footplate man

See also: footplateman

English

Noun

footplate man (plural footplate men)

1. The engineer, or driver of a locomotive
   • 1964 May, “News and Comment: Breakaway footplate union”, in Modern Railways, page 293:

     The circular attacks the policy of ASLEF, the principal footplatemen's union, for its opposition to pay differentials between main-line drivers and other footplate men, claiming that it destroys ambition and enterprise.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 845:

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