third rail

Example Sentences

• "The system voltage is 630 volts d.c. and the supply to the trains is by top-contact third rail with running rail return."
• "The locomotive third-rail pick up shoes are of the new standard S.R. type. [...] Whenever the locomotive was working hard there was unmistakable evidence of its higher power than its predecessors in the brilliant and explosive arcing between conductor shoes and the third rail; this was particularly vivid in Quarry Tunnel in the down direction, where the display equalled anything we have seen on the frostiest of nights in an electrified third-rail area."
• "Rumour is abroad that, foiled by the Central T.U.C.C. in its attempt to close the Westerham branch, the Southern Region is considering third-rail electrification of the line with second-hand material. [this never happened and the branch closed later in 1961]"
• "Although third-rail operation in the region dates back more than a century, it was in the 1970s that tunnels under Liverpool's city centre opened to bring together previously disparate routes."
• "tax hikes as a third rail in U.S. politics"
• "Today's rapidly developing third rail (at least in some states) is supporting driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, as favored by New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer."