# Railroad Gazette/Volume 38/Number 5/Preparation of Firemen

The Employment and Preparation of Firemen.
Where a railroad system is very extensive, the Division Master Mechanics should be the final employing officers for firemen, and at least such shopmen as are to be considered prospective firemen, instead of leaving this duty entirely in the hands of the division foreman or traveling engineer.
Practically all locomotive engineers of this country received their early training as firemen; on the same railroad in most cases. Many firemen come from minor positions in the roundhouse or shops. Hence it is seen how important is the duty of employing firemen and shopmen, and their training after suitable men are employed. Although the obtaining and filing of applications can be entrusted to clerks or minor officers, I believe that the final employing officer of a railroad, no matter how large the system, should be an officer of as high rank as possible and in passing upon the applicant the latter should be present. The influence thereby imparted to a prospective employee is very great. The application blank should include all available information and attached thereto letters of reference obtained direct from former employers or business men whom the candidate has given as references of his education and character. The application blank should show name, home address, nationality, where born, age, height, weight, school advantages, if married or single and those dependent upon him for support; a list of those employers for whom he has worked, his occupation with them and dates; whether his general health has been good and if he is addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors. He should be questioned particularly on these last two matters as robust health is essential to his future success; he should be asked if he thinks that an employee in the engine or train service of to-day should drink at all, either on or off duty, and no effort made to conceal the employer’s view thereon. Do not employ all men of the same nationality; mix them judiciously.
There is not a railroad company in this country whose business fluctuates that does not prepare locomotives and cars for their expected busy season, yet how many are expected busy season, yet how many are there who as carefully prepare for the obtaining of suitable men for firemen with which to meet such increased business? Is it not quite often the case that, during the duller seasons of the year, a letter or personal applicant receives no reply or else the mere information is conveyed that “we are not hiring men now”? Why not take a lesson from the world powers and “in time of peace prepare for war”? Before the period of business increase, the employing officer should have on file a list of applications with as full particulars as possible. This work, being properly outlined, can be carried out by a clerk, the use of perhaps five or six letters of inquiry in each case, the thought being to always keep in touch with any change in the address of applicants and to advise them from time to time as to the probable date they may expect to be called for. Last fall, before hiring some 75 firemen, the writer had a list of over 100 applicants, many of them experienced men, and a large number of the remainder had taken up and completed some correspondence course on combustion and locomotive firing. In this way a rapid increase in business can be cared for without the delay to traffic due to shortage of men and without the demoralizing necessity of dropping all other urgent business at such time in order to obtain the men needed.
Have a series of blank forms, and number them so that you can briefly refer to them in that way. When you receive a letter from an applicant, send him form No. 100. When you want more applications than you have on file, send form No. 107 to the station agents and roadmasters along your line. Form 103 sends an employed man to some division foreman for a fireman and obtains in reply his record of starting work. Form No. 102 starts a man in roundhouse or shop work as a training for firing, etc., etc. These several forms are shown at the end of this paper merely as suggestions in the way of carrying out a policy with as little labor as possible.
There are perhaps five classes of young men from which we may obtain our future enginemen:
First, the farmer boy whose training usually results in producing an industrious man, but whose school advantages are generally limited to the “three Rs.”
Second, the country lad, who may or may not have spent much of his time on the farm, but who has lived in or near a small town and had school training up to or better than the eighth grade or entrance to high school. Either of these two classes may have followed threshing outfits and perhaps fired or run a portable boiler.
Third, the city chap who has more assurance than industry, more education than application; who needs more watching than the former classes, yet in exceptional cases makes a most competent and efficient employee.
Fourth, the sons of older railway employees who enter the service with greater aptitude on account of their general knowledge of its requirements and hardships, and whose parents, themselves often deficient in early school advantages, have seen to it that their sons are better prepared therein to enter their life work. This class of men are more likely to stick to their “jobs” and carry out their undertakings, as they are acquainted with the fact that the fireman on a modern locomotive has something else to do beside sit on the seat and flirt with the passing country girls.
Fifth, the technical school graduate, with whom I must confess to have had very limited experience. The few that I have had ​work for me as firemen have evidently taken up the work awaiting some more congenial employment rather than as a life work.
While a few months roundhouse experience is of advantage to boys of all these classes, I believe it should be required of any who have never fired even a stationary boiler. In the roundhouse they should not be kept at cleaning and sweeping until they become discouraged and quit, but effort should be made to employ them cleaning fires, hoeing ash-pans, calling, firing stationary boilers, helping the engine hostlers and firing up locomotives. I call this training most valuable because a young man learns something of the details of railroading, such as the importance of promptness in the service, the results of good and poor firing as seen in the shape of fires in engines at terminals; he also learns the uses of the various parts of the boiler, he learns the signals, and above all else gains the confidence necessary to fire an engine properly. If he can help a roundhouse machinist or help the boiler-washer, it will also be of advantage; he may even have an occasional chance to fire a switching engine for a few hours in an emergency. The foreman should arrange to permit such boys as he judges will be recommended for firemen, to deadhead over the road two or three trips on an engine with a first-class fireman.
In the case of men starting in the shops and with others shortly before the probable rush period, send applicants to the company’s examining surgeons so that they will be immediately available in case of necessity for firing. The foreman of each terminal shop should have working under him few of such men and the authority to use them as firemen whenever needed. This is of great advantage besides saving considerable expense in deadhead time.
In so far as possible, all inexperienced firemen should start work on yard or way freight engines where there is apt to be less delay to traffic from lack of steam while they are learning the rudiments of stoking. If the company does not furnish a book of instructions on locomotive firing and combustion, keep some good but inexpensive book or correspondence course on hand, recommend it to all inexperienced men, even selling it to them at cost if necessary. What you are after is result; so, if you believe in a thing, carry it into execution.
Avoid, if possible, hiring men who are “broke.” New men do not understand that their first pay day does not come for over a month, and some small sum on hand to start with may prevent garnishment of their first wages and their consequent discouragement. Some of the best firemen that I ever had gave up the work on this account.
New firemen should not be regularly listed and given rank for the first six months of their service. The older man should be given the preference in work at his terminal by the foreman, but not the privilege of going to some distant part of the division to displace a man who is a few days younger in the service. During this six months’ period they should also understand that they are on probation. To gain full advantage in this respect, it is necessary to obtain such reports from division foremen, road foremen, and traveling firemen (see form No. 104) as will enable you to intelligently drop from the service inside of the six months, regardless of their relative age in employment, such men as seem the least adapted to the work or appear likely to become “disturbers of the peace.” Treat such unfortunates with courtesy and consideration, explaining to them their weak points and probable inaptitude which makes them less desirable than others. Give them passes home, if within reason to do so, and wish them well in their future occupation. The reputation of a fine gentleman, now a railroad president, but then the manager of a small road, is worthy of imitation:
An engineer, old in the service, had become involved in serious trouble, and was called to the manager’s office and the gravest discipline accorded. The “boys,” waiting outside, accosted the engineer, who, though serious, was anything but depressed.
“Well,” they said, “what did the old man have to say?”
“There,” he replied, “is the finest gentleman I ever met.”
“Why,” they said, “did he put you back to work?”
“No, indeed; he discharged me, but he talked to me like a father and explained things to me as I had never understood them before. I would rather be discharged by that man than to be put back to work by any other man I ever met.” It is needless to say that, with discipline so effectively received, he was not long out of the service.
After dismissing all undesirable men, if necessary to further reduce the list in times of slack business, have a “lay-off” list on which you place the youngest men first. Men on this list are given to understand that they will be re-employed, the oldest first, provided they keep you advised of their address. On the railway with which I am connected, for many of the men we find temporary employment on other divisions, where they serve without rank until recalled.
Both in hiring and in dismissing men one should bear in mind the future as well as the immediate needs, and endeavor to make a reputation that will be of growing benefit to himself and to his company. The company’s attitude will, whether you wish it or not, be considerably advertised, and ultimately result in the securing of better men in the years to follow.
As is quite generally known, the Chicago & Northwestern, as one of the first to adopt it, has a system of first, second and third years’ progressive mechanical examinations. Each fireman is given the first year’s book of questions, together with the book of rules and time card immediately he is employed. As soon as convenient after the expiration of his first year’s service, he is given a written examination thereon by the traveling engineer or traveling fireman, who also examines him orally. If successful in passing this, he is given the second year’s book of questions, upon which he is examined a year hence in the same manner. At the end of his third year the fireman is examined by a joint board of examiners appointed for the whole system, which board sits in Chicago each spring and fall. Some of the traveling engineers and the air-brake instructor compose this board, and their favorable report makes the man eligible to promotion to an engineer whenever needed as such on his own division thereafter.
The failure to pass any one of these progressive examinations results in a second trial six months later; two successive failures drop a man from the locomotive service at once, as no men are permitted to waive their right to promotion.
When firemen have passed their mechanical examinations for promotion to engineers, they should, as soon as possible, be sent to the train department for time card and book of rules examination so as to be eligible for use as engineers at any time.
Just previous to the expected busy season, such firemen should be required to fire on runs where they can readily be had for running and new firemen put in their places; for, if they are permitted to take work where their lay-over is at outlying points, too much delay is occasioned in relieving them and getting them to the main terminals where needed.
If it happens that on any division promotion is so slow that a fireman has to fire for more than three years, it should be required that he fire in freight service at least three months immediately previous to being promoted, this because a long period of firing in passenger service is not good experience immediately preceding promotion to an engiwhere he will begin work in extra freight service.
During one busy season it was required as an experiment that each inexperienced man employed should take a certain course on firing and combustion, the cost of which was very small. That fall, among the seventy-five men hired, there was not a single instance of burned-out locomotive grates, and compared with the year previous, on the ton-mileage basis, a saving of over $60,000 in coal was effected, besides considerable in running repairs; for much of the boiler repairs to locomotives results from poor firing—usually too heavy firing.
I believe that the time is not far distant when the leading railroads of the country will demand a knowledge of combustion and at least the theory of firing, and have an examination covering those subjects which an applicant must pass before employing him for a locomotive fireman; also that he should know the signals and flagging rules. When we consider that a few weeks’ study and a small tuition will give a young man this information, there is nothing unreasonable in demanding this previous preparation for a position that pays from $70 to $100 per month; but there is a practical difficulty to-day, namely, with less rigid requirements, many roads find it impossible to obtain enough men who can stand the service, due to the advent of modern coal-burning locomotives of such great size. Nor can we look for marked change in condition until mechanical stokers of successful design are inaugurated and extensively used. When we have to hire “coal heavers,” we cannot expect to be getting much brains; hence I believe the railroads of the country are not paying sufficient attention to the use and development of these labor-saving devices for the fireman, for several of them are as efficient as some other apparatus when first applied to the locomotive, and it would not be unreasonable to expect great improvement therein, were sufficient inducement offered.
[Proposed form of report from Road Foreman and Traveling Fireman.]
Dear Sir:—
I have ridden with the above named fireman . . . . . . times and taking all points into consideration I would consider him to be a . . . . . . . . (Good, Fair or Poor) man.
His good points are . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
His undesirable points are . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The engineers and division foremen for whom he has worked think him a . . . . . . . . fireman, and . . . . . . desirable to retain in the service.
[Blank to be filled out by each fireman for the first six months of his service.]
Dear Sir:—
During the past month of . . . . . . . . I have fired principally as follows:
Engine No. . . . Engineer . . . . . . Did engine steam well? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Was engine light on coal? Were you able to have fires light and in good shape at terminals? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Have you improved and gained greater skill in firing the past month? . . . . . . . . . . .
Are you able to stand the hard work of firing heavy engines? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Do you make it a practice to obtain good rest and sleep when off duty? . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Form of letter to station agent.]
Dear Sir:—
About (date) . . . . . . . . . . . . . and thereafter we are likely to need more firemen on short notice. If you know of any young men of good character, reliable habits and at least an 8th grade school education, I ​would be glad to entertain their application. Please have any such as you can recommend write to me, giving their age, weight, height and school advantages, and I will communicate with them, if satisfactory.
Discussion.
Mr. F. P. Roesch (Hicks Loco. and Car Works).—It seems there is quite a diversity of opinion as to what is required; one man wants brains, another wants brawn. Brain is needed just as much as muscle. A man can save more coal with his head than he can with his back. Most railroads now put a minimum limit on the weight of a man to be employed. It is not much harder to do the actual firing on the large locomotive of to-day than it was on the small locomotive of 20 years ago. I have fired engines with a fire-box about the size of my hat and from that up to the largest decapods that are built; and generally it is not the shoveling alone that wears out the fireman; it is the other duties connected with it, such as opening the door, that wear him out. We are expecting too much of the fireman nowadays. The pooling system has had quite a lot to do with the ruination of firemen. In old times each man had his own regular engine, and the fireman and the engineer practically owned the engine; they took a personal interest in the amount of coal consumed, and in the condition in which the engine was kept; they tried to keep it as neat as possible. To-day when a fireman gets off the engine, you do not know whether he is white or black. He sneaks through the alley; he is ashamed to be seen in the public streets. He has no place to put his clothes. Half the engines that are pooled have no “squirts” on them to wet down the coal; and they are dirty inside and out. We ask the fireman to help clean the engine, to fire it, to crack the coal, and to shake grates that are all coupled together so that three or four men could not shake them. No wonder the romance is gone. I have hired fireman in the East and in the West and the same conditions prevail in every place. Now, we can all adopt fine plans, and resolve strictly to adhere to them in hiring firemen; but if there comes a rush you will get messages like this: “Send me 20 firemen at once; am tied up.” Then we go down town and round up anything we can get hold of. Of course, it is well enough to promise ourselves to weed out afterwards, but it is always easier to get the men than it is to get rid of them. We might as well be honest with ourselves. When we get right up against it and we want an engineer real bad, we pick out the brightest fireman, and if he does not happen to pass all the questions, we shove him up anyhow, and trust to luck. This is the trouble. In our effort to save fuel instead of commencing at the cylinder, we should take up just exactly what we are taking up to-night—the question of firemen—and begin to save our coal at the wooden end of the scoop.
We ought to make things more pleasant for the firemen. Have their coal cracked; it does not cost much. It is economy and it saves fuel to have it cracked in firing sizes. Have the engine moderately clean; do not ask firemen to wipe these great big engines, where the jackets are measured by the acre. Give them a clean seat box to put their clothes in. Have a “squirt” to wet the coal down occasionally. Have the grate rigging so arranged that the fireman does not have to break his back to shake it.
Another question is this “preparing for the rush.” It has been suggested to have a lot of applications on file. I had a thousand last year. But when you send for these men you do not always get them. We ought to have bright young men in our roundhouses, either as machinists’ helpers or as wipers.
Mr. W. E. Symons (Kansas City Southern).—In reference to the different engines and the condition of the firemen, I think possibly it is not as bad in all places as has come under Mr. Roesch’s observation. My experience has been that in recent years both locomotive engineers and firemen have received very material and substantial increases in pay, and that their conditions have been bettered in various ways. I speak from personal experience, and I think I am correct in saying that on a large majority of the roads to-day the firemen do not clean their engines except the cabs. I personally know of a number of roads where they do not clean anything except cabs, and seldom ever clean the cab, and some of them are on runs where they are only two and one- half to three hours in real service. They are earning from $100 to $125 a month, which is more money than the most skilled mechanic can expect to earn after completing a long period of apprenticeship and entering upon his trade. As to shaking the grates, I believe that that is usually remedied where the engine crew take a personal interest in the engine, and co-operate with the roundhouse foreman and others in authority to the end that such defects as are discovered on the road may be properly remedied and repaired in the shop. Failing to do this, leaving a broken grate for the next man to take out produces unsatisfactory results. We try to get our firemen seat boxes; we arrange to put curtains on the cabs, we have “squirt” hose attachments to all the injector pipes, and my observation has been that a number of roads in the same territory are similarly equipped.
The question of seniority has had considerable to do with diminishing the interest of firemen in their work. But the introduction of progressive examinations and other educational features has resulted in quite an awakening among enginemen and the firemen. The Locomotive Firemen’s Magazine to-day is publishing a series of questions and answers and charts about technical subjects and mechanical subjects that if read and studied by the members of their craft, will aid largely in advancing them in their profession. I am told by local members of the fraternity that they are going to encourage this study all they can. Firemen, as a class, are better paid in proportion to the work they perform than any others. Therefore we have a right to expect from them good returns; and I believe we are in most cases getting them. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​