I was looking at the latest issue of Classic Trains and the article about the photography of W.A. Akin Jr. There are two photos that have me curious. One shows a “road foreman” at the controls of a CB&Q E7. Is “road foreman” just the Q’s term for the engineer or is there more to it than that.
The other photo shows a local freight with a head end caboose in addition to the one on the rear. This is not the first time I’ve seen that done but I wonder how common a practice was it. I like to include things on my layout that even if they aren’t the norm are not uncommon either. Also, would this likely to be a regular road caboose or were there cabeese relegated to that duty. This looks like an older caboose but since there is no date on the photo and it has a 2-8-2 on the lead, it’s hard to say if it was a contemporary caboose or and older one being used solely for head end duty on a peddler freight.
I worked for the Burlington in engine service - A 'Road Forman of Engines' is the same as a 'Traveling Engineer'. He may have responsability for a single divison or several. He provides instruction and certification of new engineers over the division. He rode with me on my first run, and also with me when we had to move a 13,000 ton unit potash train.
A caboose between the engine and the freight cars is done when there is lots of switching to do, or there is need for a 'swing' brakeman and there is no room in the cab. A extra caboose can also be used to move crews when there is an imbalance of crews on the division. With dieselization, 3 or 4 unit consistsmany times allowed the extra crews to be moved in the cabs of the trailing units.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I have not seen the article or photos in question but you sometimes see photos of Nickle Plate trains with a caboose behind the locomotive that in some way was intended to comply with full crew laws in states such as Indiana.
Dave Nelson
I think Iowa also had a full crew law and there were others.
Road foremen have to be familiar with all the routes under their supervision, thus need to get out and about. Obviously, this is also important for other reasons, but at a minimum, if someone gets into trouble and has to be "called on the carpet" the man doing so has to know at least as much about that location, etc as those involved.
Jim's mention of other reasons also applies and sometimes there are overlapping things going on. Maybe there's just the need to see how a new guy is doing, but there's also someone who may be facing discipline and the road foreman wants to see what the situation looked like from the cab. Kill two birds with one stone by doing the cab ride past that spot.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
A road foremen and ARF was required to get so many hours of "throttle time" a month to stay familiar with train handling over the division..The regular engineer was in the cab as well and kept a close eye on the RF or ARF as he got his required throttle time.Both the RF and ARF had to run various types of trains.
As far as a full crew..All railroads use 5 men crews that consisted of engineer,fireman(yes diesel had firemen*)head brakeman,conductor and rear brakeman.If a local was more then 31 cars long a extra brakeman was added to the crew..Which made a 6 men crew.
The extra caboose was a "rider's" car..A place for the conductor and both brakeman to ride..This was done when there was a lot of switching..It was a time saver..Any caboose could be used as long as it had a steel frame..
*The position of fireman was slowly eliminated and some firemen was promoted to engine after training,while others took a buyout or early retirement.
Also a fireman could be a qualified engineer but,due to seniority held the fireman's position..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Another reason for head end cabins was for loads that required attendants. Animal handlers for stock trains, guards for valuable loads when stopped, Scale adjusting and testing personel if there is a scale test car being towed or hauled, and laborors for freight handling are just a few.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Adding to the comments by Pete, the Pennsy also regularly assigned cabin cars, specially equipped and lettered for the service, on some passenger trains. The Railway Express package handlers would ride here. I would have to assume they had steam and signal connections for passenger service as well.
I'd like to see Bowser offer this lettering scheme someday...
Happy Modeling
another reason was when there were security concerns and the railroad police; I. E. "BULLS" accompanyed sensitive shipments say for either DOD or even radioactive shipments. that is just to name a few security concerns. think of say WWII and the atom bomb project.
While we are on the subject of security. The early months of the start of WW2 the government required all shipments of ammunition by rail to be marked with a large white washed X on both sides of freight cars. Then someone realized that that large white X could be a target for sabotores. The practice was quickly dropped. Another looks good on paper type thing.
jecorbettThe other photo shows a local freight with a head end caboose in addition to the one on the rear. This is not the first time I’ve seen that done but I wonder how common a practice was it. I like to include things on my layout that even if they aren’t the norm are not uncommon either. Also, would this likely to be a regular road caboose or were there cabeese relegated to that duty. This looks like an older caboose but since there is no date on the photo and it has a 2-8-2 on the lead, it’s hard to say if it was a contemporary caboose or and older one being used solely for head end duty on a peddler freight.
On the easst end of the B&O, it was common up until around the mid 1960s, to see two cabooses on the local freight. The cab on the hind end was for the flagman. The cab right behind the engine was for the conductor and (if there was a fireman on the job) the front brakeman. That way the flagman was in position to protect the hind end and the conductor was on the head end to take care of the shifting. It also provided a good place for the conductor to do all his paperwork, especially the timecard.
Some of those old cabooses used regularly by the same crew were pretty nice on the inside.
For general information the job of flagman on most roads was eliminated since CTC and ABS eliminated the need of a flagman..
To put it in perspective.These men was "feather bedders" since all they did was flag when the train was stopped.Railroads eliminated that job as quickly as possible.
However.The rear bakeman was require to drop a fusee whenever the train was stop except for normal red signals.Railroads finally eliminated that as well.
By the 60s mosts cabooses was in pool service or was assigned to a local.
The need for a conductor to have his assigned personal caboose fell from favor since it tied up a caboose that was needed elsewhere.Besides that the local RR YMCA or contract hotel eliminated the need for staying in the caboose at your away terminal.
Oddly the job of fireman lasted into the early 70s on some roads..
.
The Road Foreman was a foreman, similar to other jobs that had a foreman supervising workers. On railroads, the Road Foreman was involved in training and also reviewing engineers and firemen. Every year or every six months or whatever, they would ride along with an engineer and essentially file a report card on how well the engineer did his job.
Lots of great info, guys. See you can learn something new every day. If you live long enough- you can be a "know-it-all"...... but that's a long time
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
"Know-it-alls" in my experience are people who think they know it all, but actually don't.
as soo as u :"Know-it-all":reality teaches us avery hard leason. I keep trying to not have to learn the same leasons again and again. a wise man said untill u are open to learning from ur mistakes u will keep making them!