Just a thought.

Having been someone who likes trains and in particular steam trains, (I like other ones as well.) and having a couple of Lego steam trains as well as an N gauge layout in the past. I was wondering, in the olden days when the driver sat in the cab somewhere at the back of the train how did they see where they were going?

I remember when I was a kid you used to be able to pull down the windows in carriages and stick your head out but that was always jumped on by the conductors for I guess obvious reasons as trains pass quite close to each other.

Now I know that trains obviously do not need to steer but surely the driver still had to be able to see what was on the track up ahead of him? did they have some mirror arrangement or did he have to stick his head out and hope for the best? Are there any examples of drivers becoming victims of serious head injury if this is the case and subsequent accidents or have they all just been very lucky?

Just strikes me as a bit risky that is all. (Unless as i said they have some mirror or other get up to be abel to so it?)

Well, I'm not an expert here, but Wikipedia tells that steam locomotive drivers often suffered from rheumatism because they often had to lean out of their cabs for better visibility. Personnel is often allowed to do things that passengers aren't (and hopefully better aware of what's dangerous and what's not). :)

While trains pass eachother relatively close there is still room for a drivers head to stick out the window.

Like you said, you don't steer trains, you only control the speed. For that you need to be able to see the signals on the side of the track and they are visible from the little windows that look out along the boiler.

There have been some experimental designs of steam engines with the cab at the front (I remember seeing one done in Lego as well) but they weren't succesful.

Interesting to note that the cab-forward locomotives built by the Southern Pacific here in the states mainly had the cab at the front to reduce the risks to the crews from exhaust smoke in the long tunnels rather than the improvement of visibility. Other locomotive types with the cab at the rear usually forced the crews to wear gas masks. Unfortunately the crew was left more exposed in the event of an accident.