Port′a-ble Rail′way.
（Civil Engineering.) One so constructed as to be taken apart for transportation and relaid at the different points where a temporary track may be required for bringing or removing earth or other materials during the progress of a work. Peteler's is composed of sections, each 20 feet long, the rails being of wood, faced on top with iron and united by ties mortised therein. The ends of the sections may be united by bolt, mortise, and tenon attachment, or by hooks and eyes. Light cars capable of holding from one half to one cubic yard of earth, and of form adapted to the requirements of the ground or material to be moved, are used in connection with the road. Portable railroads have frequently been made for temporary purposes, such as the conveyance of locomotives, cars, etc., from shops to the permanent way of a railway: also for carrying and dumping earth, gravel, or stone for fillings, embankments, backing of wharf, for ballast and for freight. Peteler's organized arrangement of detached sections, turnout, frogs, supporting trestles, bridges, crossings, and turn-tables, patented September 4, 1866, has been utilized in some cases where the distance is not great, and found more economical than carts.
