Railroaders' Nostalgia > The perks of being the rear-end brakie

One of the many nuances of a brakeman's job back in the 4-man crew days (aka "good old days") was the subtle difference between working as the head end brakeman on the power and working as the rear brakeman, usually on the waycar.

As with everything else in the railroad industry seniority played a key role here. Most times the rear brakeman was usually the man with the higher seniority, although on regular freight pool crews (or "turns") the 2 regularly assigned brakeman customarily alternated head & rear jobs on a trip to trip basis. But a young extra-board brakie on with a regular crew almost always had no choice but to work the head end. With 2 extra-board brakies on a crew the man with the higher seniority had his choice of working ends. As a railfan I loved riding the head end, so being "forced" up front didn't bother me at all! And in later years when my seniority would occasionally give me that choice, I opted to ride the head end more often than not.

There were a variety of reasons why riding the rear end was preferable over riding the head end. In no particular order here are a few of those reasons:

Safety: In the event of an accident (especially a collision) the rear end of a train was generally a much safer place to ride than the head end.
Money: Depending on T & E crews contractual agreements a crew on the rear end of a train had a better chance to get into a "final terminal delay" situation, thus making a few extra miles pay.
Work: If a simple pick-up or set-out was to be made during a given trip the head brakeman could usually perform this task solo. Of course if there was a lot of on-line work to do (such as on a local) both brakemen would ride the head end. Here again seniority played into the situation: The rear brakeman wasn't required to ride the actual lead unit. So he could ride a trailing unit and just sort of 'kick back' during a trip.

Here's a short little tale involving the shot in this thread. I was the rear brakeman on this eastbound trip. We were working a 703 train which had a Boeing pick-up to be made at Mulvane, KS. I rode the head end out of Wellington so I could assist in the pick-up which was often a very complicated move at Mulvane. With the work done, I just stayed on the head end for the rest of the ride into Emporia. But because I didn't have to ride the lead unit I could take advantge of any photo-ops that came before my camera. As a result I was able to shoot the image you see below.

I'm sure you fellow rails out there on TO can relate to this thread, and probably provide a few more reasons. Or at least come up with some interesting tales about riding the head end vs riding the rear end. Jump right in, the water's fine...

1. AT&SF 3171 sits tied down with a work train in Augusta, KS on June 26, 1979.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199
(posted from Addison, TX)

---

This is not really about the perks of a rear-end brakie but a true story of how even after working a few years at railroading, being thrust into a new environment can have its surprises
when you're not looking, or in this case when you ARE  looking. This tale happened after I had been railroading a couple of years on the SP  both as a fireman as well as working head-end brakie jobs off the extra board. All of my
railroading up to this time had been done on the head-end. Then one day, for whatever reason, I found myself riding the right side cushions on a bay-window crummy at the rear end of an eastbound
out of Los Angeles headed to Indio. It was a daylight trip. The train wasn't so long that I couldn't see the block signals as the head-end approached them. At the east end of the siding at
El Monte the eastward Absolute signal governing us on the main track was mounted on a very tall signal mast so as to be more visible around a slight right hand curve. Even I, from my position I
could see the signal displayed "Clear-proceed". Suddenly the signal went to "Red-Stop". That signal had dropped to Red in our face!!  I sat bolt upright, expecting to brakes to apply soon but nothing
happened. Didn't the head-end crew see it? I looked at the air gauge above my head, rock steady at 90lbs. Whats going on?? Should I call the head-end?  Should I tell the skipper? The next signal is now visible, showing green.
Again, it dropped to red before, or what I believed was before our engine passed it. After a couple more of these signal 'drops' it slowly dawned on me that the signals weren't dropping before but after our
lead engine passed the signal. Boy did I feel like a fool. Sure glad I didn't tell the skipper riding the left hand cushion. This happened over 46 years ago and I've never had the occasion to tell of my
first trip on the cushions. Told a lot of other tales to serve as instructional insights but not this one. 

Charlie

We had two or three senior brakemen that always worked the head end by choice. They fancied themselves as crackerjack hogheads and would always put the engineer on notice that they were ready, willing, and able to offer relief whether it was needed or not, and we also had a few engineers that were always ready, willing, and able to oblige them.
I don't know about anyone else here but I pretty much always ran my own train regardless of the "experience" occupying the left hand seat.

Early in my RR career I was nearly always willing to run the train rather than constantly having to get up to blow the horn for crossings (aka: account sleeping engineer).  But well into my conductor/brakemen career (25 yrs) I got caught running two different times by the same Trainmaster, but very close together timewise, and was told in no uncertain terms that the next time would be "OUT OF SERVICE" pending an investigation!.  That convinced me to take serious the fact that I "was not a promoted licensed engineer" and was no longer willing to put my, very valuable to my family's welfare job, on the line for a hoghead that showed up for duty "TOTALLY UNRESTED".  I'd try to yell at the idiot when needed, but I felt that it was his/her, as well as my responsibility, to show up rested and ready to go on duty, excepting of course "those mystery trains that seemed to  never be on anyone's lineup, even while they were in route.  Those situations many times required me to stand over our old time water coolers very nearly the entire trip while attempting to keep a conversation going between two sleepwalking zombies. Other than that during my 25+ years with SP/UP I had very little sympathy for unrested crew members. I never minded carrying a crew member for any number of legitimate reasons, but not being properly rested wasn't one of them, when they had the same opportunity to be rested that I had.  My observation that formed over my RR years was --- that heavy drinkers seemed to be the biggest offenders of not being rested.  Just my observation as I have absolutely no real proof that drinking was a factor. (Disclaimer) --- I quit alcohol about half way through my RR career so maybe that fact made me far less tollerent...maybe!  

At Emporia, I worked with a Conductor that had been a Missouri Pacific fireman, but got severed, and came to the Santa Fe as a trainman.  He was working out of Emporia, as the head brakeman called for a westbound, and the train was stopped at the depot for the crew change. It stopped sitting on most of the crossings blocking traffic, and the engineer was late to work, or didn't show, I don't remember. After a long wait, with plenty of head scratching, he boarded the engine like he would anyway, kicked off the air, and pull the train down off the crossings, spotting the rear end so the inbound crew could get off, and positioning the train to leave when the engineer finally showed up. That was a big mistake. The RFE either found out about it, or saw it going on from his office. I don't remember how it completely turned out, but it was not good, and there was dicipline

ddg wrote: .......... it was not good, and there was dicipline...

I've long maintained that all the RR top brass rules types should get together and finally come clean. They need to insert a "zero" rule right before rule #1, which should read: "The use of common sense is hearby outlawed, and will cease immediately. Any employee caught using common sense will be terminated."

Posted from Android
posted from Shawnee, OK (I'm headed north!)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/15 13:33 by santafe199.

ddg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> At Emporia, I worked with a Conductor that had
> been a Missouri Pacific fireman, but got severed,
> and came to the Santa Fe as a trainman.  He was
> working out of Emporia, as the head brakeman
> called for a westbound, and the train was stopped
> at the depot for the crew change. It stopped
> sitting on most of the crossings blocking
> traffic, and the engineer was late to work, or
> didn't show, I don't remember. After a long wait,
> with plenty of head scratching, he boarded the
> engine like he would anyway, kicked off the air,
> and pull the train down off the
> crossings, spotting the rear end so the inbound
> crew could get off, and positioning the train to
> leave when the engineer finally showed up. That
> was a big mistake. The RFE either found out about
> it, or saw it going on from his office. I don't
> remember how it completely turned out, but it
> was not good, and there was dicipline


The way they see it, it's all about liability. They shutter to think that if something would happen and somebody gets hurt or worse and some lawyer proves to a court that they allowed an unqualified person to run the train, hold onto your hat.........

> The way they see it, it's all about liability.
> They shutter to think that if something would
> happen and somebody gets hurt or worse and some
> lawyer proves to a court that they allowed an
> unqualified person to run the train, hold onto
> your hat.........

As santafe199 said...

donsrich Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Early in my RR career I was nearly always willing
> to run the train rather than constantly having to
> get up to blow the horn for crossings (aka:
> account sleeping engineer).  But well into my
> conductor/brakemen career (25 yrs) I got caught
> running two different times by the same
> Trainmaster, but very close together timewise, and
> was told in no uncertain terms that the next time
> would be "OUT OF SERVICE" pending an
> investigation!.  That convinced me to take
> serious the fact that I "was not a promoted
> licensed engineer" and was no longer willing to
> put my, very valuable to my family's welfare job,
> on the line for a hoghead that showed up for duty
> "TOTALLY UNRESTED".  I'd try to yell at the idiot
> when needed, but I felt that it was his/her, as
> well as my responsibility, to show up rested and
> ready to go on duty, excepting of course "those
> mystery trains that seemed to  never be on
> anyone's lineup, even while they were in route.
>  Those situations many times required me to
> stand over our old time water coolers very nearly
> the entire trip while attempting to keep a
> conversation going between two sleepwalking
> zombies. Other than that during my 25+ years with
> SP/UP I had very little sympathy for unrested crew
> members. I never minded carrying a crew member for
> any number of legitimate reasons, but not being
> properly rested wasn't one of them, when they had
> the same opportunity to be rested that I had.  My
> observation that formed over my RR years was ---
> that heavy drinkers seemed to be the biggest
> offenders of not being rested.  Just my
> observation as I have absolutely no real proof
> that drinking was a factor. (Disclaimer) --- I
> quit alcohol about half way through my RR career
> so maybe that fact made me far less
> tollerent...maybe!  

Wow! Well, lets see here... While I am not a railroader and never have been, I am extremely familliar with the scheduling that railroaders work under. Let's try a scenerio and lets see what your suggestion is on how to handle it:

You are on the extra board and are required to call in to dispatch M-F at 10 AM, 1 PM and 4 PM if not already dispatched. In the previous 7 days you have worked as follows:
     Thursday: 10 AM - 9 PM
     Friday: 11 AM - 11 PM
     Saturday: not called
     Sunday: 1 AM - 12:30 PM (away from home)
     Sunday: 9 PM (away from home) - 4 AM
     Monday: not called
     Tuesday: 7 AM - 9 PM
     Wednesday: not called
You last called in on Wednesday at 4 PM and was told nothing available and to call in Thursday morning. Thursday morning you call in at 10 AM after getting a good nights sleep and a good breakfast. Nothing. Get some work done around the house. Call in at 1 PM. Nothing. Go outside and do a bunch of yard work. Call in at 4 PM. Nothing. Call Friday morning. OK Lets take the family to the Fun Zone. Man that was fun but tiring. Get home at 9:30 to a ringing phone. Got a hot load and go be here as soon as you can, get your transporation equipment together and leave on a 400 mile trip to get there asap. You have been off for just over 48 hours, but you have been up out of bed for 14 hours and are tired.

Do you refuse the dispatch or go to work tired?

Well,
Having been a railroader for over 43 years, you either take the call, or you make yoUPee's list!  Not only do they not care, as soon as you make the list for too many layoffs, which isn't very many, you will be cited for an investigation and suspended for excessive absenteeism.  Once you get back to work from your forced time off, and lay off whether sick or whatever, the second time is a permanent dismissal. 

The enginemen where I retired from made a suggestion to somewhat eliminate the fatigue factor by splitting the outbound pool at the home terminal into two groups.  You could hold either the 6am to 6pm start time, or the 6pm to 6am start.  It did not affect the away from home pool.  OOPEE wouldn't hear of it.
G