how do train drivers line up the wagons for loading and unloading in a real setting? In simulator we have external cameras, so how does a driver see all the way to the back of his train?
Excellent question that has puzzled me as well -- thanks for taking the time to ask it and here's hoping that someone respectful will answer it.
In North American railroading, the conductor (or brakeman, I forget) often hangs on the last car and calls out distances- in car lengths, I believe- to the engineer through the radio. I don't know if they do that in Europe or anywhere else, though. EDIT: or just stands next to the car and does the same thing. I'm pretty sure it depends.
Thanks for that, I did think radio may be involved but I don’t know if there is a second man on British freight trains.
Secondmen, porters or foremen are used in the UK to assist in shunting. Major yards would have their own ground crew. In the days before handheld radios, they signalled the driver with flags.
In North America (on the UP) we use hand signals, radio communication, shove lights and cameras, and we can also get the train dispatcher to provide shoving protection, When I provide shoving protection via radio communication I give car count and direction of the movement to be made and what track. So for an example: conductor and my last name to the UP 9846 on what ever track we on shove east 50 cars. Over....engineer repeats that back to the conductor. Then I would give the engineer a new car count half way...we are good for a other 50 cars. If the conductor fails to give a new car count the engineer WILL stop the shove until communication is restored.
Shoving is when the lead unit is pushing or in this case "shoving" the railcars instead of pulling them in a forward movement. That's the terminology we use on the UP railroad. I'm pretty sure that, no in fact I know BNSF says "shove" as well. But that's what shoving means. Now, I don't know if that's something that European railroads say and how they classified they operations or if CSX or NS says shunting also, but I have the newest general code of operating rules or gcor for short (basically a rules guide to train operations) which is adopted by over 60 different railroads and if I remember correctly there are some British railroads that have adopted it also, but no where in that massive rules book it talks about shuning.