track and rail in Portuguese

Question

What would you call "track" and "rail" in Portuguese? Track is the whole thing, while a rail is one of the two long pieces of metal where the train lays its wheels, e.g. the right rail.

track:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/zL5aEWRzgSt719K4V_TSOdIN49ZTdyGHEB0B0ZX5un-iDIEyJfQ-m0JqhW1f4ytN2Iw=w300

rail:
http://www.ikonet.com/es/diccionariovisual/images/esp/corte-de-un-rail-117780.jpg

Could they be:

• track - trilho m, linha f
• rail - trilho

Answer 1

Speaking of railways, rail is carril (especially in Portugal) or trilho (especially in Brazil), whereas track is caminho de ferro, via férrea, ferrovia or linha (férrea/de trem/de comboio). To refer to a short section of rail track you can also just say carris or trilhos, which is the plural of carril and trilho.

Caminho de ferro is more like railway, so often referring to the whole system. Via férrea and ferrovia are more likely to be found in print than in casual speech. Linha is a commonly used word in both print and speech. It is a rather versatile word. It can refer to a whole railway line between two cities, or to a metro line; but it can simply refer to any section of railtrack, as in the following examples taken from the press:

Policial salva mulher que tentava se jogar na linha do trem com bebê (O Dia, Rio, 2016.)

5 Se a cancela abaixar e o seu carro estiver parado sobre a linha do trem, saia do veículo e se afaste do local.
[...]
7 Cuidado com a velocidade na hora de atravessar a linha férrea, porque você precisa manter o controle do carro no caso de emergência.
(“O que fazer se o carro enguiçar na linha do trem?” Via Certa, Natal RN.)

“Alguns passageiros chegaram a sentar e a deitar na linha férrea impedindo a passagem de trens”, O Globo, Rio

Answer 2

I'm afraid that, in Brazilian Portuguese, track assumes a plural form, trilhos, while rail is called trilho. So, we do use the same word, differing only in number. This holds true even when targeting highly technical audiences. For instance, I took this picture from one of my engineering classes (the course was Organization of Industrial Services):

In European Portuguese, they're called carril for rail and carris for track, in a similar fashion.