The term rollingstock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can be un-powered, or self-propelled, single or multiple units. A connected series of railway vehicles is a train (this term applied to a locomotive is a common misnomer).
In North America, Australia and other countries, the term consist ( KON-sist) is used to refer to the rollingstock in a train.: 1‑129 In the United States, the term rollingstock has been expanded from the older broadly defined "trains" to include wheeled vehicles used by businesses on roadways.The word stock in the term is used in a sense of inventory. Rollingstock is considered to be a liquidasset, or close to it, since the value of the vehicle can be readily estimated and then shipped to the buyer without much cost or delay. The term contrasts with fixed stock (infrastructure), which is a collective term for the track, signals, stations, other buildings, electric wires, etc., necessary to operate a railway.