footplate

noun

1. The metal plate which forms the base platform of a steam locomotive and supports the boiler and the driver's cab, particularly in the United Kingdom.

   “Unlike the earlier standard designs, in which the whole of the footplate was on the engine, fall plates are re-introduced and these are hinged from the front of the tender to rest on the rearward extension of the cab floor.”

   “All the same, nearly eight hours on the footplate covering a distance of 320 miles, with an ambient temperature of up to 103° for much of the time, proved an ordeal which I would not lightly undertake again.”

   “After a while we left the engine, but not before André had examined the 4-6-4 very carefully, with hammer and torch, both outside and underneath. And that was the end of my footplate work on this particular weekend.”

   “This uncoupling done, Gimbert opened the regulator as Nightall climbed back onto the footplate, in order to pull the one burning wagon away from the rest of the bomb-laden train.”

2. The engineer's cab in any kind of train.

   “Kit had fallen into conversation with a footplate man who was deadheading back out to Samarkand, where he lived with his wife and children.”

3. The flat portion at the base of the stapes; pedicel.

   “The footplate of the stapes develops and ossifies in conjunction with the otic capsule and thus takes its origin from the otic placode in the embryo.”

4. The part of a roller skate that attaches to the boot.
5. A timber in a wood frame that distributes a concentrated load.
6. A platform on which the driver's foot rests but which, unlike a pedal, has no effect.

verb

1. To travel (or work) on the footplate of a locomotive.

   “Hard work is required from men and machines as I was to experience later when footplating Lambton No 5 on five bogies battling its way up Newtondale.”