Pointsman

Dr. Edward W.A. Pointsman

From Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49:

"Along another pattern of track, another string of decisions taken, switches closed, the faceless pointsmen who'd thrown them now all transferred, deserted [...] impossible to find ever again." (Lippencott: p.104; Bantam: p.76)

From Gravity's Rainbow:

"Skippy, you little fool, you are off on another of your senseless and retrograde journeys. Come back, here, to the points. Here is where the paths divided. See the man back there. [...] He is the pointsman. He is called that because he throws the lever that changes the points. And we go to Happyville, instead of to Pain City. [...] The pointsman has made sure we'll go there. He hardly has any work at all. The lever is very smooth, and easy to push. [...] But look what a lot of work he has done, with just one little push. [...] That is because he knows just where the points and the lever are. He is the only kind of man who puts in very little work and makes big things happen, all over the world." (Viking, p.644-45)