A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker) or helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grade (or bank). Helpers/bankers are most commonly found in mountain divisions (called "helper districts" in the U.S.), where the ruling grade may demand the use of substantially greater motive power than that required for other grades within the division.
Read more about Bank Engine: Historic Practice, Modern Practice, Accidents
Famous quotes containing the words bank and/or engine:
“on a May morwening upon Malverne hilles
Me befel a ferly, of fairye me thoughte;
I was wery ofwandred and wente me to reste
Under a brod bank by a bournes side;
And as I lay and lenede and lookede on the watres,
I slomerede into a sleeping, it swyede so merye.”
—William Langland (1330–1400)
“There is a small steam engine in his brain which not only sets the cerebral mass in motion, but keeps the owner in hot water.”
—Unknown. New York Weekly Mirror (July 5, 1845)