Wagon or Vagon or Waggon - what is a correct word? [closed]

Wagon or Vagon or Waggon - what is a correct word?

I need to name a piece of a train (carriage).

Vagon and Wagon both have Wiki pages and there is no explanation about what is a correct way. Both seems to have the same roots and etymology.

Is it something to do with American/Britain rules?

Solution 1:

Vagon is not an English word. It never has been except perhaps way back before English was a separate language.

On the link you provide, the word is shown to exist in several languages. It is also described as deriving from English "wagon" but I can see nowhere that it says that the word is English. If that is implied by the page, then the page is incorrect and should be edited.

Wagon or Waggon are the English versions.

As @user 66974 says in a comment, the spelling with "gg" is rare these days https://grammarist.com/spelling/wagon-waggon/

Solution 2:

If you are referring to passenger trains consisting of passenger carriages one or more of which has an motor and at least two have control cabs so that the train can be driven in either direction the entire train is referred to as a Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) if powered by diesel or an Electic Multiple Unit (EMU) if powered by electricity.

A unit which is part of a DMU or EMU and has a motor is known as a 'power car'. Sometimes a DMU or EMU will consist entirely of power cars.

A single car with an engine and control cabs at both ends is called a 'railcar' or, sometimes, a 'bubble' car.

It has been known for two railcars to be coupled together to make a two-car train. In some cases I believe that only one motor is used at any one time because there is no control connection possible from one to the other but both cars are still power cars because they both have motors.

Much of this information, together with much more can be found on this website among others.

The term I think you are looking for is 'power car'. This is in contrast to a 'locomotive' or 'railway engine' which has no passenger seating and provides the power for a much longer train of unpowered passenger carriages or goods trucks (otherwise known as wagons).

Unpowered railway passenger vehicles are called carriages, coaches or cars. Railway goods vehicles are called 'wagons' (sometimes spelt waggons), trucks and, sometimes (particularly in the US), cars. Passenger cars are never called 'wagons' or 'trucks', goods cars are never called 'coaches' or 'carriages' and to my knowledge there are no goods wagons with motors. Also 'vagon' or vagòn does not exist in English. It is a Spanish word.

I hope this answers your question