Dan, I always enjoy your posts very much! You give us lots of fascinating information, and you do it in such a delightful way of "wordsmithing," if I may use the term.
This is the first I've ever heard, though, of a pilot in the engine cab. On riverboats, Mark Twain has explained his role wonderfully. But if I may plead my ignorance, what is his duty in the cab? Is it a similar function in knowing every nuance of the roadbed ahead and how best to negotiate it, so the engineer can concentrate on the actual locomotive and all of its personality?