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The elimination of full-crew laws (5 man crews) in the 1960s was the first major blow to railroading, it was all downhill after that.
>I worked as a freight trainman for the D&H out of Binghamton, N.Y., for a few months in 1970, and though I don't believe the full crew law was then still in effect, a small percentage of the road freight jobs carried a third brakeman, the "Middle Man."
>Our normal crews were five men: engineer, fireman and head brakeman up front; conductor and flagman back in the caboose.
>On those few occasions I worked a train with a middle man, the middle man rode the second or third unit, and was expected to do nothing at all. One middle man spent the trip between Binghamton and Mechanicville polishing off a full case of beer, all by himself, a beer can flying out the cab unit every few minutes. Things were different back in those pre-Ricky Gates days, I can assure you.
