Having a locomotive on both ends of the train also means that you can switch every customer in either direction regardless of which way their switch faces, without the need to perform a drop/flying switch/running switch, a practice that is now prohibited on many railroads.
The CN runs a local (L556) with a loco on each end, makes daily runs from Wisconsin Rapids to Greenbay, WI., and usually stops in Neenah, WI to do work, and then on to Greenbay. Each loco has a crew member.
I believe it originates in Greenbay.
Mike.
I lived across the street from a branchline of a small (but very busy) shortline from 1958 to 2006. As far as I can recall, the trains always had a four man crew - engineer and fireman in the engine, conductor and brakeman in the caboose. Since these were normally short trains (less than 10 cars) one brakemen would suffice, but I assume the fireman (who didn’t have that much to do since these were diesels) would sometimes throw a switch if needed. There were/are several businesses at the end of the branch, and regardless of union rules, I think their prime concern was to get their work done as quickly as possible so they had more time to walk across the street to Diamond Lake Lanes bowling center to have lunch before starting back down the branch.
This is what I wondered early about whether the fireman might do double duty as the head brakeman. On a branchline peddler freight, it seems like the common sense thing to do even if it bumped up against union rules.
I remember when I was right out of high school I took a job on the loading dock of a department store. It was the first union job I held. We unloaded lots of trucks from various companies. I remember a truck driver telling me that technically it was against his union’s rules for us to go onto the truck to remove freight and against our union’s rules for him to move freight onto our dock. He said the union bosses would argue that we were putting a middle man out of a job. Of course he didn’t make an issue of it and we continued to move freight off the truck. I would suspect there are a lot of violations of labor agreements such as this that go by the wayside our of convenience.
Keep in mind with short trains, it would not be hard for the brakeman and conductor to handle throwing switches etc. by themselves. My guess would be the conductor would stay by the caboose, and the brakeman would walk forward to the head of the train to work that end. The conductor would have worked many years as a brakeman before being promoted afterall.
I do seem to recall reading that in the 1940s and earlier, some large railroads (like New York Central IIRC) on their mainline trains used a six-man crew: engineer, fireman and head-end brakeman in the engine, and conductor, rear brakeman, and flagman in the caboose. The flagman was generally a relatively newly-hired brakeman.
Of course, in the 19th century - before air brakes - trains used a number of brakemen so they could manually walk the roofwalks and turn the brakewheels of the cars when needed.
I doubt the flagman would be a newer employee. First, a flagman’s job has some responsibility, doing it properly, etc. Second, while a conductor could assign which brakeman took which position, generally the senior brakeman was allowed to pick which position he wanted on the train. Usually the senior man would choose the rear end, but not always. I’ve read of guys who preferred the head end.
I would guess at times a clash of personalities might make a senior man want to ride the head end, and do any work enroute.
Jeff
I guess you know more industrious brakemen or brakemen that wanted more cardio. In my career, the brakeman I knew wanted to walk as little as possible. The caboose is the roughest riding part of the train (the reason why a trainman was four or five times more likely to be injured on a caboose than an engine.) I’ve been riding a caboose where we hit a mudhole in the track and the caboose bounced so hard both my feet came off the floor.
When I was an apprentice oiler for the PC they were running 4 man crews but the writing was on the wall for the elimination of the fireman position. Men with years of seniority were either being forced to retire, downgrade to brakeman, or if you were connected fast tracked to engineer. The man that got me in the door was gone before I started. Railroad cops were some of the first ones on the chopping block. Having nearly thirty years in he chose early retirement. His stories were epic. My position was eliminated eight weeks after I started. I was not liked by many of the old hats who’s jobs were going away. I truly simpathised with them. It wasn’t a good time for many.
Flagmens main responsibility was protection for the train and would not be switching turnouts or anything that had to do with the train movement. They were there to protect the rear or front of the train. Flagmen were also used at unprotected grade crossings. Still to this day there are flagmen on trains. Our local trash train uses a flagman when the train is going over the side street crossings.
Pete.
The actual bulletined position of “flagman” (seperate from brakeman or conductor) hasn’t been used on major railroads for over 50 years. Any flagman you see is just a brakeman or conductor performing the activities of flagging.
Railrod unions were organized by craft and not by shop.The Brotherhoos jealously guarded there perogatives. What you are suggesting is prime reason for a grievance. And it didn;t have to be the train crew that turned him in. It was not unheard of for union officials to act as spotters to make sure the separation of duties was done per the agreements. Example, my grandfather was a railroad machinist. When he needed the area around his lathe or drill press cleaned up, he had to summon a laborer (different union) to come sweep the floor rather than being able to do it himself
Keep in mind my example was a local train on a branchline with (in the early sixties) an FM or Baldwin diesel, 5-6 cars, and a caboose, trundling along at around 10 MPH. Not a lot of walking for the brakeman at the end of the branch.
I will see if I can find the source of what I read about Flagmen (I think it was re the New York Central?), but my understanding was that some railroads used the term flagman, some ‘second brakeman’. In any case, the source I read said of the three crewmen in the caboose (if there were three), the conductor would of course have the most seniority (being a promoted brakeman), the brakeman second, and the ‘second brakeman’ or flagman would be the least senior…often a newer employee ‘learning the ropes’ from the brakeman and conductor. If the train stopped unexpectedly and a flagman had to go out a half-mile or so back of the train (possibly in rain or snow) to ensure the rear was protected, it was a job they were going to make the least senior person do.