Don't get to your work late, and don't allow your fireman to be late. If the fire is to be properly built he has got to take time to it. Fires thrown together in a hurry always turn out bad.
Duties of a Fireman.
As the model engineer must first have served as fireman, let us say a word on that score.
Before a fireman can serve on a passenger train, he should have served awhile as freight brakeman, or in the yard shifting cars. Before going on an express train, he must have run on slow trains as fireman. All this is necessary that he may acquire a knowledge of the petty details of his work.
A superintendent who puts a green hand at firing certainly exhibits a great want of good judgment, to say the least, and just this has often been the cause of serious accidents and loss of life.
Here are a few things that a man must know before he can become an engineer:
1. How to make up a proper fire in a locomotive fire-box.
2. How to handle the shovel when the engine is running.
3. How to learn roads and signals.