We are not supposed to be stepped down at all, but trickery and subterfuge have been used once or twice. One guy on another sub was forced to step down as Conductor under threat of street time. (hello?) His LC got him both the Conductor pay and the Engineer pay for the trip. Oddly enough the poor fellow had never actually been a Conductor, he got out of brakeman training and went straight engine school, and then never got cut back. I was catching the train he brought in, and I was incredulous when he wandered in covered with sweat and coal dust from tying handbrakes.
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 For the sake of better fuel efficiency, Locomotive Engineers will now operate hand carts.
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