On a hand fired Camelback locomotive, I suspect that the fireman was quite busy at the rear of the boiler. So who rode on "the fireman's side" of the cab?

On a freight train, usually the head end brakeman rode in the right hand side of a camelback cab. The fireman sometimes had a small fold-down seat on the right side of the tender.

While having to shovel coal, watch the water level and steam pressure, keep the fire clean; the fireman also had to watch his side of the train on curves, call signals to the engineer, ring the bell when required, etc. Besides that, he generally had TWO fire doors to work on a camelback loco, becuase of the oversized grate area needed to burn anthracite.

Ed Bommer