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While running from the round-house to the train, is a good time to carefully watch the working of the various parts of the engine. Should any defects exist, they are better to be detected now than after the engine is out with a train. The brakes can be tested conveniently at this time, and the working of the water-pumps tried. All these matters are regularly attended to by the successful engineer: they are habitually neglected by the unlucky man, and misfortune never loses sight of him.

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By far the greater proportion of American locomotive engineers are employed on freight service. On most roads, the freight engines constitute from seventy-five to ninety per cent of the whole locomotive equipment. On this kind of service, locomotive engineers learn their business by years of hard practice in getting trains over the road as nearly as possible on time. On the best of roads, there is much hardship to be undergone, working ahead through every discouragement of bad weather or hard-steaming engines. The man who brings the most energy, good sense, and perseverance to his aid, will come out most successfully above these difficulties.