In an essay I'm writing I described working on a section gang as "physically the hardest job on the railroad." But as I think about it, I thought this would be a good question to ask here because it's an opinion. Would you agree with my statement? Not agree? Why?
Btw, I'm referring to jobs on the railroads before about 1960.
And on a hot day in the NE USA my heart goes out to any guy working outside today! Thanks for being there!
(And yes, I have worked in factories and on an ore boat, so I remember hot summer days very well, indeed).
So, gentlemen, what was (or is) the hardest job, physically, on the railroad?
I have never worked for a railroad, so I don't have any first hand experience to determine what is or was the hardest job on the railroad. However, I grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where I had ample opportunity to observe many railroaders. Moreover, I have traveled extensively by train in the U.S., as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the UK.
Ask anyone to describe the hardest job in his work community and he will probably rank his job near the top of the hardness scale, if their is such a thing. Part of the answer to your question depends on the definition of hard. Having said that, here are a few jobs that would meet my definition of hard, which includes both the physical as well as the psychological aspects of the job. I don't think one can or should just look at the physical aspect of a job to determine whether it is the hardest job in a family of jobs. Sometimes the psychological aspects of work can be more damaging than the physical aspects.
My aunt's father was in-charge of the Altoona based wrecking crews. He was subject to being called out at any time of the day or night and in all kinds of weather to organize and manage the clean up of a wreck. He had to assemble wreck crews, equipment, etc., get them to the site, and ensure that the mess was cleaned up as efficiently and effectively as possible whilst ensuring the safety of the crew. The work was physically demanding. Also, the pressure from management to restore the line as quickly as possible caused a significant amount of stress; I am sure, which only made it more challenging.
I was in high school during the middle 1950s. Frequently, I would take the train to New York to visit a family member who lived in Queens. Oftentimes, I would return on one of the PRR's premium trains that left New York in the late afternoon or early evening. I was impressed by the challenges faced by the dinning car crews, especially the chefs and waiters. Preparing food and getting it to hungry customers on a shaky platform rolling along at better than 70 mph is not easy.
As demonstrated clearly in the film at the Railroaders Museum in Altoona, many of the shop jobs were physically demanding. Most of my friend's fathers worked in the shops. When they got home from work, many of them were drained. This was especially true during the summer months, when the temperature in the shops soared.
Most probably brakeman in the era before the Westinghouse-brake became common and/or fireman, if you had to fire a large loco without stoker.
Hardest job on the railroad had to be the brakeman before the days of automatic couplers and air brakes. It was very very very dangerous work.
After that, well see if you can find in the TRAINS pdf subscribers extra downloadable articles the one on the experience of being a track section worker on the D&RGW. Very, very physically demanding and also somewhat dangerous. I did well in the USArmy and survived infantry training, but I could not have survived what that author went through and would probably have had to quit the middle of the first day!
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