Hello, Pete, and everyone else.
> Of course at the investigation the fireman stated
> (correctly in this case) I
> was back in the engine room.
All the talk about firemen being in the engine room
has
raised one big question in my mind -- WHY? I have
always thought that the main role of the fireman was
to
verify signals with the engineer and also be present
in
the cab to bring the train to a stop if the engineer
became incapacitated. I know that the fireman also
answered alarms if something was wrong with any of the
units in a lashup. But did the reasons for his being
in the engine room go beyond these? Years ago, when I
used to subscribe to "Trains," I recall several
stories
about people's experiences on board the locomotives in
the early days of dieselization, but these were
generally EMD people. Did the fireman have the
responsibility of maintaining or repairing the diesels
while the train was on the road? I am indeed curious.
Thanks for any enlightenment you all may give me.
Bill Chambers
__________________________________________________
Yahoo! - We Remember
9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost
http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute
|