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pointsman:
(also, in USA & Canada, ‘switchman‘; plural: ‘pointsmen’; pronunciation: ‘points…man’)
a pointsman/switchman at a railway point changing a train from one line to another
(in railway transportation) a workman who operates and takes care of railway points;
(a complicated point of railway lines — one pair of tracks joins another and can be moved and joined to another so that trains can change from one track to another)
(‘railway point’ = a place on a railway track where a pair of tracks are joined or dis-joined to another pair of tracks so that trains on moving on those lines can be moved from one track to another; in the States and Canada, it called a ‘switch’ because the trains can ‘switch’ from one, i.e. moves or changes, to another)
a traffic pointsman
(in law & traffic) a policeman or traffic warden who stays at a point, junction or crossroads, to regulate the motor traffic,
e.g.
A railway pointsman’s job is more important than anyone else’s because a wrong move by him can cause a fatal accident of two or more trains colliding head on.
The need for more traffic pointsmen is ever growing because the roads stay the same width and length but the motor traffic on them grows more and more day by day.
(a railway point box at an important point)
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