Dictionary

sectionman en · NOUN

Etymology

From section + man.

Meanings

1. (Canada, US) A railroad worker who maintains and patrols the track.
   • Sectionmen step back to admire a T&P Texas in West Texas as the 2-10-4 comes charging up bad Baird Hill. 1959, Steam's Finest Hour, edited by David P. Morgan, Kalmbach Publishing Co. (photo caption)
   • Being on the engine when the engineer applied the brakes I asked why he was stopping and he said "there's a sectionman fighting with a wolf". So I backed up to the spot and the fireman and I jumped off with pick and shaker bar. I hit the wolf on the head with the pick and fireman Grier hit it with the shaker bar. This finished the wolf. 2013, Canadian Folk: Portraits of Remarkable Lives, by Peter Unwin, Dundum, →ISBN:
   • 1916, Annual Report of the Public Utilities Commission, State of Maine, Sentinel Publishing Company https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=hi1FAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA56&lpg=RA2-PA56&dq=%22sectionman%22&source=bl&ots=i9BCwYgdC9&sig=d72pK2gH6efsfs4_I_v6M619s-g&hl=no&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjT1uqotJ_dAhXCCMAKHfhZCTE4ChDoATAEegQIBhAB#v=onepage&q=%22sectionman%22&f=false ... a sectionman was killed when his motor velocipede was struck by an extra freight on a curve; a sectionman was crushed between two cars when working on a track left unprotected; a sectionman was struck by a shifting engine; …

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