point heater

English

Noun

point heater (plural point heaters)

1. (rail transport, UK) A heating device used in freezing weather to keep points (US: switches) free of ice and snow.
   • 1963 December, “News and Comment”, in Modern Railways, pages 369, 370:

     Measures adopted by B.R. to offset the effects of another hard winter include modifications to steam heating and water pipes on main-line ordinary coaches and sleeping cars, and to diesel locomotive steam-generators, the supply of additional point heaters and the provision of larger and more effective snowploughs. [...] This winter B.R. will have 2,180 point heaters in operation, at a cost of roughly £105 a unit, compared with 766 last year, and the Board hope to install another 300 during the course of the winter.