Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In railroading, a person engaged in keeping the permanent way in order.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Scotland A
platelayer ; one who maintains arailway track .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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When first I met him he was in the railway service, a labourer on the permanent way, what is called a surfaceman in Scotland, a platelayer in England and a milesman in Ireland.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England Scotland and Ireland Tatlow, Joseph 1920
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Proceeding there in company with my eldest brother-in-law, a plate-layer and surfaceman on the Northern (he being uncertain about the Derby winner for that year), I was told by the person for a trifle of two shillings that I was soon to cross water and to meet many strange adventures.
Ruggles of Red Gap Harry Leon Wilson 1903
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Somewhere in the darkness over the Black Water the watching surfaceman heard some one call three times the name of
Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 1887
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A surfaceman who lived in the new houses above the landing-place saw him standing there, heard him hailing the Waterfoot of the Dee, to which no boat had plied for years.
Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 1887
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Poet, son of a quarrier at Kirkconnel, Dumfriesshire, became a surfaceman on the railway.
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