Back before the days of OSHA and trail lawyers existed the profession of brakeman. This was the man entrusted with going to all of the cars on a moving train and making sure they were all stopped. This was an extremely dangerous highly skilled job. Jimmie Rodgers, the first county music star, was a brakeman before he joined the music industry, where he was originally known as "The Singing Brakeman".
See also Deadhead and Gandy Dancer.
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