Locomotive or train? Which is this? Perhaps you use them interchangeably. Let’s start with the Latin of locomotive which doesn’t mean the train is a crazy idea. Don’t ask me why the British and Americans seem to have started the whole train thing but suddenly they remembered their Latin
Latin = locus = place
Latin = loco
Late Latin = motivus = motive
Medieval Latin = in loco moveri = move by change of position (I’m going to start using that every time I move from one part of my soda to another)
Which all added up to the
Modern Latin = locomotivus = locomotive of the early 17th century
There will be a test later. 😉
Former Yard Man and Road Engineer Brian Jones, “99% of the time, a locomotive refers to the engine consist and when those engines are attached to railroad cars it’s a train. But the definition of a train is ‘An engine, with or without cars displaying markers.’ So technically, even one engine with the rear markers of a train is a train.”
- Created: February 2023
- Collections: Trains, Planes, and Cars