context: Firemen were in practice often engineers-in-training, learning the skills of train operation and assisting the engineer with the observation of signals and other routine aspects of his job performance, waiting for a job opportunity for promotion.
source: It was the conductor, not the locomotive engineer, who was most comparable to the captain of a ship.
reference_original: Es war der Zugführer und nicht der Lokomotiv-Ingenieur, den man am ehesten mit dem Kapitän eines Schiffes vergleichen kann.
reference_flipped: Es war der Zugführer und nicht die Lokomotiv-Ingenieurin, den man am ehesten mit dem Kapitän eines Schiffes vergleichen kann.