11-21-2009, 05:30 PM
I believe it was the invention of the automatic brake, not the dynamic brake, that eliminated the need for rooftop brakemen. Prior to the common 5 man crews of the steam era, there would have been a brakeman for every 6 cars or so, because the hand brake was the only brake a train had. Many locomotives didn't even have independent brakes.
Here's a couple of images from Shorpy of brakemen riding the roofs.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6274?size=_original
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6573?size=_original
somewhere I have a image saved of a moving train with brakemen staged throughout the train, if i find it i'll post up.
Correction!! The automatic brake eliminated the extra brakemen riding the roofs of cars after 1869 or so. They still had front and rear end brakemen that would have to go to the roofs for various reasons after the automatic brake was adopted, which would fit with Russ's explanation above. So really we're both right...
Here's a couple of images from Shorpy of brakemen riding the roofs.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6274?size=_original
http://www.shorpy.com/node/6573?size=_original
somewhere I have a image saved of a moving train with brakemen staged throughout the train, if i find it i'll post up.
Correction!! The automatic brake eliminated the extra brakemen riding the roofs of cars after 1869 or so. They still had front and rear end brakemen that would have to go to the roofs for various reasons after the automatic brake was adopted, which would fit with Russ's explanation above. So really we're both right...
-Dave