DCHP-2

catskinner cat skinner, cat-skinner, Cat skinner [after mule-skinner] DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• 1 n. — Mining, forestry

  the operator of a piece of tracked heavy equipment, such as a tractor with caterpillar treads.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The tracked heavy equipment produced by Caterpillar Inc. are often referred to as cats. This term appropriates the nickname and combines it with mule-skinner, a driver of a mule team. Though catskinner is used in several other countries (see Chart 1), it is culturally significant to Canada due to the long history and importance of the mining and forestry industries. Frequency counts (see Chart 1) show a considerable gap between the .ca and the US domains.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "catskinner", which is marked "N Amer", ITP Nelson, s.v. "catskinner", which is marked "Canadian", and DA, s.v. "catskinner", W-3, s.v. "catskinner".

  See also: mule-skinner  skinner (def. 2)  

  • 1934  Crews were made up consisting of two drivers, or "cat skinners" as they were called, and two brakemen.
  • 1947  Mr. Boodleman . . . said that it was another kind of catskinner he was wanting, drivers for the big caterpillar tractors they use in the woods. They're called catskinners, just as teamsters are called muleskinners.
  • 1969  A "cat-skinner," the man who drives heavy equipment, makes as much as $35,000. 
  • 1986  Besides introducing the word-work of an electrician, carpenter and catskinner, among others, in Writing magazine's 15th issue [...]. 
  • 1998  The driller calmly replied, "Can't drill yet, 'cause the catskinner hasn't arrived to dig us the mud pits." [...] Ten minutes later, I watched my friend and partner, Ralph -- an intrepid entrepreneur -- as he climbed into the seat of that Caterpillar dozer. He was wearing his suit, tie and overcoat, and it was colder than an Eskimo's butt, but he dug that mudpit. 
  • 2003  He wanted to point out that he really did get to be a Catskinner, not just a truck driver... but had to wait until the tractors got here. 
  • 2011  While I was eating, I heard a guy on the payphone saying, "I need a catskinner up here right now," so I ran over and told him, "I can run cats." He gave me a job out in the woods building rig pads, where I worked for six months and made enough money to go back to university. 
  • 2015  Wilbrod's job was to operate a Caterpillar - he was a cat skinner - and also a driver, trucking loads of wood, four or five trips a day to High Prairie. 

• 2 n. — Mining, forestry

  the leader of a line of tracked vehicles (a cat-train).

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — See meaning 1.
  See also ITP Nelson, s.v. "catskinner", which is marked "Canadian".

  See also: cat-train  

  • 1939  At the journey's end there is still no rest, the loaded sleighs are unhooked, the tractor picks up the empties, turns round and starts back on its return to railhead. Icy Bath Is Possible And that is not all. The cat skinner never knows when all of a sudden he may feel his tractor breaking through a weakened ice section. 
  • 1952  "Cats" and "catswings," "cat skinners" and "brakies" are all part of the fabulous transportation system of the Canadian north.
  • 1953  The cat-skinners, as the train bosses are called, like it when the temperature is between forty and sixty degrees below zero.
  • 1992  He could face down the toughest cat-skinner or swing boss on the rigs that trundled over ice and snow in 40-below temperatures a thousand miles from civilization. The men raced against time and the elements every season - to break open the winter roads as soon as possible in November or December, to get the trains or "swings" of sleighs pulled by caterpillar tractors into operation, and to have the last ton delivered, the last train back to base before thaws destroyed the ice road. Often enough, the ice gave out while the last swings were still on it. The drivers jumped for their lives, and didn't always make it. 
  • 2004  The Cat trains that serviced the oil exploration boom of 40 years ago operated from late January until the end of March, [...]. On another occasion, Dick Gillespie was the lead Cat skinner when he met a big grizzly bear walking down the road.