Railroading 101
Part 3 – The Way It Was
I’m going to diverge from talking about tracks and switches to provide a little insight into what it was like working on the railroads around Pittsburgh in the early 1900s.  My source is a book titled “Work –Accidents and the Law” by Chrystal Eastman, published in 1910.  The book is based on a study of work place accidents occurring in Allegheny County between July 1, 1907 and June 30, 1908.
During the period of her study the railroads in the Pittsburgh District brought in 11 million tons of iron ore from the Great Lakes, picked up 5,000 car loads of steel rails, plates, beams and other products made in Pittsburgh, and carried 10 million tons of coal out of the mines in Allegheny County.  There were 22 rail yards in the District, 12 of them within the Pittsburgh city limits.  On the downside, there were hundreds of four-track, unprotected grade crossings in places like Homestead, Braddock, McKeesport, and Duquesne.  And 125 railroaders were killed during that single year, almost 50 percent of them brakemen.  Fifteen brakemen fell from moving trains; 12 from the tops of cars, five crushed between cars, and three from engine footboards.  The job of a yard brakeman was the most dangerous occupation on the railroad.
Classifying and sorting cars in yards during the early 1900s was accomplished by three methods: poling, flat switching, and hump switching.  Poling was eventually outlawed because it was extremely dangerous.  An iron pole was placed between a poling socket on the front of the engine and an identical socket on a car on an adjacent track.  The engine then shoved the car or cut of cars down the track.  The brakeman who handled the pole was called a poler.  Polers were often struck by the poles, particularly at night, killing or injuring them.
In flat switching an engine shoved, or kicked, a cut of cars, which were then uncoupled and allowed to coast into the respective track, often at high speeds that required a brakeman to ride the cars and apply the handbrake to slow them down.  Hump switching consisted of the engine shoving cars up an artificial hill where they were cut loose and coasted down the other side into the classification tracks.  Brakeman, called car riders, rode with the cars to control their speed.  During hump switching, cars could attain a speed as high as 15 mph, but the average speed was about 10 mph.  
The danger of hump switching in the days before car retarders and automatic switches was aptly described by a railroader of the time: “The trouble is that they get cutting the cars off too fast.  For instance, suppose one man is taking down a draft of partly empty cars.  He gets started, and then a draft of very heavy cars, say nine of them, is cut off back of him.  They go much faster than his cars and are likely to catch him before he gets off the lead track.  The brakeman on the draft behind him often can’t stop his cars in time, if they get going too fast.  If he can’t, and they bump hard, it’s all up with the first brakeman.”
After riding the hump, the next most dangerous job for a brakeman was coupling cars.  Although link-and-pin couplers were outlawed by the Federal Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893, automatic knuckle (Janney) couplers were only required on cars used in interstate service.  Cars used in intrastate service, on industrial railroads, or those in mine service were not required to have the new couplers.  Link-and-pin couplers required the brakeman to go between the cars to ensure the link entered the socket and then drop the pin through the link.  If he missed, the cars would bump together, cushioned by the brakeman’s body.
Sometimes, brakemen intentionally put themselves in danger, and this was particularly true for the way brakemen would board the yard engines.  They would stand between the gauge and step up on to the footboard as the engine came down the track.  
The practice was described by one brakeman to Ms. Eastman: “You see, getting on in front your foot touches the footboard first, so if you slip there is no chance of saving yourself.  Getting on at the side you take hold of the grab iron first, so if your foot slips there is some chance of hanging on.  Yet I always get on in the front myself.  We all do.  It’s easy and simple.  There is a kind of fascination about it.  You win or you lose.  It’s a gamble.  And then, it’s not professional to get on at the side.  No good railroader does it.”
So how dangerous was railroading in 1907-08?  Here’s a table from Ms. Eastman’s book that shows how some of the 125 men who were killed between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 1908 met their demise.
Accident	Conductor	Engineman	Fireman	Brakeman	Trackman	Laborer	
Run over while working or waiting on tracks	2	-	2	8	15	6	
Wreck	3	5	6	4	-	-	
Jolted off and run over	-	1	-	15	-	-	
Crushed between cars	2	-	1	5	-	-	
Fell under wheels getting on or off	1	-	1	5	-	-	
Struck by object near track	-	1	1	3	-	-	
Crushed while working under car	-	-	-	-	-	3	
Totals	8	7	11	40	15	9	

There is no doubt that fatigue played a major part in contributing to the accidents that occurred on railroads during this period.  Until legislation was passed limiting railroaders to a 16-hour day it was not uncommon for men to work 24 to 36 hours at a time.  At the time of Ms. Eastman’s study, yard men usually worked 12 hours, but were often kept up to the 16-hour limit when the yards were busy.  Work rules also required men to be called at least 2.5 hours before going on duty, which turned a 16-hour day into an 18- or 20-hour day.  A yard master interviewed by Ms. Eastman stated, “Shorter hours – and eight-hour day for all railroaders – is about the most important thing I can think of to reduce the number of accidents.”