A 5-man crew was pretty standard in the steam days.
- The Engineer, Fireman and Head Brakeman would ride the engine.
- The Conductor and the Rear Brakeman (sometimes called the Flagman) would ride the caboose.
The term "Flagman" came from his duties if the train made an unscheduled stop. He was the guy that had to go back a mile or two and "flag" oncoming trains to prevent a rear-end collision.
When they stopped the engineer would "whistle out the flag" which was a whistle signal for the flagman to start walking. When they were ready to go, he would "whistle in the flag" which was a whistle signal that told the Flagman to head for the caboose. The engineer would give him a certain number of minutes to get to the caboose before he would whistle off (2 shorts) and start moving again. All with no radios or cell phones.
