Glossary of North American Railway Terms - C

C

• Cabbage: Former EMD F40PH locomotives with the diesel engine removed, and a roll-up baggage door installed in the center of the carbody; used as cab/baggage cars in Amtrak push-pull service. Portmanteau of 'cab' and 'baggage'.

• Cadillac: A nickname for EMD SD9 locomotives, in reference to their smooth ride quality reminiscent of a Cadillac automobile. This nickname is said to have originated on the Southern Pacific Railroad.

• Calf: A cabless switcher. Not a slug; it has its own diesel engine.

• Can Opener: Conrail's herald.

• Catfish: Norfolk Southern locomotives with white stripes painted on the nose, which are said to look like catfish whiskers.

• Centennials: Name given to Union Pacific's EMD DDA40X locomotives. World's most powerful diesel locomotives, delivered in 1969, the year of Union Pacific's centennial.

• Centipede: Nickname given to a 12-axled Baldwin diesel locomotive.

• Ches-C: Chessie System's kitten logo; the profile of the Chesapeake and Ohio's sleeping kitten mascot "Chessie" appears inside the corporate C logo.

• Circus loading: Loading trailers on flatcars sequentially from the end; the standard method of loading in early piggyback service.

• Coal Drag: A train loaded with coal.

• Coal jimmies: small, low-capacity hopper cars for carrying coal.

• Coffin car: Nickname for a passenger car with an engineer's cab. Also known as a cab car or control car. So named due to the alleged additional danger posed to passengers in such cars (which are pushed by the heavier trailing locomotive) in frontal collisions.

• Covered wagon: an EMD E-series or F-series locomotive.

• Cow: a switcher locomotive, when paired with a Calf.

• CPLs: Color Position Lights, a type of signal used most prominently by the Baltimore & Ohio and the Norfolk & Western railroads.

• Critter: A small industrial locomotive.

• Crummy: A caboose.