Dave I like your last item. I have ridden with a lot of different crews and it quickly becomes obvious when a fireman is a good one who knows what he is doing.
The one thing that always impressed me when a fireman was a good one is that he knew the road
and his engineer well enough that he anticipated
the engineer's actions. For instance, by the time the engineer reached the spot where he was ready to start closing the throttle, the fireman already had the blower on and had cut back on his firing. It is a pleasure to watch a good engineer and his fireman work together, it is also important, safety wise.
I was with one crew where neither one impressed me with his ability. Especially when the fireman had been working his stoker wide open trying to get his steam back up and had a real smoky fire
and the engineer closed the throttle before the fireman could get his blower on and cut back on the stoker.
We had a fire box explosion that sent flames back against the coal gates and blew cinders and soot
out the stack until it looked like a black snow storm. No body hurt but only because no one happened to be directly behind the fire doors.