jerk-water

jerk-water
1. noun
A branch line train, using light equipment

The mail was brought by a tiny "jerk-water" bobtail dummy and coach run by one, Tony, from Pearl City, a mile away, to a station near the end of the peninsula.

a) Of an inhabited place, small, isolated, backward.

That seems to disappoint them, for every sociologist likes to go back to some jerk-water college and tell those who are in the sociological class how they had to get their information by pantomime."

b) Railroads with low traffic.

He had risen to the head of the greatest street car system in the world from the position of brakeman on a jerk-water railroad.


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