A question?? - what was the number of crew members on a short line (150 miles) steam train operating in the 40s - 50s? Obviously an engineer, fireman, conductor and brakeman - others? Growing up in a small midwestern town some 70 years ago I remember going down to the tracks when the train was in town and a couple of times the engineer invited me into the cab to ride during the switching they were doing. Such a thing could not happen in today’s world with the liability possibilities - I say this as a retired lawyer.
You have listed the absolute minimum. Often there would be at least two brakemen; one up front and one in the caboose - and they might swap places during switch moves or train inspection.
I wouldn’t be so sure. It was few yers back when my son (3 yrs old at the time) and I were offered to ride in the cab on an excursion trip. It did help that I knew both the engineer and the RR’s head of safety, who offered the cab ride on the return trip. Locomotive was an old rebuilt GP7. We sat right up front of the left hand side. We had the fun of getting to the cab while the train was going about 40 mph on some bumpy track.
So it might still happen, just more likely to be on a short line than a Class I.
Besides the engineer, fireman, conductor, and 2 brakemen there were also 1-2 flagmen. Some of the dark territory railroad days placed flagmen on the train that would go out and protect the train from the front and the rear of the train stopping all train traffic behind or ahead of the train with flares, torpedoes, and or flags…The engineer would give certain whistle toots from his train whistle to send out or call in flagmen. An art lost to time and technology…chuck
In pre-dynamic braking days, long and heavy trains operating over long and heavy grades could have something in the range of six brakemen. There would be lots of retainers needing adjustment.
Mark
The brakeman was also the flagman on most RRs. When ever the train stopped unexpectedly the brakeman would have to walk to flag and protect the train from getting hit. There was no set number of crew. Some tenders had three man doghouses while others had one. If there was no head end brakeman than the fireman would have to flag. Then if the train had livestock there would be a drovers caboose. You can’t forget the occasional RR Dick riding along not only on the lookout for tramps and hobos but protecting valuable cargo.
Pete
Detoured trains would also have a pilot in them if the engine crew wasn’t familiar with the territory. And just to add to the body count, there’s also deadheaders, though they just took up space. More commonly, they hitched on the Varnish, but I have heard tales from freinds who worked for PRR, and NYC, who eiher tied up in a trailing steamer (less people) or shared the floor with a sack of potatoes in the caboose.
Wrong. three years ago, I did an interview with the General Transportation Manager for INRD. They offered me a chance to ride down a ways with them. Timing never did work out for me, what with HS swimming, or 60 other things.
Well, I was wondering how to answer this question for a long time. I was talking to a friend last night, and he said there were 6 men to a train in the olden days. Engineer, Fireman, Conductor, Switchman, Forward Brakeman, and the Rear Brakeman. The first 2 drive the train, the 3rd ‘controls’ what it does (what to pick up and what to set out), the 4th is on the ground switching switches, and the last two are running up and down the train twisting wheels to brake the train. So, multiply the number of engines the RR has by 6, and you will have your minimum answer.
That rule, realy needs to be 6+ 2(number of engines), as you’re only going to havwe one conductor, and three brakemen. (Switchmen doubles), you might have four, if you have a really long train, but brakemen aren’t gonna be present in billions.
Actually, the formula could be 6+3(number of engines), since we have come up with a carload of extra people.
I suppose a lot depands on the era. My understanding is in the steam era each locomotive would have a minimum crew of two (engineer and fireman). Before air brakes you would have besides the conductor a number of brakemen to operate the hand wheels and this was reduced to one or two depending on train length. After dieselization, multiple units could be operated by a single crew so most railroads used three man crews at a minimum and more depending on union contracts and state law (some states mandated five man crews).
Once things began falling apart most roads were able to go to three man crews and then two man crews once cabeese were eliminated and more automated signals and equipment came on line (hot box detectors and the like).
Passenger trains of course had larger crews depending on services offered and still do though it appears that the local commuter lines are still at two as a minimum (engineer and conductor). J.R.