snow shed

See also: snowshed and snow-shed

English

WOTD – 4 December 2020

Etymology

A 20th-century painting by Howard L. Fogg of a Denver and Salt Lake Railway passenger train exiting a snow shed at the top of Rollins Pass, Colorado, USA.

From snow +‎ shed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsnəʊʃɛd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsnoʊˌʃɛd/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

Noun

snow shed (plural snow sheds)

1. (rail transport, road transport) A tunnel-like structure that provides roads and railroad tracks with protection from avalanches and heavy snowfalls that cannot be easily removed.

   Synonyms: avalanche gallery, snow bridge

   • 1950 October, “The Why and the Wherefore: Snow Shed, West Highland Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 719:

     The only snow shed in Great Britain is on the West Highland Railway, about 2 miles north of Rannoch Station. It is some 200 yd. long, and is situated in the deepest part of Cruach cutting, which is subject to heavy drifting during winter snowstorms.

Alternative forms

• snowshed
• snow-shed

Translations

tunnel-like structure protecting roads and railroad tracks from snow

Catalan: galeria (ca) f French: galerie pare-neige f German: Lawinengalerie f Italian: galleria paravalanghe f Japanese: 覆道 (ふくどう, fukudō) Norwegian: Bokmål: snøoverbygg n Nynorsk: snøoverbygg n Russian: лавинозащитная галерея f (lavinozaščitnaja galereja) Swedish: snögalleri n

Further reading

• snow shed on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “snow-shed, n.” under “snow, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1913.
• “Floods, Fire and Earthquake: The Railway’s Unceasing Battle with the Forces of Nature”, in Mike’s Railway History‎, 2007 November, archived from the original on 25 March 2016.

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