by Cannon Ball
While rearward viz was never great in any carbody unit, the engr and the fireman (remember them?) both have outside rear-view mirrors. Look carefully at the photo above and you'll see the silhouette of the fireman hunched over at his side window looking down the inside of the curve ahead. The engr is probably eyeing his field side thru the mirror if not looking rearward with head turned, too. All in all, not ideal, but pretty good. And I'll bet they were not going lightning-fast, either (for a few different reasons), so they should've been able to stop if anything doubtful showed up ahead. If there was a condr aboard, he might have been at the back door with a backup hose which could be used to apply the air brake if needed, but I don't know whether they were standard issue back then. Backup hoses, that is, not conductors!