fishplate

Etymology

fish + plate. See fish (“curved wooden bar used to strengthen a ship's mast”).

noun

1. (rail transport) A metal bar that is bolted to the ends of two rails to join them together in a track.
   The train, minus the three abandoned trucks, again proceeded at a slow pace, with a pump trolley doing pilot ahead ; this was very necessary as a great many sleepers were found to have been burnt underneath the fishplates. 1901, George Gipps, The Fighting in North China (up to the Fall of Tientsin City), Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, →OL, page 40

verb

1. (transitive, rail transport) To connect (rails) together using a fishplate.
   One section of the line will consist of 60 ft. lengths of rail welded together on site to form fully continuous rails; another will be of 300 ft. lengths, flash butt-welded in Dinsdale Rail Welding Depot and fishplated together on site; …. 1959 November, “Talking of Trains: Widening north of York”, in Trains Illustrated, page 518