hotbox
- n a journal bearing (as of a railroad car) that has overheated
- Derksen points out a hotbox detector at trackside, an infrared gadget that spots defective wheel bearings; one installation can cost as much as $50,000, but a single derailment .
- DISASTER In the Wheatlands Smoke from the hotbox eddied beneath the locomotive.
- But just a few steps away sits the White House briefing room, a hotbox of cameras and television lights, where the President holds no real dominion.