Wardell helped to make the present railway, and has worked for fifty-five years as a platelayer on the line.

They transferred him to Tharanda when his time came, and he married a platelayer's daughter, or something of that kind.

Have there been any platelayers at work lately?

The feeding of 2,000 platelayers in a barren desert was a problem in itself.

What would become of a railway that had no surfacemen and platelayers going along the line and noticing whether anything was amiss?

"It's only some platelayers on the viaduct," he explained.

A gang of platelayers and navvies were making a new siding by the station, and sounds of hammering also came from the engine shed.