Meaning & use
rail yard
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Meaning
nouncountable
An area with many tracks where trains are kept, sorted, or repaired when not in use.
Grammar: Countable: use a rail yard, the rail yard, or rail yards.
Patterns
- in a rail yard
- at the rail yard
The old rail yard on the edge of town is now a shopping center.
Workers in the rail yard connect and separate train cars all night.
A rail yard can cover many acres and hold hundreds of wagons.
Word forms
| plural | rail yards |
|---|
Common combinations
- rail yard worker
- Her father was a rail yard worker for thirty years.
- rail yard operations
- New software has made rail yard operations much safer.
- a busy rail yard
- The train was delayed because the busy rail yard was full.
- switch yard
- In American English, a switching area is often called a switch yard.
Synonyms and how they differ
- marshalling yard
- British term for the same place, especially one where trains are sorted into new groups.
- depot
- A more general word for a place where vehicles or goods are kept, not only trains.
Word family
Commonly confused: rail yard or railway station?
rail yard vs railway station
A station is where passengers get on and off trains; a rail yard is for storing and moving the trains themselves.
Practice
The train was parked in a ______ outside the city while the tracks were repaired.
Choose one answer.
A rail yard is a place where trains are kept or stored, which fits 'parked'. A railway station is for passengers, a platform is where you stand, and a carriage is a part of the train itself.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “rail yard”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.