A footplate provides the structure on which a locomotive driver and fireman stand in the cab to operate a British or

continental European Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...

. It comprises a large metal plate that rests on top of the

locomotive frame A locomotive frame is the structure that forms the backbone of the railway locomotive, giving it strength and supporting the superstructure elements such as a cab, boiler or bodywork. The vast majority of locomotives have had a frame structure o ...

, usually it is covered with wooden floorboards. It takes up the full width of the locomotive cab, and in depth it extends from the front of the cab to the coal bunker on the tender. The cab and other superstructure elements are in turn mounted on it. On some locomotives, the footplate is extended beyond the front of the cab to form a walkway around the

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central ...

– usually referred to as the "running board" or "foot board" – to facilitate inspection and maintenance. In Britain, the word remains in use as a synonym for the cab or working in the cab, even in the context of diesel and electric locomotives, as in the expression of working ''on the footplate''. The term can also be applied to the external step along the side of a classical

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

National variations

Although a footplate was almost universal in British locomotive design, and often in continental

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an locomotives, it was never a feature of steam locomotives constructed in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, and disappeared from Russian locomotives and big-power locomotives in British colonies (or former colonies), Australia and New Zealand during the 20th century. On those locomotives, the boiler and cab were mounted directly on the frame, and the walkway around the

– "running board" or "foot board" – was not a structural element.

Details

The footplate has openings cut in it for various purposes. The

firebox Firebox may refer to: * Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine * Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted *Firebox Records, a Finnish 8101705801record label * Firebox.com, an elect ...

always extends beneath the footplate. The

cylinder A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an ...

s are beneath the footplate, and steam pipes pass through holes to them. The reversing gear control for the

valve gear The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing ...

also passes through, and in some locomotives part of the valve motion also extends through the footplate. {{anchor, splasher Crewe Works Pilot geograph-2804155-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Crewe Works Pilot geograph-2804155-by-Ben-Brooksbank

On British Railways Standard Locomotives the running plate/board was high enough to clear the wheels; on earlier British locomotives, the tops of driving wheels usually projected through slots in it and were covered by "splashers" – analogous to mudguards on a road vehicle.

References

Locomotive parts

National variations

Details

See also

References