A sort of train carrying American or European (8)
I believe the answer is:
austrian
'european' is the definition.
(I know that Austrian is a type of european)
'a sort of train carrying american' is the wordplay.
'sort of' is an anagram indicator.
'carrying' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'US' (abbreviation for United States).
'train' anagrammed gives 'trian'.
'trian' enclosing 'us' is 'ustrian'.
'a'+'ustrian'='AUSTRIAN'
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for austrian that I've seen before include "Person from Vienna, say" , "European in an Asian rut" , "Nationality of citizen of Vienna" , "Mozart's nationality" , "Hitler's nationality pre-1925" .)