BobR,

It seems to be a lot about the one man train crew on through frieghts, and who is going to be there when you need to walk back thirty car lengths on a winter night, to fix a blown air hose, as opposed to "roving" conductors, who would respond when needed.

In the Old timey days of "full" crews, way back before "landslide" Fred Hardin's first big sell out, brakey's and conductor's were your "ground" crew, so it sounds confusing. On "yard jobs", your the switchmen and foreman were your ground crew.

Nowadays, with say a local freight or road switcher job, you have a conductor with a belt pack "on the ground" running a choo-choo with no one in it, and a brakeman. It is increasingly the same with many "yard jobs". They probably want to get rid of the brakeman now, too, I haven't read any of it, though.

All of my friends are mostly retired now, so they won't need to stock up on lube, like they needed when Fred first sold us out... They've sure screwed up what used to be a really great and fun job.