Thursday, January 7, 2010

'Railroad' vs. 'Rail Road' vs. 'Railway' ...which is it???

I have seen each of the following but have never understood the difference:

- Railroad
- Rail Road
- Railway

When I was coming up with the name for my layout, now called The Coffee Valley Railroad, I debated between using 'Railroad' and 'Railway' and finally resolved the issue with a coin flip.  But the question still lingers - what is the difference?  Is there a difference?  Why would one use Railroad instead of Railway?

I have googled all I can google and have found nothing that addresses this in the slightest bit.

Wiktionary notes that railroad and railway are synonyms which leads me to believe that the use of one over the other might fall back to unofficial meanings or preferences.  If so, what would those be?  Where does 'Rail Road' come into play?

Can someone - ANYONE - provide any insight?

Thanks
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. Tom CampbellJanuary 7, 2010 at 2:33 PM

    Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_of_the_terms_railroad_and_railway for what it's worth but it is going along the same lines I was going to go- it's a UK vs US thing... mostly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Randy HawkinsJanuary 8, 2010 at 7:07 AM

    Thanks Tom. This is exactly the type of answer I was looking for.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)