third rail

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English

Noun

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third rail (plural third rails)

  1. The electrified rail that runs beside or between train tracks to power electric trains.
    • 1959 March, “The 2,500 h.p. electric locomotives for the Kent Coast electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 125:
      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.
    • 1961 March, “Talking of trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 134:
      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.
    • 2023 February 8, Tony Streeter, “Kirkdale: home to Merseyrail's new '777s'”, in RAIL, number 976, page 36:
      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.
  2. (by extension) Anything that is controversial or dangerous to come into contact with, or is best avoided.
    • 2007 November 12, Jonathan Alter, “Congenital Lawyer Redux”, in Newsweek, page 48:
      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.
    • 2014 March 29, Stephen Sestanovich, “Putin's reckless gamble”, in The New York Times‎:
      Despite ethnic resentment and suspicion, they never contemplated breaking up the country. This was the third rail of Ukrainian politics, and very few were willing to touch it. Secession was taboo.
    • 2025 July 2, Catherine Shoard, quoting James Cameron, “James Cameron calls Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer a ‘moral cop-out’”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:
      “But I felt that it dodged the subject. I don’t know whether the studio or Chris felt that that was a third rail that they didn’t want to touch, but I want to go straight at the third rail. I’m just stupid that way.”

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