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Trainmen hats. The responsibilities of the trainman were many and diverse. On freight trains, for one thing, his duty was to assure that all the couplings between the cars were secure and intact. He would be sometimes pressed into service as a porter of sorts, handling any disturbances that arose on the train. During the Prohibition years, many men from rural communities would have to take a train to town to get their alcoholic 'prescription,' and would usually have it all drunk by the time they got back on. Such trips usually made life interesting for the trainman. (Railway Heritage Association, photo by Tom MacDonald)