buffer car

plural buffer cars

1. USrail transportA nonhazardous railroad freight car in a train, typically used to separate locomotives and their crews from freight cars carrying hazardous materials.

   The buffer car not only puts extra space between the crew and the rest of the train, but it also keeps flammable materials away from a potential ignition source.

   2024, Cody Grivno, “How railroads identify buffer service cars”, in Trains Magazine

   1 more example

   2022, Laura Sullivan, Mark Raney, Emilio Paleo, Separation Distance of Hazardous Materials Cars and Train Crews and/or Locomotives - Literature Review (Buffer Car Research Study), United States Department of Transportation "These requirements have been universally interpreted, by both operators and regulators, to effectively require five buffer cars for manifest trains (when train length permits) and one buffer car for unit trains and when the train length does not permit."