Wort des Tages
15 July 2026
axle counter
A safety device fitted to railway track which counts the axles in a train as it passes over it. A check is carried out when the train passes the next axle counter to make sure the train is still complete.
Warum dieses Wort
It answers a different question than a track circuit: not is something on this stretch, but did everything that went in come back out. Counting in at one end and out at the other is what catches a train that has split.
In use
Section still shows occupied because the axle counter never reset after that engineering move, so we need a reset before anything runs.
Written by our editors to show how the term is used, not a recorded quotation.