Talk:Brakeman

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Corrections[edit]

"Individually operated car brakes were replaced with automatic air brakes" Not Correct the writer should have said something like "remotely controlled brakes". Air brakes are designed to fail-safe automatically but to be operated manually in normal use (usually from the loco but controls are often provided at other points on the train) . 77.97.161.230 14:48, 24 August 2007 (UTC)mikeL ,who will be accused if nit-picking[reply]

ps. maybe they were not 'replaced with' but were 'replaced by'

pps. the article Vacuum brake has a much better treatment of the topic so this article is really redundant —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.97.161.230 (talk) 14:48, August 24, 2007 (UTC)

Vacuum brake is about one type of brake equipment, this article is about the job of brakeman. Your last comment makes it sound like this article should be removed, and I disagree with that. However, as to the points of automatic versus remotely controlled, and replaced with versus replaced by, this is a case of WP:BOLD; as I understand the braking systems work in the way you describe, so make the correction ({{sofixit}}). Slambo (Speak) 15:35, 24 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Origin of the term[edit]

The term "brakeman" was in use way before the alleged claim, not supported by the former Merriam-Webster reference, that it's first use was in 1833. In fact, "brakeman" appears to have originally been applied to someone who controlled the operation of steam engines even before they were used on the railway. For example, railway pioneer George Stephenson was

given an even more important job in 1801 when he was appointed brakeman at the Dolly Pit [and] was in charge of a whim engine... used to raise and lower men and material in the shaft. The brakeman had to rely on indicators above ground to give the position of the cage in the shaft, and it was down to his skill to ensure that everything went smoothly and that the cage stopped exactly where it should.
— Burton, Anthony (2023). Ten Engineers Who Made Britain Great: The Men Behind the Industrial Revolution. Cheltenham: History Press.

I've removed the offending sentence, but a section on the history of the term, which appears to be relevant to railway history in any case, would be useful at some point. Bermicourt (talk) 10:31, 8 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]