Format Guide

This is a basic guide to the writing style present on the *American Rail* wiki.

## Language and Spelling

Being set in the United States and created by an American-born citizen, the *American Rail* wiki will adhere to American English. This also means that American terminology will be mostly used, however British terminology is permitted when needed for a British character or railway.

A comprehensive listing of rail terminology is available here.

This rule does not apply to quotations, wherein the the actual phrasing should be used.

For locomotive wheel arrangements, Whyte Notation (i.e. 4-4-0, 4-6-2ST, etc.) will be used for steam locomotives, and UIC notation (Bo-Bo, Co-Co, etc.) will be used for diesel and electric locomotives (diesels without multiple bogies are an exception).

## Establishing Roles

After a list of characters on the episode page, some are followed by either, "(*does not speak*)", "(*cameo*)", "(*mentioned*)", or "(*not seen*)". A "cameo" appearance is a minor appearance where a character is seen, but doesn't speak nor is it referred to. A "does not speak" role is where a character appears and is referred to by name by either the narrator or another character. When a character does not physically appear, but is mentioned by a character or the narrator, that is classified as a "mentioned" role. The "not seen" tag is most often used for books. This is when a character speaks, but isn't seen in any of the illustrations. A speaking role is, obviously, when a character actually speaks. If any other confusions occur, please notify an admin or leave a message to the relevant talk pages.

Additionally, there is an order in which we list the characters. This goes as follows:

* Dallas and Northern Railroad steam engines
* Dallas and Northern Railroad diesels
* Dallas and Northern Railroad MOW engines
* Locomotives belonging to other companies
* Other standard gauge vehicles
* Non-rail vehicles
* Rolling stock
* Humans

## Galleries

Galleries should show images relevant only to the subject and should not have a border. When adding images to a gallery, ensure that File: is added to the file name. Images that look similar should not be included in the same gallery (uncolored and colored lineart are an exception).

## Trivia

The trivia section is mainly for additional information about a subject that does not belong in any other section. For example, while the statement "Desmond's livery is based on that of his BNSF model" is true and is about his livery, it does not belong in the Livery section. Information about significance to subsequent versions of a character or their relations to other things are also examples of information that belong in Trivia.

## Edit Summary

Providing an edit summary is not necessary, but it does make an admin's job easier to review your changes. Some things you may think are right which an admin does not, so use the edit summary to explain why you changed an article. If an edit is reverted multiple times by an admin, don't keep adding it back as that could earn you one or more "strikes". What you should do is explain, in detail, the changes on the relevant talk pages. Please make an effort to read edit summaries as well, because an admin may be giving you warning and telling you to stop making a particular edit.

## Categories

All pages require at least one category, but not every category belongs on every page. The "image" category belongs solely to image pages.

## Page Templates

The proper formats for character, episode and other pages are available as templates.