Word.ws English Dictionary

shoegear

UK/ˈʃuːˌɡɪə(ɹ)/

shoegear noun: train equipment, usually mounted on bogies, used to transfer electric current from the third rail.

shoegear: train equipment, usually mounted on bogies, used to transfer electric current from the third rail
Image: SPSmiler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shoegear (uncountable)

  1. train equipment, usually mounted on bogies, used to transfer electric current from the third rail.
    • Features such as trackless doors, mercury-type door interlocks, roof-mounted door fault indicator lights, rubber window glazing, improved retractable shoegear and a modified electro-pneumatic brake system designed to facilitate maintenance and improve reliability, which have proved their worth on...1960 February, “The first of London's new Piccadilly Line trains is delivered”, in Trains Illustrated, page 94
    • In the third case, the need to provide retractable shoegear on the power bogies to pick up current from the third rail, and the equipment to use low-voltage supply, has complicated the design of the Eurostar trains.1995, Colin J. Kirkland, “Locomotives”, in Engineering the Channel Tunnel, →ISBN, page 190

Examples of shoegear in a sentence

  • Here shoegear and stepboards are refitted prior to a commissioning run conducted by the manufacturer which includes high speed and emergency brake tests.2003, P. Hinde, J. Thompson, “Commissioning”, in International Conference on New Trains: 4-5 June 2003 at Le Meridien, York, UK, volume...
  • The trains run on two additional rails and pick up current by means of shoegear making sliding contact with the conductor rails.2006, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Environmental Audit Committee, quoting DJ Hartland, Reducing carbon emissions from...

Origin of shoegear

From shoe + gear.

Questions about shoegear

What does shoegear mean?
Shoegear means train equipment, usually mounted on bogies, used to transfer electric current from the third rail.
How do you use shoegear in a sentence?
Here shoegear and stepboards are refitted prior to a commissioning run conducted by the manufacturer which includes high speed and emergency brake tests.
What part of speech is shoegear?
Shoegear is a noun.
How do you pronounce shoegear?
Shoegear is pronounced /ˈʃuːˌɡɪə(ɹ)/ (UK).

Words near shoegear in the dictionary

  1. shoegazers
  2. shoegazes
  3. shoegazey
  4. shoegazing
  5. shoegazy
  6. shoegear
  7. shoehorn
  8. shoehorned
  9. shoehorning
  10. shoehorns
  11. shoeicide bomber

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shoegear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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