English Dictionary

jerk water

verb

(US, rail transport, apocryphal) To fill a steam locomotive water tank manually from natural water supplies (a hypothetical process whose use has been discredited).

He jerked the water bottle out of my hand.

意味（1）

(US, rail transport, apocryphal) To fill a steam locomotive water tank manually from natural water supplies (a hypothetical process whose use has been discredited).

The Santa Fe, called the Jerk Water route because they jerked water from ponds and wallows for the engine, still frayed out at the Kansas line.

意味（2）

(US, rail transport, dated) To scoop water from a track pan mounted on the tracks directly into a steam engine's tank without stopping.

In 1870 at Montrose, N.Y., the New York Central made the first installation of a track pan and scoop to permit locomotives to take water on the fly. Since these installations invariably were in tiny communities, and since they permitted locomotives literally to “jerk water”