The foreman gave assignments to the engineers, mechanics, and shop crews from his office.
This office was built in 1926-1927 when the southern half of the Roundhouse was rebuilt to a larger size. The Foreman's Office occupied the first floor. The second floor contained the engineers' lockers and lavatory, which provided shower and changing facilities.
This 1945 photograph shows the Roundhouse Foreman's Office. It features a new system using 700 wooden blocks placed in a grid to track job assignments and locomotive schedules.
Each badge master, brakeman, conductor, engineer, fireman and flagman had a block with his name on it. Every freight, passenger or extra train had its own numbered block. Other blocks were marked with times for trains to depart and crews to report to work. The foreman, night crew dispatcher, and day crew dispatcher arranged the blocks to schedule locomotives and workers along the main line and in the rail yard.
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