ashpan

plural ashpans

1. A container beneath a boiler's furnace, catching ash and clinker that falls through the firebars
2. A container that fits below the grate of a domestic fireplace.
3. rail transportA large pan below the grate and firebox of a steam locomotive.

   A new ashpan has been fitted, however, with four bottom doors for self-emptying, and a rocking grate with twelve rocking sections.

   1960 March, “Testing a rebuilt "Merchant Navy" Pacific of the S.R.”, in Trains Illustrated, page 167

   2 more examples

   They have been fitted with a complete rocking grate and a hopper ashpan so that the ashes can be released without the necessity for a man to go underneath the engine.

   1944 September and October, “New Pacific Locomotives for the L.N.E.R.”, in -Railway Magazine, page 286

   During the day conditions worsened quickly—for example, a 2-6-0 on the Uckfield line suddenly encountered flood water high enough to enter its ashpan and extinguish its fire—until lock gates up-river at Barcombe gave way and a tidal wave rolled down the valley meeting head-on a spring tide rolling up from the coast.

   1961 January, “Talking of Trains: Flooding at Lewes”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5