RAILvue | Reference

Railroad Acronyms

Every abbreviation you'll hear on the radio, see in an FRA citation, or read in a track warrant — defined and linked to the full glossary entry it belongs to.

A

AAR: Association of American Railroads
ABS: Automatic Block Signal
ACSES: Advanced Civil Speed Enforcement System (Amtrak/Northeast Corridor implementation)
AEI: Automatic Equipment Identification (tag readers often co-located with detector arrays)

C

CTC: Centralized Traffic Control

D

DB: Dynamic Braking (informal shorthand used in the field)
DP: Distributed Power (informal shorthand)
DPU: Distributed Power Unit
DS: Dispatcher (field shorthand)

E

EOT: End-of-Train
ETD: End-of-Train Device

F

FRA: Federal Railroad Administration
FRED: Flashing Rear-End Device (legacy field term)

H

HBD: Hot Box Detector

I

I-ETMS: Interoperable Electronic Train Management System
ITCS: Incremental Train Control System (legacy Michigan implementation)

L

LCD: Locomotive Control Display (common event recorder interface)

M

MOW: Maintenance-of-Way

P

PTC: Positive Train Control

R

RWIC: Roadway Worker In Charge

T

TGV: Track Geometry Vehicle (alternate term used by some railroads)

U

USDOT: United States Department of Transportation

W

WILD: Wheel Impact Load Detector