There are a number of clockwork (or rodent) powered railway units in service in the UK which which are usually descibed as “single-carriage trains”, such as this fine specimen. However, it (an idea, not the train, although I probably would never have noticed had it been the train) struck me that they don’t even deserve the designation of train. The COD defines a train as “a series of railway carriages or trucks drawn by an engine“. Even admitting that this definition includes trains which have integral motors within carriages rather than a separate engine, such as most commuter trains, the clockwork train still fails as it is not a series of carriages, engines, troublesome trucks, or of anything else; it is a carriage with a wind up mechanism (or hamster wheel). The word train always indicates something following something else, such as a wagon train, the train on a wedding dress, whereas these barely follow the timetable. What these spring (or mouse-muscle) powered vehicles should be called, I am not sure.
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