A cowcatcher is the wedge-shaped metal frame attached to the front of a locomotive. It's designed to push obstacles off the railroad tracks, clearing the way for the train to pass safely.

Despite its name, a cowcatcher wasn't really meant to “catch” cows at all. In the 1800s, when railroads were being built across America, livestock often wandered onto the tracks. The cowcatcher's angled design would nudge animals, fallen trees, or other objects out of the way rather than letting them get stuck under the train's wheels, which could cause a dangerous derailment.

The device looks like a pointed steel plow, slanting down and forward from the locomotive's front. Its triangular shape works like a snow plow, deflecting anything in the train's path to either side of the tracks. While modern trains still have similar protective equipment, it's now usually called a pilot by railroad workers. But the old name cowcatcher stuck in the popular imagination.