Freight train crew questions

[Brakie]

Rob,First in the old days the crew had 6 men..A engineer,a fireman,head brakeman,rear brakeman,flagman and conductor...Then the flagman was eliminated with the coming of the CTC(Centralized Traffic Control) operated by a dispatcher..The fireman's position lasted into the 70s on some roads.With the coming of the FRED(End Of Train Device) the caboose was eliminated from main line trains* as well as the position of head and rear brakeman.Today some locals and yard crews use 3 man crews--however,a man on the ground can operate the locomotive eliminating the yard engineer job..Some short lines uses 3 men crews.

The reason the crews was cut was to eliminate jobs and the costs of maintaining cabooses as well as elimintion of more jobs such as the cabosse service track crew and the yard crew that added caboose to outbound trains or remove cabooses from inbound trains..
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* Cabooses is still used on some trains that makes long reverse moves such as locals,mine runs and transfer runs.
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BTW..The only time the cars & switches are controlled by computer is when the cars are being hump..Even at that a "pin puller" uncouples the cars as they crest the hump.

Flat switching still requires the yard crew to manually throw the switches.