---

• n  the platform in the cab of a locomotive on which the engineer stands to operate the controls

• He swung onto the engine's footplate, manipulated levers and throttles inside.
• They also put in time on the footplate--where the fireman and driver stand, stoking the boiler, firing up the engine and managing the controls.
• Working through several sunrises and sunsets, his boots set in a footplate on the remote-controlled arm, Van Hoften employed a special $100,000 power wrench to loosen bolts.

Quotes

---

• Piers Sellers in USA Today
  You'll be at the end of a long, spindly fishing rod about this wide,says astronaut Piers Sellers, holding his hands in a circle as big as a saucer, "and standing on a little rickety-looking footplate. ...... It'll be significantly...