Curling up again with Signor's Donner Pass book, it has occurred to me that that the idea of a seasonally-manned fire train, at least one of which was kept hot during the season 24 hours a day, would create a problem with crews relieving each other.

Given that the train(s) were at several remote locations over the years, how were the crews relieved, and where were they based? Did they deadhead to the train? Did the train (unlikely) go back to the crew base to get relieved? Or did the crews bid in the job and therefore accept the conditions of the job; i.e. minimal lodging? One picture of a fire train shows a passenger car at the end. This I presume would serve as "lodging"... but how were they relieved?