railroader 
railroader (ral'ro-der), . A person engaged 
in the management or operation of a railroad 
or railroads; one employed in or about the run- 
ning of railroad-trains or the general business 
of a railroad. [U. S.] 
The Inter-State Commerce Commission is endeavoring 
to harmonise the interests of shippers and railroaders. 
The Engineer, LXVI. 18. 
railroading (ral'ro-ding), . [< railroad + 
-(HI/I.] The management of or work upon a 
railroad or railroads ; the business of construct- 
ing or operating railroads. [U. S.] 
Wonders in the science of railroading that the tourist 
will go far to see. 
Harper's Weekly, XXXIII., Supp., p. 60. 
railroad-worm (ral'rod-werin), . The apple- 
maggot (larva of Trypeta pomonrlhi) : so called 
because it has spread along the lines of the rail- 
roads. [New Eng.] 
rail-saw (ral'sa), . A portable machine for 
sawing off railway-rails in track-laying and -re- 
pairing. The most approved form clamps to the rail to 
be sawn, its frame carrying a reciprocating segmental 
saw working on a rock-shaft, which is operated by later- 
ally extending detachable rock-levers. It has mechanism 
which slowly muves the saw toward the rail. A rail can 
be cut off by it in fifteen minutes. 
rail-Snipe (ral'snip), . A bird of the genus 
Khynchsea (or lioxtratula), as R. cajiensix. the 
Cape rail-snipe, also called painted Cape snipe 
and golden rail. 
rail-splitter (ral'splifer), n. One who splits 
logs into rails for making a rail fence. Abraham 
Lincoln, President of the United States from 1861 to 1S6B, 
who In his youth had occasionally split rails, was some- 
times popularly called the rail-tplitter, and clubs of his 
partizans assumed the name Rail- splitters. [U. 3.] 
Yes : he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen; 
To make me own this hind of princes peer, 
This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. 
Tom Taylor, Abraham Lincoln. 
railway (ral'wa), . [< rail 1 + tcay.] 1. In 
mech. enain., broadly, a way composed of one or 
more rails, or lines of rails, for the support, and 
commonly also for the direction of the motion, 
of a body carried on wheels adapted to roll on 
the rail or rails, or lines of rails. The wheels of 
railway-cars are now more usually flanged ; but In railways 
forming parts of machines they are sometimes grooved, 
or they may run in grooves formed in the rails. 
2. A way for the transportation of freight or 
passengers, or both, in which vehicles with 
flanged or grooved wheels are drawn or pro- 
pelled on one or more lines of rails that sup- 
port the wheels of the vehicles, and guide their 
course by the lateral pressure of the rails against 
the wheels; a railroad. (See railroad.) The parts 
of an ordinary passenger- and freight- railway proper are 
the road-betl, ballast, sleepers, mils, rail-chairs, splices, 
spikes, switches and switch mechanism, collectively called 
permanent way, and the signals ; but in common and 
accepted usage the meaning of the terms railway and rail- 
road has been extended to include not only the perma- 
nent way, but everything necessary to its operation, as 
the rolling-stock and buildings, including stations, ware- 
houses, round-houses, locomotive-shops, car-shops, and 
repair-shops, and also all other property of the operating 
company, as stocks, bonds, and other securities. Most ex- 
isting railways employ steam-locomotives ; but systems of 
propulsion by endless wire ropes or cables, by electric 
locomotives, and by electromotors placed on individual 
. cars to which electricity generated by dynamos at suitable 
stations is supplied from electrical conductors extending 
along the line, or from storage-batteries can-led by the 
cars, have recently made notable progress. Horse-rail- 
ways or tramways, in which the cars are drawn by horses 
or mules, are also extensively used for local passenger and 
freight traffic ; but in many places such railways are now 
being supplanted by electric or cable systems. 
Railway. A new iron railway has been invented in 
Bavaria. On an exactly horizontal surface, on this im- 
provement, a woman, or even a child, may, with apparent 
ease, draw a cart loaded with more than six quintals. . . . 
It is proved that those iron railings are two-thirds better 
than the English, and only cost half as much. 
Niles's Register, Jan. 26, 1822. 
Abandonment of railway. See abandonment. Aerial, 
Archimedean, atmospheric, centripetal, electric 
railway. See the adjectives. Elevated railway, or ele- 
vated railroad, in contradistinction to surface railway, an 
elevated structure, in form analogous to a bridge, used in 
New York and elsewhere for railway purposes, to avoid 
obstruction of surface roadways. The elevated structures 
are usually made of a good quality of steel and iron, and 
cars are moved on them either by steam-locomotives or 
by cable-traction, more commonly the former. Electricity 
has also been applied to the propulsion of cars on elevated 
railways. Inclined railway, a railway having such a 
steep grade that special means other than ordinary loco- 
motive driving-wheels are necessary for drawing or pro- 
pelling cars on it. The use of locomotives with gripping- 
wheels engaging a rail extending midway between the 
ordinary rails, or having a pinion engaging the teeth of a 
rack-rail similarly placed, is a feature of many such rail- 
ways. Cables operated by a stationary enginu are also used. 
Marine railway. See marine. Military railway, a 
railway equipped for military service. Armored locomo- 
tives, and armor-plated cars having port-holes for rifles and 
some of them carrying swivel-guns, are prominent features 
4942 
of a military railwayoutftt. Pneumatic railway, (u) A 
railwayin which cars are propelled by air-pressure behind 
them. In one form of pneumatic railway the cars were 
pushed like pistons through a tunnel by pressure of air 
on the rear. The system failed of practical success from 
the difficulties met with in the attempt to carry it out on 
a large scale. Also called atmospheric railway (which see, 
under atmospheric). (6) A railway in which cars are drawn 
by pneumatic locomotives. Scarcely more success has 
been reached in this method than in that described above. 
Portable railway, or portable railroad, a light rail- 
way-track made in detachable sections, or otherwise con- 
structed so that it may be easily taken up, carried about, 
and transported to a distance, for use in military opera- 
tions, in constructing roads, in building operations, in 
making excavations, etc. The rails are frequently of 
wood, or of wood plated with iron. Prismoidal rail- 
way, a railway consisting of a single continuous beam 
or truss supported on posts or columns. The engine and 
cars run astride of the beam, the former being provided 
with grip-wheels to obtain the hold on the track requisite 
for draft Railway brain, a term applied to certain 
cases developed by railway accident, in which a trau- 
matic neurosis is believed to be of cerebral origin. Rail- 
way Clauses Consolidation Act, an English statute of 
1845 (8 and 9 Viet, c. 20) consolidating the usual statutory 
provisions applicable to railway corporations, enabling 
them to take private property, and giving them special 
rights or special duties. Railway cut-off saw. See 
wrai. Railway post-office. See pout-office. Railway 
scrip. See scrip. Railway spine, an affection of the 
spine resulting from concussion produced by a railway 
accident. See under spine. 
The railway spine has taken its place in medical nomen- 
clature. Sei. Ainer., N. S., LX. 22. 
Underground railway, a railway running through a 
continuous tunnel, as under the streets or other parts of 
a city ; a subterranean railway. 
railway-car (ral'wa-kar), , Any vehicle in 
general (the locomotive or other motor and its 
tender excepted) that runs on a railway, whe- 
ther for the transportation of freight or of 
passengers. 
railway-carriage (ral'wa-kar'aj), n. A rail- 
way-car for passenger-traffic. [Eng.] 
railway-chair (ral'wa-char), n. Same as rail- 
chair. 
railway-company (rarwa-kum'"pa-ni), H. A 
stock company, usually organized under a char- 
ter granted by special legislative enactment, 
for the purpose of constructing and operating 
a railway, and invested with certain special 
powers, as well as subject to special restric- 
tions, by the terms of its charter. 
railway-crossing (ral'wa-kros'ing), H. 1. An 
intersection of railway-tracks. 2. The inter- 
section of a common roadway or highway with 
the track of a railway. 
railway-frog (ral'wa-frog), . See frog*, 2. 
railway-slide (ral'wa-slid), . A tnrn-table. 
[Eng.] 
railway-stitch (ral'wa-stich), H. 1. In crochet, 
same as tricot-stitch. 2. In embroidery, a sim- 
ple stitch usually employed in white embroi- 
dery, or with floss or filoselle. 3. In worsted- 
work or Berlin-wool work, a kind of stitch used 
on leviathan canvas, large and loose, and cov- 
ering the surface quickly. 
railway-switch (ral' wa-swich), . See switch. 
railway-tie (ral'wa-tl), H. See tie. 
railway-train (ral'wa-tran), n. See train. 
raim (ram), r. t. Same as ream 2 . 
raiment (ra'ment), n. [Early mod. E. rayment; 
< ME. raiment, rayment, short for arayment, 
later arraiment, mod. arrayment: see arrayment. 
Cf. ray, by apheresis for array.] That in 
which one is arrayed or clad; clothing; vesture; 
formerly sometimes, in the plural, garments. 
[Now ouly poetical or archaic.] 
On my knees I beg 
That you'll vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food. 
Shale., Lear, ii. 4. 158. 
Truth's Angel on horseback, his rai^nent of white silk 
powdered with stars of gold. 
Middleton, Triumphs of Troth. 
= Syn. Clothes, dress, attire, habiliments, garb, costume, 
array. These words are all in current use, while raiment 
and vesture have a poetic or antique sound. 
raimondite (ra'mon-dit), n. [Named after A. 
Raimondi, an Italian scientist who spent many 
years in exploring Peru.] A basic sulphate of 
iron, occurring in hexagonal tabular crystals of 
a yellow color. 
rain 1 (ran), n. [Early mod. E. rayne, < ME. rein, 
reyn, reyne, reane, regn, rien, ren, ran, < AS. 
ref/n (often contr. ren) = OS. regan, regin = 
OFries. rein = D. regen = MLG. regen = OHO. 
regan, MHG. regen, G. regen = Icel. Sw. Dan. 
rcgn = Goth, rign, rain; cf. L. rigare, moisten 
(see irrigation), Gr. /3pex c ' v , wet (see embroca- 
tion).'] 1. The descent of water in drops 
through the atmosphere, or the water thus fall- 
ing. In general, clouds constitute the reservoir from 
which rain descends, but the fall of rain in very small 
quantities from a cloudless sky is occasionally observed. 
The aqueous vapor of the atmosphere, which condenses 
rain 
into cloud, and falls us rain, is derived from the evapora- 
tion of water, partly from land, but chiefly from the vast 
expanse of the ocean. At a given temperature, only a 
certain amount of aqueous vapor can be contained in a 
given volume, and when this amount is present the air 
is said to be saturated. If the air is then cooled below 
this temperature, a part of the vapor will be condensed 
into small drops, which, when suspended in the atmo- 
sphere, constitute clouds. Under continued cooling and 
condensation, the number and size of the drops increase 
until they begin to descend by their own weight. The 
largest of these, falling fastest, unite with smaller ones 
that they overtake, and thus drops of rain are formed 
whose size depends on the thickness and density of the 
cloud and on the distribution of electrical stress therein. 
Sometimes the rate of condensation is so great that the 
water appears to fall in sheets rather than in drops, and 
then the storm is popularly called a cloud-burst. It is now 
generally held that dynamic cooling (that is, the cooling 
of air by expansion, when raised in altitude, and thereby 
brought under diminished pressure), if not the sole cause 
of nun, is the only cause of any importance, and that other 
causes popularly appealed to such as the intermingling 
of warm and cold air, contact with cold mountain-slopes, 
etc. are either inoperative or relatively insignificant. 
The requisite ascent of air may lie occasioned eilher by 
convection currents, a cyclonic circulation, or the upward 
deflection of horizontal currents by hills or mountains ; 
and rain may be classified as connective, ci/clonic, or oro- 
graphic, according as the first, second, or third of these 
methods is brought into operation to produce it. The 
productiveness of the soil and the maintenance of life in 
most parts of the earth depend largely upon an adequate 
fall of rain. In some regions it is more or less evenly dis- 
tributed throughout the year, in others it is confined to a 
part of the year (the rainy season), and in others still it is 
entirely absent, or too slight for need, according to varia- 
tion of local atmospheric conditions. In a ship's log-book 
abbreviated r. 
A muchel wind altth mid a lutel rein. 
A ncren Riwle, p. 246. 
Also a man that was born in thys yle told vs that they 
had no Rayne by the space of x months; they sow ther 
whete with owt Rayne. 
Torkington, Diarie of Eng. Travel!, p. 61. 
2. Figuratively (a) A fall of any substance 
through the atmosphere in the manner of rain, 
as of blossoms or of the pyrotechnic stars from 
rockets and other fireworks. Blood-rain is a fall 
of fragments of red algae or the like, raised in large quan- 
tities by the wind and afterward precipitated. Sulphur- 
rain or yellow rain is a similar precipitation of the pollen 
of fir-trees, etc. (6) A shower, downpour, or abun- 
dant outpouring of anything. 
Whilst Wealth it self doth roll 
In to her bosom in a golden Rain. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, 1. 88. 
The former and the latter rain, in Palestine, the rains 
of autumn and of spring ; hence, rain in its due season. 
The Rainst, a tract of the Atlantic ocean formerly so 
called. See the quotation. 
Crossing toward the west, from Africa, it is now known 
that between about five and fifteen north latitude is a 
space of ocean, nearly triangular, the other limit being 
about twenty (long.) and ten (lat.), which used to be called 
by the earlier navigators the Rains, on account of the calms 
and almost incessant rain always found there. 
Fitz Roy, Weather Book, p. 115. 
= Syn. 1. Rain, Haze, Fog, Mist, Cloud. A cloud resting upon 
the earth is called mist or .fog. In mid the globules are 
very fine, but are separately distinguishable, and have a 
visible motion. In fog the particles are separately indis- 
tinguishable, and there is no perceptible motion. A dry 
fog is composed largely of dust-particles on which the 
condensed vapor is too slight to occasion any sense of 
moisture. Haze differs from fog and cloud in the greater 
microscopic minuteness of its particles. It is visible only 
as a want of transparency of the atmosphere, and in gen- 
eral exhibits neither form, boundary, nor locus. Thus, 
among haze, fog, mist, and rain, the size of the constituent 
particles or globules is a discriminating characteristic, 
though frequently cloud merges into fog or mist, and mist 
into rain, by insensible gradations. 
rain 1 (ran), r. [< ME. raynen, reinen, reynen, 
regnen, rinen, rynen (pret. rainde, reinede, rinde; 
sometimes strong, ran, roon), < AS. rignan, rare- 
ly reynan, usually contracted rinan.rynan (pret. 
rinde; rarely strong, ran), = D. regenen = MLG. 
regenen = OHG. reganon, regonon, MHG. rege- 
nen, G. regnen = Icel. regna, rigmi = Sw. regua 
= Dan. regne = Goth, rignjan, rain ; from the 
noun: see rain 1 , n.] I. intrans. 1. To fall in 
drops through the air, as water: generally used 
impersonally. 
There it reyneth not but litylle in that Contree ; and for 
that Cause they have no Watre, but zif it be of that flood 
of that Ryvere. MandecUle. Travels, p. 45. 
Evermore so sternliche it ran, 
And blew therwith so wonderliche loude, 
That wel neighe no man heren other koude. 
Chaucer, Troilus, iii. 677. 
And in Elyes tyme heuene was yclosed, 
That no reyne ne rone. 
Piers Plowman (B), xiv. CO. 
The rain it raineth every day. Shot., T. N., v. 1. 401. 
2. To fall or drop like rain : as, tears rained 
from their eyes. 
The Spaniards presented a fatal mark to the Moorish mis- 
siles, which rained on them with pitiless fury. 
Prescott, 1'erd. and Isa., ii. 7. 
Down rained the blows upon the unyielding oak. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 252. 
