the.com/cowcatcher
a giant metal wedge bolted to trains to fling cattle out of fate's way
means the angled metal frame fitted to the front of a locomotive to push obstacles—originally stray animals—off the tracks before they could derail the train
from A plain American compound from the 19th-century railroad age: 'cow' plus 'catcher,' though the name is wishfully optimistic—the device doesn't catch cows so much as hurl them aside. It appeared as railways spread across open ranges where livestock wandered freely onto the lines, and the word stuck despite engineers sometimes preferring the grander 'pilot.'
- job description
- clears debris and livestock off the tracks
- real name
- engineers call it a pilot
- invented
- patented in the 1830s railroad boom
- design logic
- angled wedge deflects, never stops the train
- misleading name
- often hurled cows rather than caught them
union pacific big boy — massive steam locomotive with prominent cowcatcher, weighs 540 tons, used 1941-1959
reading t1 locomotive — streamliner with distinctive cowcatcher design, pennsylvania railroad, 1945