Regarding section men, this is what they looked like in the early 1940's. This is my favorite picture in the whole world because the man in the center is my father, and I was raised in the house in the left background. They are, LtoR, Joe Klawetter, George Marquardt, and Otto Wagner, and the picture was taken on the Pere Marquette railroad at LaCrosse, In. / Ron Marquardt
PS, notice the neat little turntable they used to set their motor car on and off the tracks. Also, about those neckties, Joe Klawetter's brother Julius (my uncle by marriage) was a car inspector for the Pere Marquette, and every day of his lifelong career, summer and winter, he wore a leather bow tie to work. Things were just different back then.