Brakeman

Brakeman were railway workers, who were responsible for the braking of trains. This profession has been displaced by the introduction of automatic braking systems.

As trains still had no continuous brake cables or lines, sat on some cars brake brakeman on sitting or brakeman's cab, which could determine the brake by means of a crank handle and solve. The contract for this was issued by whistle signals from the locomotive. A synchronous possible work of the brakeman was necessary to bring the train jolts to a halt. Since the widespread introduction of the continuous air brake even with freight trains in the middle of the 1920s there is no longer this occupation in Germany. In contrast, the San Francisco Cable Cars, till now on every car has a brakeman one. In Europe, forest worker last worked on forest tracks as a brakeman, as the wood transport usually had no automatic brakes.

Especially on steep railway lines, with important freight there was outright colonies in which the brakeman lived with their families, as there had to be filled by brakemen all cars on the trains. Examples are the railway villages New Market, Heigenbrucken and Pressig - Rothenkirchen.