Fishplate

Okay kiddo, have you ever played with toy trains? The train tracks are made up of different pieces that fit together, right? Well, real train tracks are also made up of different pieces, but they're much bigger and heavier than your toy ones.

One important part of a train track is called a fishplate. It's a little piece of metal that looks a bit like a flat, thin bar. The fishplate is used to join two pieces of track together.

Imagine you have two long train track pieces and you want to connect them together so that trains can travel from one to the other. First, you put the two pieces together so that the ends touch. Then, you put the fishplate on top of the ends so that it covers both pieces.

To keep the fishplate in place, special screws are used to tighten it down onto the track pieces. This makes sure that the two track pieces are firmly connected together.

Fishplates are really important for train tracks because they make sure that the track is strong and sturdy. Without them, the pieces could come apart and trains wouldn't be able to travel safely.