Thanks, OPRRMS and WAF, for the additional info. You both obviously have a whole lot more experience than I have, as I was just a young brakeman in the 60's, with three years total railroad time when I left to go into the public safety field. I think I was very competent in my job performance and I liked the job, but my fiancé didn't like my being gone so much. The San Joaquin was a triangle division then, so that away from home was both Roseville and Fresno. I continue to retain an interest in railroading, but I knew it from a time that was much different from today. In fact so different, that years before I hired on, my brother and I hung out in Hayward, CA on both the SP and WP, riding steam (shows my age) and diesel engines for hours while they switched the factories that used to be there. We were even taught by friendly crews how to dismount from a moving locomotive, and the SP local at least once had us line and lock a mainline switch after the moving caboose cleared the siding. Anyway, good memories.