgery at common law, of a railway pass.
1915 W. B. Yeats Reveries 5 An uncle called me out of bed one night, to ride..to Rosses Point to borrow a railway-pass from a cousin.
1991 F. Forsyth Deceiver (BNC) (1992) 116 You will need a railway pass. I have one. It is still valid.
railway rug n. now chiefly historical a rug or blanket designed for use by a railway passenger.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition of being external > covering > [noun] > a covering > cloth or textile > for the person > when travelling in a vehicle
railway rug1850
lap-robe1875
1850 Times 21 Dec. (Suppl. section) 11/5 (advt.) A great comfort is now provided in Nicoll's toga wrapper. It is a novel adaptation of the old railway rug.
1925 M. Kennedy in Bridgeport (Connecticut) Telegram 11 July 16/1 Doctor Dawson leant across his railway rug, and poked Florence in the back.
2002 Guardian (Nexis) 19 Oct. 34 He piled his books, clothes and a railway rug on to the back of a grocer's van and set off for Bohemia.
railway sickness n. rare = rail sickness n. at rail n.2 Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1895 A. C. Swinburne Let. ?23 Aug. (1962) VI. 85 I am now sufficiently recovered from railwaysickness.
1926 Indiana (Pa.) Evening Gaz. 7 Aug. ‘The shock comes with the derangement of the sense of gravity,’ he says. ‘The same thing produces railway sickness.’
railway speed n. the speed at which railway trains may or can run; (figurative) a very fast speed; cf. railroad pace n. at railroad n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1836 T. Barlow (title) A trip to Rome at railway speed.
1901 R. Kipling Kim i. 11 The lama..talking at railway speed in a bewildering mixture of Urdu and Tibetan.
1997 Courier Mail (Queensland, Austral.) (Nexis) 13 Dec. 33 (heading) Railway speed levitated to new heights.
railway spine n. Medicine (now historical) a disorder characterized by pain in the back with sensory and motor nervous dysfunction, occurring esp. after a railway accident (originally attributed to solely to physical, and later also to psychological, trauma); cf. railway brain n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > diseases of tissue > disorders of bones > [noun] > disorders of vertebrae
railway spine1866
siderodromophobia1879
Kümmell's disease1903
slipped disc1953
1866 J. E. Erichsen On Railway & Other Injuries Nerv. Syst. 9 In no ordinary accident can the shock be so great as in those that occur on Railways... This has actually led some surgeons to designate that particular affection of the Spine that is met with in these cases as the ‘railway spine’.
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 29 Nov. It is now stated..that the Tzar is suffering from ‘railway spine’.
2000 Jrnl. Affective Disorders 61 226/2 Much of the psychological phenomenology incorporated in the PTSD [= post-traumatic stress disorder] diagnosis has long been recognized, and at least partially captured in disorders such as railway spine, irritable heart syndrome, shell shock, [etc.].
2004 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Dec. 30/2 It makes no mention of the inflammation of the soul called Phrenitis, nor of the dreaded Railway Spine.
railway stock n. (a) stock held in a railway company (also as a count noun); (b) = rolling stock n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > stock > types of
joint stock1615
fancya1652
water stock1675
Bank stock1694
India stock1702
government stock1734
inscription1800
gas stock1820
railway stock1836
common stock1852
floater1871
blue chip1874
trunks1892
traction1896
omnium1902
mummy1903
motors1908
rollover1947
blue-chipper1953
red chip1968
large-cap1982
small cap1984
society > trade and finance > stocks and shares > stocks, shares, or bonds > [noun] > share > shares in specific country or industry
railway share1822
railroad shares1828
railway stock1836
railroads1848
Canada1868
coalers1878
Mets1886
industrial1887
golds1888
Kaffir1889
electrics1892
rails1893
Westralians1894
kangaroo1896
coppers1899
the junglea1901
electricals1901
Rhodesians1901
diamonds1905
Siberians1906
steels1912
utility1930
properties1964
engineer1976
mining1983
1836 Times 27 June 3/6 It is the practice..to take the purchaser's acceptance at distant periods in payment for railway stock.
1912 Indianapolis Star 30 Jan. 13/3 (advt.) Have some good interurban railway stock, also seven-passenger touring car.
1934 Jrnl. Land & Public Utility Econ. 10 229/2 When the output became heavy enough to tax the capacity of existing transportation systems, it began to have corresponding effects on the prices of railway stocks.
1990 R. Pethybridge One Step Backwards (BNC) 123 Railway stock sent from Black Sea ports to another area, the Middle Volga, was not sent back for more grain.
2006 South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) (Nexis) 19 July (Business section) 1 Daqin would benefit from a shortage of rail transport, being the first railway stock, and from the monopoly status of its business.
railway switch n. chiefly North American a set of points; = switch n. 3a.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > track > points
switch1837
point1838
railway switch1838
shunt1842
railroad switch1849
cross-points1896
1838 Civil Engineer & Architect's Jrnl. 1 358 Railway Switch Signal.
1917 Warren (Pa.) Evening Times 21 Mar. 4/5 A railway switch already adjoins the south end of the property.
1999 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 19 Jan. a12 The subway tracks and railway switches froze, halting the majority of commuter service into and within the city.
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1855 D. Masson in Brit. Q. Rev. Jan. 175 Letting alone the mechanical getting-up of the cheap railway volumes,..we certainly find that, hitherto, this demand has stimulated the manufacture of trash.
1869 D. G. Rossetti Let. Aug. (1965) II. 710 In the above year [1862] Messrs. Routledge reprinted it as a shilling railway volume.
1888 Hornellsville (N.Y.) Weekly Tribune 2 Mar. He has for some time past taken great liberties with the cheap railway volumes meant to be read and thrown away.
railway warrant n. = railway pass n.
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society > travel > rail travel > [noun] > train ticket > pass
railway pass1854
railroad pass1857
railway warrant1861
railcard1975
1861 Times 12 Feb. 2/2 (advt.) Please forward on receipt a few railway warrants.
1919 J. Buchan Mr. Standfast ix. 183 I had a railway warrant made out in my name for London.
1998 Jrnl. Afr. Hist. 39 303 When travelling on official business, schoolteachers received second-class railway warrants.
railway whistle n. the whistle on a steam locomotive; (also) a whistle of the type used by a conductor, etc., to signal to a train driver.
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1842 Times 9 Dec. 5/5 The whistle can be made to give a certain number of distinct vibrations per minute, or can be used only occasionally, as is the practice with the railway whistle.
1854 Househ. Words Extra Christmas No. 4/1 A..young man connected with the Fly department, and well accustomed to the sound of a railway whistle which Ben always carries in his pocket.
1929 Musical Times 70 257/1 I append herewith a list..of the sounds which may be produced from the instrument at the recently opened Regal Cinema at Marble Arch:..steamboat whistle, railway whistle, [etc.].
1999 Bath Chron. (Nexis) 8 Nov. 3 At 7.30pm their mother would blow three times on an ear-piercing railway whistle, signalling they had to be home in half an hour.
railway works n. engineering operations carried out on a railway; (also with singular agreement) a factory which supplies materials to the railways.
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1836 Times 31 Aug. 1/5 (advt.) Progress of railway works.
1948 A. Oras Baltic Eclipse i. 20 The Estonian shipyards, railway works, plywood factories.
1993 Dict. National Biogr.: Missing Persons 469/1 Peto..sent him to Russia as an assistant engineer on railway works.
railway wrapper n. now rare a travelling cloak designed for use by railway passengers.
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the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > types or styles of clothing > clothing for body or trunk (and limbs) > [noun] > loose clothing > cloak, mantle, or cape > types of > for specific purpose
masque1577
mourning cloak1610
coach-cloak1705
domino1719
rochet1728
watch-cloak1814
opera cloak1836
railway wrapper1846
duster1864
sortie de bal1864
dust-cloak1883
Venetian1891
gas cape1940
1846 Times 10 Apr. 7/3 The shivering student wakes from a blissful dream of a comfortable watch-box, with a railway wrapper round his legs.
1906 W. De Morgan Joseph Vance xliv. 399 Once safely on board, Beppino strutted about the deck in a plaid railway wrapper, and felt like Francis Drake or Sebastian Cabot.
railway yard n. an area consisting of a network of railway tracks, sidings, and sheds for storing, maintaining, and joining engines and carriages.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > [noun] > station > yard
wagon-yard1827
yard1827
train depot1833
railway yard1854
trainyard1866
marshalling yard1877
rail yard1888
1854 N.-Y. Daily Times 1 Sept. A large number of farmers came in on horseback and took up a position in the railway yard.
1958 E. Hyams Taking it Easy i. i. 16 They just know about pranging the Luftwaffe and the railway yard at Ham.
2006 Toronto Star (Nexis) 24 June p1 There are up to 30,000 brownfields across Canada, including everything from old gas stations..to decommissioned refineries and railway yards.
Derivatives
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > furnish with railway [verb (transitive)]
railroad1829
railway1865
railwayize1873
1873 M. Collins Squire Silchester III. xii. 118 He is getting up a company to railwayize you quiet folk at Silchester.
ˈrailwayless adj. having no railway.
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1860 Chambers's Jrnl. 14 338 Many a day's hard galloping in the railwayless East.
1927 Geogr. Jrnl. 70 48 With the development of roads and motor-traction Iceland is likely to remain a railwayless land.
2005 Morning Star (Nexis) 2 June A quick look at the map shows that most of Britain is railwayless.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
railwayv.
/ˈreɪlweɪ/, U.S. /ˈreɪlˌweɪ/ΚΠ
1844 J. T. J. Hewlett Parsons & Widows I. i. 9 A house now, alas! railwayed of its glories.
2. intransitive. To travel by rail. Cf. railwaying n. 2. rare.
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society > travel > rail travel > [verb (intransitive)]
rail1842
railroad1842
railway1855
train1856
train1888
1855 Sir J. G. Simpson in Mem. xi. 359 I was railwaying hither or thither.
1931 Fresno (Calif.) Bee 31 Oct. a5 They will make the pilgrimage to this great Oasis of Fresno hiking, riding, railwaying or motoring.
3. transitive. To provide (a place) with railways.
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society > travel > rail travel > railway system or organization > furnish with railway [verb (transitive)]
railroad1829
railway1865
railwayize1873
1865 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 331 Not that the rough buck-eye and hemlock woods and mountain creeks had been railwayed, canalled, bored for coal, and derricked for oil.
1876 C. D. Warner Winter on Nile i. 18 All canaled and railwayed.
1917 H. Macfall Germany at Bay xii. 243 When Russia was gunned and munitioned and well railwayed, she was more than a match for the Germans.
1939 Times 22 Mar. 4/7 Intensive development of main lines and roads and cross connexions had made Britain the most ‘railwayed’ and most ‘roaded’ country in the world.
1997 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 15 Nov. 44 South-east England is one of the most densely railwayed areas in the world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1681
v.1844- to drum home
- to fill in
- to fill in on
- to fill in the time
- to fill in time
- to fill one's boots
- to fill one's face
- to fill one's pipe
- to fill out
- to fill powder
- to fill someone in on
- to fill the bases
- to fill the bill
- to fill the hands of
- to fill the ice
- to fill the room of
- to fill the sails
- to fill the time
- to fill the void
- to fill to overflowing
- to fill to repletion
- to fill up
- to fill up the measure of
- to fillip it
- to fillip with fingers