Meaning of track pan | Babel Free

Definitions

a long trough placed between the rails in a railroad track, which enabled a steam locomotive to replenish its water supply without stopping by lowering a scoop.

US

Examples

“TWENTY-NINE track pan water stations, located at strategic points on the Main Line and on the Michigan Central, play an important part in keeping New York Central Railroad's traffic speeding without the delay caused by locomotives stopping.”

“The New York Central Railroad was the first railway in the U.S.A. to use water troughs, or track pans, as they are called in America.”

“The replacement of steam locomotives by diesel traction in the United States is resulting in the disappearance of water troughs, or track pans as they are styled in America. On the New York Central System, the last troughs were removed in 1955, and the Pennsylvania Railroad had only two installations, at Hawstone and Mapleton, in use at the beginning of the present year.”

“In 1870 at Montrose, N.Y., the New York Central made the first installation of a track pan and scoop to permit locomotives to take water on the fly. Since these installations invariably were in tiny communities, and since they permitted locomotives literally to “jerk water””

“Towns with track pans no longer had as many trains stop there, and they became derisively known as “jerkwater” towns, where the trains would jerk water and just keep on going.”

CEFR level