THIRDRAIL

Third rail

A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost fully segregated from the outside environment. In most cases, third rail systems supply direct current electricity.

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third rail

Noun

  1. The electrified rail that runs besides, or between train tracks to power electric trains.
  2. anything that is dangerous to come into contact with, or is best avoided
    Social security is the third rail of American politics: touch it and your political career dies.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: third rail
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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