Please educate me Craig. I know the 'fireman' was in charge of the keeping the train moving with adding fuel in the old steam engines, but you refer to the man in the Conductor's seat as a 'fireman' in this picture. Is the Conductor also called a fireman at times? Or is there a fireman, a conductor, and an engineer on each train? I used to have a friend that would answer all my questions about trains, but unfortunately he isn't available to me anymore, so please answer this if you can.
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Until fairly recently, railroads continued to employ fireman as the second person in the cab, while the conductor usually was found in the caboose. (On larger five man crews, there was also a brakeman and a switchman, I believe.) While the fireman didn't have much to do in a diesel locomotive, he did provide another set of eyes for safety. And the fireman position was often a stepping stone to becoming an engineer. Once firemen were eliminated, then the conductor moved up to the headend, and the caboose became superfluous. (The End-of-Train Device also helped with the elimination of cabooses.)
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