Brakeman Mannequin

StudioEIS, Brooklyn
1995

The brakeman's job was very dangerous. They had to stop trains through the manual application of brakes on the top of each train car. Brakemen had to manually throw switches along the rail line in all weather. Brakemen found it hard to get insurance, and eventually established benevolent mutual insurance brotherhoods. The first Brotherhood of Railroad Brakemen was created in 1883.

National Park Service photograph