Glossary of North American Railway Terms - M

M

• Manifest: A freight train with a mixture of car types and cargoes. Also known as a Mixed Freight Train.

• Mating Worms: The intertwined P and C letters of the Penn Central logo.

• Meatball/Swedish Meatball: Amtrak EMD AEM-7 / ABB ALP-44 electric locomotives; so named for their design being based on the Swedish Rc4.

• Miniquad: Four ore cars (jennies) permanently coupled.

• Minuteman: The name given to the maroon and gold paint scheme applied to Boston & Maine Railroad diesel-electric locomotives from the 1940s to early 1950s, bearing the famous Revolutionary-inspired Minute Man statue.

• Mother: The locomotive that is paired with a slug.

• Mud Missile: Derogatory nickname given to GE Genesis locomotives, in reference to one's involvement in the 1993 Big Bayou Canot train disaster.