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In the U.S. that would the train's rear conductor or a brakeman, basically the conductor's assistants. In the days before vacuum brakes the rear conductor would
by PLenz 10y ago
In the U.S. that would the train's rear conductor or a brakeman, basically the conductor's assistants. In the days before vacuum brakes the rear conductor would have the job of reading lantern messages from the front conductor (in the locomotive) and then dispatching brakeman to walking along the train car roofs and individually setting the brakes on each car.
- jacquesm 10y agoThat sounds like a pretty dangerous job.
- slededit 10y agoThe railroad industry has a very sordid history of killing its employees. All the way from track construction to actual operation. Even in this 1955 fire training video you can see they care more about the locomotive than the safety of the crew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkUQ3rTfU4s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkUQ3rTfU4s tldw: crew were expected to enter the confined area of the engine room in the middle of a fire and turn at least two valves (that have complex interactions with each other) filling the same confined area with CO2.