- Tank car: A type of rolling stock designed to transport liquid and gaseous commodities.
- Tank engine (UK): A locomotive that carries its own fuel and water instead of hauling a tender. The fuel is usually in a bunker behind the cab and the water in tanks on either side of, above, or below the boiler (respectively: side tank, saddle tank, well tank).
- Team track: A spur or siding for loading freight, often used by firms not having their own direct rail access.
- Ten-foot: An area, usually at least ten feet wide, between a pair of widely spaced tracks, wide enough to form a place of safety in which railway workers can stand while a train goes past. See also four-foot and six-foot.
- Ten-wheeler (US): A steam locomotive with a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement.
- Terminal station (esp. U.S.), terminus (esp. UK): A station sited where a railway line or service ends or terminates.
- Terminal railroad (or terminal railway) is company in the United States that owns no cars of its own and transports only the railroad cars of other companies around a specific terminal station.
- Texas type: A steam locomotive with a 2-10-4 wheel arrangement.
- The T (US): A nickname for Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) the Subway service through Boston, Massachusetts.
- Theatre indicator (UK) An illuminated number usually attached to signal indicating arrival platform for train approaching a station.
- Third rail: An electrified rail that runs along the tracks, giving power to trains. Used mostly in subways and rapid transit systems.
- Through coach: A passenger coach that is disconnected from one train and attached to another before continuing on with its journey, thus avoiding the need for passengers themselves to switch trains.
- Through platform: The standard platform and track arrangement at a station. The train pulls alongside the platform, arriving from one end of the station, and may pass out the other end of the station by continuing along the same track.
- Through-routing: Combining two or more different railways onto a common length of track. This is often done to eliminate redundant trackage and/or improve service.
- Tie (US): sleeper (UK): A rectangular object used as a base for railroad tracks.
- Tie plate: A plate which is bolted to sleepers, holding the rails in place.
- Timetable direction: The general compass direction of a railroad or subdivision, as specified by its official timetable (rulebook). Only north, south, east or west may be specified (i.e. northeast, southwest, east-southeast, etc. are excluded).
- TOFC: An abbreviation for "Trailer-On-Flat-Car" (Intermodal freight transport).
- Token: A physical object given to a locomotive driver to authorize him to use a particular stretch of single track.
- Top and tail (UK): A train with locomotives at both ends, for ease of changing direction.
- Torpedo (US): A small explosive device strapped to the top of the rail to alert an approaching train of danger ahead. A torpedo creates a loud noise upon contact with a locomotive wheel, signaling the engineer to reduce speed to 20 mph or less; the train cannot resume its original speed until it has traveled at least a mile beyond where it encountered the device. Traditionally used in pairs to ensure that the sound registered with train crews, torpedoes today are essentially obsolete as modern locomotive cabs' soundproof construction renders the devices useless. (UK:Detonator)
- Torpedo tube: A slang term for a type of roof-mounted air reservoir. The long, cylindrical tanks (which resembled the torpedo launch tubes on World War II PT boats) were integral to the design of the EMD SD24, and retrofitted (both at the factory and on an aftermarket basis) to other locomotives such as the GP7, GP9, and CF7 (typically when the units were placed into passenger train service and larger fuel and water storage tanks were required).
- Trackage rights (US): The legal right of one railroad company to use the tracks of another, as agreed to by the companies concerned or their predecessors; may also be ordered by government regulators, for example, as a condition of a merger. Running powers (UK).
- Track bed or trackbed: the foundation of rail tracks
- Track circuit: An electrical circuit that detects the presence or absence of locomotives and/or cars in a section of track, the section referred to as a block. Track circuits provide real-time inputs to signaling logic.
- Trackside objects: See Wayobjects under "W" below.
- Track bulletin: A form used by railroad employees that shows the locations of slow orders, maintenance of way work locations, and other conditions affecting the track and movement of trains.
- Track tamping machine: Generally, a locomotive used in track maintenance and equipped with track lifting facilities, and paddles enabling ballast to be pushed beneath a rail track so as to assure its level and cant.
- Track transition curve: The gradual application of superelevation and tighter curve radius, calculated with reference to the anticipated line speed and the final curve radius, on the approach to a bend. Also known as the transition spiral and spiral easement.
- Track warrant (TWC) (US) Occupancy Control System (OCS) (CA): A system for authorizing main track occupancy using defined points such as mileposts, switches, or stations.
- Traction motor: A large electric motor that powers the driving wheels of an electric or Diesel-electric locomotive.
- Traction supply: The supply for the driving traction motors of electric trains.
- Tractive effort: the pulling or pushing force exerted by a locomotive or other vehicle.
- Trailing: A turnout is trailing if the two legs of that turnout merge in the direction of travel. See Facing.
- Trainee: An employee who is new on the job and has completed railroad school.
- Train engine (UK), Road engine (US): The locomotive closest to the train during a double-heading operation.
- Trainman: An employee assigned to train service, such as a Conductor, Brakeman or Switchman.
- Trainmaster: A Dispatcher, the person(s) in charge of all traffic within the assigned blocks.
- Train order: (US), A system for authorizing main track occupancy using telephone, telegraph and wayside stations to pass authority to train crews.
- Train register (UK): A book or loose-leaf sheets kept in a signal box and used to record the passage of trains, messages passed, and other prescribed events.
- Trainset: A group of rolling stock that is permanently or semi-permanently coupled together to form a unified set of equipment. Trainsets are most often used in passenger train configurations.
- Tram: A city-based rail system that typically shares its operational space with other vehicles and often runs on, across or down the center of city streets.
- Tram-train are trams that are designed to run both on the tracks of a city-based rail system and on the existing railway networks. Tram-trains dual-voltage capability makes it possible to operate at lower speeds on city streets and at over 60 mph (100 km/h) on main line tracks allowing travel in an extended geographical area without changing the method of transport.
- Treadle: A mechanical or electrical device for detecting the presence of a rail vehicle with pin-point accuracy, unlike a track circuit, which provides detection over an arbitrary distances.
- Triangle (UK), Wye (US): A track layout that facilitates the turning of engines or complete trains.
- Truck (mainly US and Canada as well as Mexico) See Bogie
- Truck (UK, outdated/informal): freight car.
- Turnout: A switch (also known as a set of points)
- Turntable: A section of track that can rotate, allowing locomotives and rolling stock to be reversed, and also allow a large number of engine maintenance sidings to be accessed in a small area.
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