Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rail laid alongside the bearing-rails of a railway, having cogs into which works a cog-wheel on the locomotive: now used only in some forms of inclined-plane railway.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word rack-rail.
Examples
-
No further rack-rail was built and one of the portions constructed was converted, but two short stretches of rack-rail remained near Puerto Plata, one of one mile and another of three miles.
Santo Domingo A Country with a Future Otto Schoenrich
-
The insurgents destroyed bridges and the rack-rail; the latter has not been replaced, and the four and ten per cent grades are now laboriously overcome by means of
Santo Domingo A Country with a Future Otto Schoenrich
-
The rack-rail feature being undesirable, plans were made for the construction of the road as an adhesion road.
Santo Domingo A Country with a Future Otto Schoenrich
-
And the Blenkinsop engine at Coxlodge was found very unsteady and costly in its working; besides, it pulled the rails to pieces, the entire strain being upon the rack-rail on one side of the road.
Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson Samuel Smiles 1858
-
It was also very apt to get off the rack-rail, and then it stood still.
Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson Samuel Smiles 1858
-
One of the chief causes of failure being the rack-rail, the idea occurred to
Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson Samuel Smiles 1858
-
This new locomotive had a single 8-inch cylinder, was provided with a fly-wheel like its predecessor, and the driving-wheel was cogged on one side to enable it to travel in the rack-rail laid along the road.
Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson Samuel Smiles 1858
-
Page 186 with teeth on the outside, and to let the engine turn a cogwheel, whose teeth should work into the rack-rail.
-
Encouraged by the success of Mr. Blenkinsop’s experiment at Leeds, Mr. Blackett determined to follow his example; and in 1812 he ordered a second engine, to work with a toothed driving-wheel upon a rack-rail.
Lives of the Engineers The Locomotive. George and Robert Stephenson Samuel Smiles 1858
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.