siding
nounEtymology From side + -ing (“derivative noun, having the quality of”).
1
Rail transport, Railways, Transport A second, relatively short length of track just to the side of a railroad track, joined to the main track by switches at one or both ends, used either for loading or unloading freight, storing trains or other rail vehicles; or to allow two trains on a same track to meet (opposite directions) or pass (same direction) (the latter sense is probably an American definition).
- They slept where they could, sometimes in an empty truck on a siding near the station, sometimes in a cart behind a warehouse; [...]1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 47”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:
- Laid out over six square kilometres, Sellafield is like a small town, with nearly a thousand buildings, its own roads and even a rail siding – all owned by the government, and requiring security clearance to visit.December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:
- Derived terms
- private siding, reversing siding, stabling siding, Stokers Siding, turnback siding
- Related terms
- trackside