conductor rail

English

conductor rail (plural conductor rails)

Synonym of live rail.
- 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 123:
  As on Nos. 20001-3, the motor and generator armature shafts of the new locomotive each carry a heavy flywheel to provide kinetic energy and help maintain the speed of the motor-generator set during interruptions of supply, as at breaks in the continuity of the conductor rail.
- 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: Flooding at Lewes”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:
  On the morning of Thursday, November 3, flood water rose over the conductor rails in platforms 1 to 3 of Lewes station and the electric service to London had to be shut down.
Synonym of third rail.
- 1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:
  "Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.