running rail

English

Noun

running rail (plural running rails)

1. (rail transport, usually in the plural) One of the two rails of a railway track with which the wheels of a train make contact.
   • 1940 December, “Notes and News: Waterloo & City Tube Modernisation”, in Railway Magazine, page 668:

     In order to reduce noise to a minimum, the running rails have been welded into 315 ft. lengths.

   • 2019 October, Roger Ford, “Power failure highlights specification confusion”, in Modern Railways, page 27:

     When AC traction was being introduced this was recognised as a threat to track circuits. Harmonics of the switching frequency would appear in the traction return currents in the running rails and, potentially, this would cause wrong-side track circuit failures.

2. (horse racing) A fence which marks the inside edge of a racecourse track.

References

• “running rail”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.