Japanese Railway Glossary

This is very incomplete and is something I'll be slowly working on over time. I do not speak Japanese and this is primarily based on Google Translate - corrections are appreciated.

Entries are sorted in thematic, not alphabetical, order.

General

• 線 (せん, sen): a line (the word covers the concept of lines in general)
• 鉄道路線 (てつどうろせん, tetsudō rosen): a railway line
• 本線 (ほんせん, honsen): a main line
• 支線 (しせん, shisen): a branch line
• 幹線 (てつどうろせん, kansen): a trunk route (in the context of railways, roads, power lines, etc.)
• 新幹線 (しんかんせん, shinkansen): literally "new trunk route", the high-speed rail network operated by the JR companies and commonly referred to as the "bullet train" in English
• 国鉄 (こくてつ, kokutetsu): a nationalised railway; commonly used to refer to the Japanese National Railways but also refers to non-Japanese government-owned railways

Infastructure

• 踏切 (ふみきり, fumikiri): a level crossing. Japanese level crossings are placed into one of four classes:
• 第1種 (だい1しゅ, dai 1-shu): Class 1 level crossings either have automatic barriers or are permanently manned manual crossings
• 第2種 (だい2しゅ, dai 2-shu): Class 2 level crossings are manual crossings that are not permanently manned. When not manned, they are considered Class 3 or 4 level crossings. The last Class 2 level crossings were closed or converted into other classes in the 1980s
• 第3種 (だい3しゅ, dai 3-shu): Class 3 level crossings do not have automatic barriers but do have automatic warning devices
• 第4種 (だい4しゅ, dai 4-shu): Class 4 level crossings lack both automatic barriers and automatic warning devices

Operations

• 運用 (うんよう, un'yō): the process of assigning rolling stock and crews to services
• 鉄道運行計画 (てつどううんこうけいかく, tetsudō unkō keikaku): general term for 車両運用計画, 乗務員運用計画, etc.
• 車両運用計画 (しゃりょううんようけいかく, sharyō un'yō keikaku): A plan of the services a specific locomotive or multiple unit will operate; in UK parlance, a unit diagram
• 乗務員運用計画 (じょうむいん うんよう けいかく, jōmu-in un'yō keikaku): A plan of the services a specific crew will operate; in UK parlance, a crew diagram
• 構内作業計画 (こうないさぎょうけいかく, kōnai sagyō keikaku): A schedule for shunting, inspections, cleaning, etc. at a station or depot

Unofficial jargon

• 盲腸線 (もうちょうせん, mōchō-sen): literally "appendix line" (using the colloquial word 盲腸, which more properly refers to the cecum, instead of the medical term 虫垂), a vaguely defined term applied to dead-end branch lines