Instead of shoving every car all the way into place, a yard crew accelerates a cut, the engineer brakes, and the uncoupled cut rolls on alone into its track while the locomotive stays back. Kicking saves time but takes judgment: too hard and the cars slam into others above the usual 4 mph coupling limit, too soft and they stall short and foul the switch. Railroads restrict kicking of placarded hazmat cars and other sensitive loads.
Kick two into 14, easy, they only need to roll about ten cars down, then come back for the empties.
A flying switch, where cars are cut off ahead of the engine while it pulls them and rolled onto another track, is a riskier cousin that many railroads ban outright.
Also heard as
- kicking cars
- make a kick
Do not mix it up with
- Shove: A shove keeps the locomotive coupled to the cars the whole way, while a kick lets them roll free.
Related terms
Cut
A group of cars coupled together and handled as one piece; as a verb, to uncouple them.
Shove
To push cars with the locomotive behind them, as opposed to pulling them.
Pull the pin
To uncouple cars by lifting the coupler's pin with the cut lever; also, to retire from the railroad.
Goat
A yard switch engine, the locomotive that spends its life sorting cars around a terminal.
Same word, different worlds
To gel or cure suddenly, as in a resin kicking in the cup or a CA kicking with accelerator.
ElectrotechnologyShop verb for a breaker, overload or relay tripping, as in the breaker kicked.
Photonics & LasersTo start a Kerr-lens mode-locked laser by briefly disturbing the cavity so a pulse can form.
Concrete & CementTo start setting, usually sooner than the crew expected; a load that kicks stiffens fast.