Difference Between Train and Locomotive

Train vs Locomotive

We are all taught about locomotive factories where engines that haul trains are manufactured, but we hardly pay attention to the dichotomy between train and locomotive. If you ask a common man as to what the difference between a train and locomotive is, you would get an answer that suggests trains and locomotive being synonyms. However, this is not true and locomotive is in reality the engine that moves the series of carriages that are interconnected and move at a great speed on the especially laid track that is referred to as railway. Despite ostensible similarities because of being used as synonyms by common people there are differences between train and locomotive that will be discussed in this article.

Locomotive, if we look up dictionary, is a vehicle that provides the power to haul a train and comes from Latin Loco (meaning place) and Motivus (meaning something that causes motion). It is also the engine of a train that has moved from being steam engine to diesel engine and finally electric engine. A train, on the other hand, refers to a system of interconnected wagons or coaches that are hauled by an engine placed in front. However, there are some who call the full system including engine as a train, while those who know that it is the engine that hauls the coaches refer to the engine as the locomotive and rest of the coaches or carriages as the train.

Thus, it is up to an individual to call the engine along with carriages as the train or just the carriages without the engine. But, it is a fact that the locomotive is certainly the vehicle that provides motive power to haul the wagons that are interconnected and make up the system known as a train.

When you see an engine running on the tracks without coaches behind it, you do not call it a train, do you? It remains an engine or the locomotive that suddenly becomes a train when it starts to haul the wagons once they are attached behind it.