| Posted by Joseph Yarbrough on January 15, 2012 | |
On the Class I railroad where I hired out, this seating position on the locomotive was usually filled by the head brakeman. The fireman usually sat in front of him on this side (in the days before the subsequent elimination of the caboose itself). Once the positions of firemen, head brakeman and flagmen or rear brakemen were eliminated, along with the caboose, this seating position would be occupied by the conductor.
If this train did indeed have a fireman on board, this very well could be the engineer as the fireman was allowed to operate the locomotive under the supervision of the locomotive engineer. Often, the locomotive fireman was a fully qualified locomotive engineer who could not "hold" a regular job assignment as a locomotive engineer. So, he would "mark up" (also known as "mark to" in railroad parlance) as the fireman on a specific job/run. Once his seniority would allow, he would "bid" on and "mark up" on a job/run as a locomotive engineer. If he/she was subsequently "rolled off" the job, he may "bid" on and "mark to" another job as a fireman until he could hold another job as a locomotive engineer. Many times, a locomotive fireman would be "rolled off" a job/run, often before making the first run, by a senior locomotive fireman. Back in the days before guaranteed extraboards, if one didn't work, they did not get paid.
Thanks for sharing this photograph. It brings back lots of late night Cotton Belt/Southern Pacific memories.
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| Posted by Jason Eminian on January 15, 2012 | |
Beautiful scene! Great post.
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