For example, when theB&O sarted running its EAs, did the B&O hire new engineers specifaclly to operate the EAs or did the railroads ask steam engineers to operate them? I’ve been wondering about this question for a while, and I’m not just talking about the EAs, but every early diesel locomotive.
The railroads trained the engineers they already employed. There is a lot more to running a train (knowledge of the rules and the railroad to name two) than just operating the controls of the locomotive, and besides the unions would have shut them down if they had tried to do that.
One other aspect also. Early diesels - FT’s for certain used drawbars between permanently connected units lest anyone decide that they were separate engines and each required a crew as on doubleheaded steam. On the PRR the first F3’s were numbered 9502a and 9502b for the same reason.