Where did the steam-era train crews ride on the passenger trains?
Doug Arnold said:The train conductor usually rode in a coach towards the rear of the train. The rear brakeman also. They would check and punch tickets and watch out for the welfare of the train and passengers. Car porters if any were seated in their respective cars and if there were Pullman cars on the train the Pullman conductor would stay in his Pullman car(s) separate from the rest of the train. The front brakeman would ride in the locomotive cab normally or somewhere towards the front of the train to be available for flagging or occasional throwing of manual switches.
Where did the steam-era train crews ride on the passenger trains?
Steam era trains had a five man basic crew*. Engineer, Fireman, Conductor and front and rear brakeman (also sometimes called flagmen). The conductor was the boss of the train whether passenger or freight.
*Before the era of airbrakes there might be more brakemen as needed to tie down the car brakes on downgrades in mountain territory on freights. Also sometimes there were two firemen to hand shovel coal on trains with high tonnage on heavy grades.