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The Hump Master: 1942
December 1942. "Chicago, Illinois. Hump master in a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard operating a signal switch system which extends the length of the hump track. He is thus able to control movements of locomotives pushing the train over the hump from his post at the hump office." Acetate negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Dang kids
The chalked words "Conductor Only" suggests that someone in the past was playing around with the controls who shouldn't have.
What he *actually* does
The hump master does not control the retarders -- they are controlled from a tower where the speed of the cars can be observed; or, in more sophisticated systems, by radar equipment to measure the speed of the cars and automatically make adjustments.
This person controls the speed of the switching engine pushing the cars over the "hump." It would be hard for a retarder to "back" cars!
What does a Hump Master Do?
Jokes aside, our hump conductor controls the speed of cars that are rolling down the hump using the device in his right hand. The control is connected to a retarder - a device that squeezes the sides of a car's wheels to slow it down. His clipboard shows whether each car is a load or an empty. His experience takes into consideration the weight of each car, the weather (cold temperatures make journal bearings stiffer and winds can propel cars faster and farther) and the distance the car has to travel in its destination track. Perhaps he is in one of the towers shown in this earlier photograph.
https://www.shorpy.com/node/27310
Alas, today computers and radar perform the same function.
If I had that job ...
I would definitely get cards printed.
I bet
Wednesday was his favorite day of the week..
The Way We Weren't
I had aspirations to become a hump master, but, alas ...
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