The data being given, by a theodolite or otherwise, an intelligent platelayer can easily set out the curve, while the trained engineer proceeds in advance with the theodolite.    From Wordnik.com.  [Scientific American Supplement, No. 832, December 12, 1891] Reference

Wardell helped to make the present railway, and has worked for fifty-five years as a platelayer on the line.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Evolution of an English Town] Reference

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.    From Wordnik.com.  [Fifty Years of Railway Life in England Scotland and Ireland]

"For a long time there had been a feud between Pritchard and another man of the name of Wynne, a platelayer on the line.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Master of Mysteries] Reference

Father was killed on the line — he was a platelayer, he was — and mother went on the drink and took up with a horse-racing man.”.    From Wordnik.com.  [St Peter's Finger]

"A Blackburn platelayer," it is stated, "who has just died at the age of seventy, left £400, which he had accumulated out of his small earnings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, April 29, 1914] Reference

A platelayer was killed on the spot.    From Wordnik.com.  [South Africa and the Transvaal War, Vol. 2 (of 6) From the Commencement of the War to the Battle of Colenso, 15th Dec. 1899] Reference