I was just reading the post about the civil war Loco’s and all the information was very interesting, however could someone explain to me the funtion of the brakeman. I have heard of this job but never really new what they actually did. Thanks
Steve
He ran across the top of the cars and put the brakes on cars by turning the brake wheels on the top of the cars, or ends on later models.
A few of them also got knocked off of the cars going into tunnel entrances… That was the reason for the Telltails near tunnel entrance, to warn the brakeman of the imending danger. I don’t know how many that ever got slapped by one were actually able to react in time…
Jeff
George Westinghouse did not invent the air brake until after the Civil War. The only way a train could be stopped was for the engineer to signal with the whistle that it was time to begin setting the brakes. Two brakemen would then begin moving from one car to the next, from each end of the train, manually setting the brakes on each car until the train stopped. When the engineer signalled that he wanted to proceed, the brakemen then had to go from car to car and release the brakes before the train could be moved.