I recall reading stories, I think in Trains maybe 20 years ago, of little tests such as setting a full glass of water on the table in the dining car and watching to see if any water spilled while starting/stopping.

Can anyone recall such an article and point me to the issue? I have the Trains archive collection, but some search attempts retrieved hundreds of unrelated pages.

Although I can neither recall any specific article on the topic, nor was steam power in service during my career, I clearly remember many accounts of the infamous "Slopper", a brimming vessel with an underlying "saucer" whose contents could be objectively measured.

Most of these stories came from the territory of the Pennsylvania Railroad. By its non-technical nature, the "test" could be conducted by any manager. The slopper test was usually performed aboard a business car and the "guest of honor" would typically be the Track Supervisor who rode the territory in his charge.

In those days (1960s), the industry (Eastern roads in particular), with increasing desperation, was experimenting with every permutation of "deferred maintenance". No expertise in Civil Engineering was necessary to discern the fact that ride quality was lousy - and worsening.

It's entirely possible that "Sloppers" were used in earlier times to critique an engineer's train handling skills, but by the 1960s and 70s it was all about the track.

I was riding a Frisco passenger train to Newburg and my Dad was up front as engineer. The Road Foreman wanted to run for a while, so Dad got up. When we got to Rolla,MO to stop, he overshot the stop by about 4 car lengths and had to back up.
This was in E8 days and my Dad being shy and withdrawn like me probably never mentioned it to him after that.

Had a Santa Fe conductor pull that one on me a few years back..he was mean, stickler for the rules, polished boots..the whole thing. I managed to get a smile out of him when we were putting the train away for the day when we went by the lounge car he gave me a stern look and a thumbs up. After that, he was my regular conductor whenever I ran...

Why you still power when braking on a passenger train, keep the train taught, slack means bumpy starting. Someone in the parlor car with a full hot coffee and a bumpy start... EYOWW!!

its also why tightlock couplers