From a new book(October 2012) on wiring toy train layouts):
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I hadn't known about the hydraulic functions. 
I think they were refering to its pneumatic capabilities.
No, no, you are forgetting about those pump handles on either side ... hmmmmm.
I'm afraid to look much further after this "ZW-L" printed gaffe too:
Ugh... I knew I'd be sorry... "rheostat rollers":
That is curious terminology (pressure), but in the author's defense: I do recall my electric shop teacher many years ago describing voltage as "pressure" similar to water in a hose. (Maybe he wrote this book).
In the text of that chapter, the author does use the old water pressure analogy for voltage in a circuit. The caption fails to reference the fact that the word "pressure" is just an analogy.
However, the accuracy of electrical terms and concepts are often compromised in an attempt to make the subject more understandable to beginners, and not just in that publication either. Other usages are just wrong, but inconsequential in making the trains run. I think it would be better to simply omit concepts that the author feels are too complex for the beginner.
IMO, simple directions as to what to do with the wires and how to troubleshoot a layout are more important than irrelevant (to a beginner) background info. Sort of why the instruction book for a flat screen LED television doesn't get into the details of how the pixels are illuminated. 
Jim
It sounds like the book was authored by someone in the United Kingdom or at least someone comfortable using the Queen's English - British "pressure" is US "voltage". I've always found this sort of thing to be a big distraction when I'm reading. I guess I'm not alone on this topic.
Music teacher from Nova Scotia.
Motorbooks?
Jon 
Many of the training texts of the tech schools in the '40s and later, including the military schools, used the hydraulic analogy for introducing elementary electricity. But is it DC or AC water??
These excerpts pose a bit of a riddle as to what the author meant. Fred
Originally Posted by TheClutchGuy:
I think they were refering to its pneumatic capabilities.
Originally Posted by Gpritch:
No, no, you are forgetting about those pump handles on either side ... hmmmmm.
In another time, in another dimension, electricity does not exist. Model trains are powered by methods unfamiliar to us.
This is the Twilight Zone.
The ZW Powerhouse has large pump handles for fast, high-capacity pneumatic action. The magnetic "mole" within the hollow center rail quickly accelerates to high speed with a single pump of the ZW handles. Transit cars are magnetically coupled to the "mole" and transported quickly by fast, quiet, efficient pneumatic power, just like real trains ...
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Originally Posted by Ace:
Originally Posted by TheClutchGuy:
I think they were refering to its pneumatic capabilities.
Originally Posted by Gpritch:
No, no, you are forgetting about those pump handles on either side ... hmmmmm.
In another time, in another dimension, electricity does not exist. Model trains are powered by methods unfamiliar to us.
This is the Twilight Zone.
The ZW Powerhouse has large pump handles for fast, high-capacity pneumatic action. The magnetic "mole" within the hollow center rail quickly accelerates to high speed with a single pump of the ZW handles. Transit cars are magnetically coupled to the "mole" and transported quickly by fast, quiet, efficient pneumatic power, just like real trains ...
Some of the first railways were pneumatic (Or 'Atmospheric').
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway
And they were '3-Rail' too. 
(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia.)
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Originally Posted by N.Q.D.Y.:
Some of the first railways were pneumatic (Or 'Atmospheric').
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_railway
And they were '3-Rail' too.
(Photograph courtesy of Wikipedia.)The early pneumatic railways were essentially experimental, short-lived and unsuccessful. One problem was that rats gnawed the greased leather seals on the slot of the pneumatic tube.
"... difficulties in maintaining the leather flaps provided to seal the vacuum pipes, which had to be kept supple by being greased with tallow; even so, air leaked in, destroying the vacuum. Unfortunately, the tallow made the greased leather attractive to rats, whose depredations further reduced the efficiency of the seal."
But pneumatic railways and a pneumatic ZW might have existed ... in the Twilight Zone.
