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What you saw is a "roving conductor" or "roving brakeman". This would be a RR employee who drives around in a company vehicle to preform his duties. The use of a vehicle enables the employee to be much more efficent and perform some of his duties at a accelerated pace. For instance, the roving employee can throw switches in advance of a train's arrival (in observance of the rules and with the permission of the DS of course), and the train can pull into the side track without stopping and having to wait for the Brakeman or Conductor to line the switch. Roving employees are much more common on shortlines and smaller operations than class 1 railroads right now, but there will be a day when all trains that do any amount of switching will most likely be followed by a roving employee. Now I must define the diffrence from what you saw and another kind of roving RR employee. Most terminals of any size now have at least one "rover". Often this rover is assigned a 4-wheel ATV or a ex-USPS mail truck (jeep?). Trains entering or leaving a terminal can call on "rover" to line switches, arm FREDs, preform roll-by inspections, ect., ect., ect. <br /> <br />Ted Curphey <br />funnelfan@icehouse.net <br />http://www.icehouse.net/funnelfan/
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