surfaceman

plural surfacemen

1. businessA miner who works in the open air, rather than underground.
2. ScotlandA platelayer; one who maintains a railway track.

   To this I might have paid less heed but for its disquieting confirmation on a later day at a psychic parlour in Edgware Road. Proceeding there in company with my eldest brother-in-law, a plate-layer and surfaceman on the Northern.

   1915, Leon Wilson, Ruggles of Red Gap