Brakemen riding the tops of cars wasn’t needed after airbrakes became universal in the early 1900’s. Before that, they were needed to manually turn the brakewheels of cars as say a train went downhill to prevent it from running away. (That’s why old car’s brakewheels were upright sticking up on top of the car, with the brakewheel itself being horizontal.) Train crews still walked the roofwalks for various reasons until the roofwalks were removed in the sixties, but they didn’t need brakeman riding the tops of the cars anymore.
Yes it was extrememly dangerous, 100 years ago it would be a rare day that a railroader somewhere wasn’t killed on the job.
It could be difficult for the conductor to signal to the engineer in the old days, I have a steam era pic in a book showing a Missabe conductor on a very long ore train who had climbed on the roof of the caboose cupola to signal a highball to the engineer. Santa Fe had some round target signals on the cupola that the conductor could put up to signal the engine crew.
Whether they liked each other or not, the engine crew and the conductor/brakeman were kinda in two different but parallel worlds. Besides being in different unions, the conductor and brakeman rode in an assigned caboose where they could store food, had their own stove for cooking, and beds to sleep in; so most caboose crews lived in their caboose when away from home. Except for a bag lunch and thermos, the engine crew had none of that, so they would need to eat in a restaurant (“go for beans”) and stay in a hotel or YMCA or rooming house when away from home.
There must have been a specific date when trainmen were forbidden from being on top of cars, or going high as it was called. It was still legal in the late 1960s. They began removing running boards in the 1970s, so I assume that the practice of using them was outlawed before the removal began.
Being on top was indeed dangerous, but so were a lot of other things. Into the 1960s, there were gravity yards that required riders to ride the cars and control the hand brakes. Prior to the air brake, not only did brakemen walk the cartops, but they also set and released all the hand brakes according to whistle signals from the engineer. They did this day and night, in all kinds of weather. And with the link and pin couplers in use then, the slack action was enormous compared to today.
The unions for both the conductors and brakeman complained to the railroads that the roof walks were in need of repair and the railroads were not doing anything to maintain them so the railroads just took them off the tops of the cars. Seems to me it was in very late 60s to early 70s maybe someone has a more exact date Larry
Identification becomes very important when two crews are using the same channel. You don’t want Engr A to accidently take a command from Condr B to move while Condr A is between cars. Going to a different channel isn’t always possible or practical.
When using an engine number for identification, the initials must also be used. They aren’t always used, but people can and have been written up for the omission. The reason being that if you are on UP 1234, there might be someone using the BNSF 1234 close by.
Using the train symbol is OK as long as you use the entire symbol including train date. What I’m used to would be for example, MPRCB-26. If you just use the letters (often shortened to PRCB), there could be a train with the same symbol, but different date. Again, people can and have been written up.
When they are looking for test failures, proper radio usage is an easy one. A few years ago the FRA did an audit on proper radio procedure in my little corner of the UP. Dispatchers and Yard Masters were the most likely to not use proper identification on the radio. Probably because they do a lot more talking over the radio than others.
Never had to walk the tops when a train was in motion, but was up there on occasion for other reasons. Kind of hard to keep the three-point contact now called for!
There was one time when our crew was coupling a track that was out on the lead, hence it involved curves, blocked vision, and other such things. I was the guy in the middle, passing signals between the brakeman doing the work and the engineer. At one point in the process I couldn’t see either of them–until I climed the ladder next to me and passed signals from the top of the ladder. Wasn’t on the roof or brake platform, though.
Rules for use of roofwalks got more and more restrictive as time progressed, banning being on roofs of cars that didn’t have roof walks, to not being on any roof while the car was moving, until finally, brakeman were not allowed on the roof of any car for any reason. We now have wimps who won’t climb a ladder to set a high hand brake.
Air brakes was the first reason trainmen didn’t have to “decorate the tops” to apply brakes, especially as further improvements came along, like retainers (stopping the train, setting retainer valves on selected or all cars so that there was some air applying brakes). And with time, the higher cars became too high for a trainman to even flaten himself down on a roof going under bridges and into tunnels. Higher speeds also made it less safe. Running boards on engines were common into the diesel switcher era but by the mid 60’s had pretty much dissappeared.
As for communications amongst crew members, it was all said above: hand signals (lights by night), whistle signals, applying air (if not totally dumping the air) from the caboose. Switching of cours, would often require positioning of trainmen so that thier signals could be observed. Passenger trains usually had a “communication” whistle or cord, either electrical or air operated, so that when a member of the train crew pulled the cord it would sound in the cab (this also had its own set of signals: two, go forward if stopped or stop if going forward; three back up if stop, stop at next station if moving; etc.).
Off train to train were done with trackside signal semaphores and/or lights, train orders and other specified messages (duplicated to the conductors and engineers of each train involved plus to specified operators when needed), and wayside telephones.
Those were the official ways of communicating. There are stories abounding about stopping and using telephones at houses and businesses in places, leaving wayside symbols, coded messages in front of some people who they did not want to know what was about (some of it slang or rail lingo, some made up on the spot). Even when CB radios and “walkie talkies” came about, there were some crews who used them amonst themselves. (Lehigh Valley yar
That’s funny, Larry, 'cause we have one guy I regularly see who interprets three points to be two feet and his posterior. I think the rule dictates otherwise, though.
I know that if you’re doing the required three-point contact you can’t be making some of the hand signals I was describing earlier, if you’re on the engine or cars!
Our signal for “come in on the pin” is to tap your fists together. I prefer to ride the step on the breakaway. Depending on the locomotive we’re using, sometimes it’s easier to just say it out loud to the engineer…
There was a time when RR Brakeman was the most dangerous job on earth
Go back to the days before air brakes. when the engineer whistled for brakes, a crew of brakemen walked across the tops on the running board to tighten or loosen the brakes by hand. Thats why old photos and models of pre-air cars have brake wheels sticking up above the roofs.
This work HAD to be done regardless of weather, temperature, or conditions, even though speeds were relatively slow, brakemen froze to death in snow, slipped and fell off cars in the rain, and were knocked off cars by low hanging objects like branches and if you didnt know where a tunnel was at night …
A great example of using the catwalks on the tops of car is in the classic train movie “Emporer of the North”
I hired on the CNW in '73 and I remember going up on ladders to pass signals while switching various industries. Can’t remember if was legal or not, but it sure was necessary!
When I think back to the ‘unsafe’ things we did in the “old days” just to get over the road…
On some crews, if the engineman wanted the conductor to walk up to the head end, he would dump the air after coming to a complete stop. Some crews liked to agree to dump the air twice before walking up. On the way up they would check out the train for obvious problems.
If the rear end wanted the train to stop they could apply the brakes with the conductors valve in the caboose, or probably better with the backup valve on the platform. If the engineman got stopped from the hind end he would wait until they walked up to find out what was going on.
There were hand signals that employees along the track could give to the hind end to alert them to problems with the train ( hotbox, dragging equipment, stuck brake etc. ) and their approximate location in the train.
I think the ICC (or whoever) rule requiring new cars to be built without roofwalks, and with handbrake wheels located low on the car end rather than high up came out in 1966, but it allowed an amount of time (which I think was extended a time or two) for the railroads to remove roofwalks and change the brakewheel placement on existing equipment. I don’t know if they ever actually passed a law / rule saying you couldn’t be on top of a moving car, or if the need for it had gone away so no one did it anymore??
I remember seeing brakemen on the top of moving road trains until around 1955-56. I think it was '56 that a NYC (MC territory) brakeman was walking the tops and was killed doing so. Never saw any on the top after that on NYC or C&O (PM), but I don’t know it was a rules change at that time.
For yard moves guys where still riding the tops in the Chicago Terminal in the late '60’s.