Early railroaders dealt with inherent risks in nearly all the jobs. The switchman, who had the tricky job of fastening a train together with link-and-pin couplings, risked his fingers and his life. He pushed one end of the link, an iron loop like that of a huge chain, into a slot in the drawbar of a car and fastened it by shoving the pin, an iron spike, through the hole in the drawbar. The other end of the link was fastened in the same way to the car being coupled. The riskiest part came when a link was disengaged from one car. When the link dropped for whatever reason, the switchman stepped between the cars, lifted the hanging link and guided it into the other car.When the cars were moving the switchman ran between the cars, keeping his feet out from under rolling wheels and clear of switching points on the track. Often the drawbars of two cars being coupled were set at different heights, as were their heavy beam bumpers. The switchman used gooseneck links to compensate for the difference in height, but it was not uncommon for one bumper beam to slide over the other while the switchman was busy wrestling with the link and pin, crushing him to death — many a switchman met that fate.

The brakeman's life was no better. The very early railroads used hand brakes that were manipulated by iron wheels on the roofs of the cars.The brakemen, usually two to a train, rode on top. When the engineer whistled for brakes, one brakeman started from the front of the train and the other from the end of the train, they hurriedly worked toward the center, setting the brakes, jumping from one swaying car to the next. A Particular hazard to the brakeman was the weather. He rode on top through freezing rain the blizzards, jumping from one ice-coated slippery car to the next. If he survived the winters, he faced the summers when the blazing sun heated the rooftops to scorching levels. As more powerful locomotives and faster trains came on the lines, the brakeman's job grew more intend and dangerous.

By the time the Great Northern reached Montana, life for switchmen and brakemen was a little easier. Automatic couplers and the air brake had been invented in 1868 but it was not until 1893 that they became mandatory. However, many of the railroads were slow to order the newer equipment and make the conversion. Some railroads did not have the new couplers or airbrakes until as late as 1900.

Even with improved brakes, taking a train through the mountains was hazardous. One of the great fears was air leaks that could render the brakes useless on steep grades. Checking the air was a sacred routine, but not always foolproof.

In 1901 one of the Great Northern's worst accidents up to that time happened near Nyack. A twenty-eight car freight train headed east stopped at Essex for water and coal. The lead locomotive was uncoupled and went to the water tower leaving the helper engine in the rear to hold the train. The engineer of the helper engine set the air brakes and left the engine. The air leaked and the train began to slip backward, picking up speed on the steep hill. Before the crew could get to the runaway train, it was speeding down the hill at 75 to 100 miles per hour. As the runaway sped by the switch at Nyack, it struck a caboose and day coach on the siding, wrecking them and starting a fire when the oil lamps in the caboose ignited. A few hundred feet farther down the line it overtook a westbound passenger train, slamming full force into it and buckling the train into a disastrous wreck. The fire on the siding was fierce and flames were burning their way toward the wrecked trains. Ten cars of shingles were at the rear of the freight. When the freight hit the passenger train, shingles were thrown all over the wrecked passenger cars. The fire reached the wreck, igniting the shingles, and walls of flames engulfed the cars, the brush, and the telephone poles alongside the track. Men in the day coach in the rear of the train got the worst of it. They were from Duluth, going to work on the Jennings branch of the Great Northern. Thirty-four died and thirteen were injured. The rear sleeper could not be saved, although it had not left the track, but its occupants were hurried into forward cars and pulled ahead out of the reach of the fire.

-from Chapter 4, Hear That Train A-Comin'