A historic infrastructure feature consisting of a shallow, elongated steel trough laid between the running rails and filled with water. Steam locomotives equipped with drop scoops could lower them into the trough while running at speed, using the train's forward momentum to force water up into the tender tank. This allowed express passenger trains to replenish their boiler water without making time-consuming station stops.
Heard on the job
The flyer took on water from the track pan at sixty miles an hour, spraying the adjacent ballast.
Also heard as
- water trough
- track trough