The necessity of a conceptual apparatus development in the area of expertise and testing tools of railway automation and remote control systems and devices for working capacity and safety is demonstrated in accordance with the requirements of different stages of the lifecycle, foremost for those that are connected with processes of safety development and proving. This is determined by the fact that there is practically no terminology on non-standard instrumental means in existing regulatory documents, and it makes understanding between different specialists and teams, which are involved in the processes of safety development and proving of railway automation and remote control, diffi cult. The requirements are formulated and the composition of instrumental means is determined based on the analysis of the problem of safety proving and the characteristics of railway automation as an object of expertise and testing. It is proved that it is expedient to develop simulators of various types on the basis of the hybrid expert systems technology, which makes it possible to use effectively heuristic expert algorithms and mathematical, as a rule, simulation models of control objects, devices, subsystems and systems of railway automation as a knowledge base in one test facility. On this basis, this paper offers the complex of terms and defi nitions for instrumental means of expertise and testing, which is a the methodological basis for further development of regulatory documentation in the area of safety and working capacity proving of railway automation and remote control.