WHO’S IN CHARGE HERE? - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 112

cult of the two jobs. Because freight trains are so long—a 150-car
train can be over a mile and a half from end to end—the engineer
of a freight train often has one part of the train coming up a hill
and the other part heading down the other side, all at the same
time. Just to complicate things, the number of cars doing either is
constantly changing as the train passes over the crest of the hill.
That's very tricky because the engineer must make sure he's pull-
ing all the cars all the time. Now suppose there's a curve in that
stretch of track. That means he also has to think about centrifu-
gal force affecting the part of the train that's going around the
curve. Veteran engineers will tell you that in many ways their job
is tougher and more demanding than that of an airline pilot. The
cockpit of a modern jet certainly looks complicated, but, says one
engineer I spoke to, “Those are all fancy gadgets to help the pilot
do his job. We don't have any of that stuff to help us.” And he's
quite right. In that sense there is indeed a greater burden placed
on the crew of a locomotive. If the train is running in fog or snow,
there is no radar to help the head-end crew. The engineer must
be so familiar with his route that he can “see” the track ahead in
his mind's eye.
There's another similarity between the locomotive engineer
and an airline pilot: Both are expected to operate their machines
in a manner that will minimize the use of fuel. The pilot does it by
adjusting the attitude of the aircraft in flight so it passes through
the air with the least possible resistance. The locomotive engineer
conserves fuel in much the same way the driver of a car does—
with a delicate touch, both with the throttle and the brakes.
Federal law permits an engineer to be on duty for no more
than 12 hours; for that reason one pair of engineers does not stay
with a long-distance train for the entire route. For instance, along
the westbound route of the California Zephyr, operating crews
change in Galesburg, Illinois; in Lincoln, Nebraska; in both Den-
ver and Grand Junction, Colorado; in Salt Lake City, Utah; and