Comparative assessment of the functional condition of employees of locomotive crews on railway transport of full and reduced composition, taking into account the specifics of the production load

Introduction. Employees of locomotive crews are one of the categorized professional groups, the stable performance of which largely depends on the state of working capacity, which determines the safety of movement and the efficiency of production activities of railway transport.The study aims to conduct a comparative assessment of the functional state and operability of locomotive crews of railway transport of full and reduced composition, taking into account the specifics of the production load.Materials and methods. The authors have conducted a comparative analysis of the results of comprehensive production studies to assess the functional condition of 70 freight train drivers in the operational locomotive depots of JSC Russian Railways when working in full complement (with an assistant) and reduced staff (without an assistant — "one person"). Physiological and hygienic methods were used: continuous timekeeping during various shift periods with recording of work operations and determination of the total number of work operations per shift and the proportion of complex (combined) work operations; physiological — continuous recording of heart rate in automatic mode throughout the entire work shift using heart rate variability indicators (variation range, mode, mode amplitude, number of cardio intervals, stress index of regulatory systems, stress index, index of vegetative equilibrium).Results. The results obtained indicate the presence of both general patterns in the dynamics of working capacity and specific differences due to the peculiarities of the production process.Limitations. The study was conducted with the participation of employees of locomotive crews who had no medical contraindications for their profession and were allowed to work based on the results of a pre-shift medical examination in accordance with orders from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport of Russia.Conclusion. The production load of the locomotive crews of the reduced composition is fundamentally different from that of the locomotive crews of the full composition. In conditions of reduced physical activity of machinists working without an assistant, the level of nervous and emotional tension increases, primarily due to the high workload of the analyzer systems, which is confirmed by an increase in the central circuit of regulation and an increase in sympathetic activity (HR, respectively: 83,0–89,3/78,8–83,0). Despite the absence of factors of tension in the labor process due to the possibility of intra-team conflicts and responsibility for the result of collective labor, the work of machinists without an assistant is intellectually stressful, as evidenced by a higher proportion of complex operations — an average of 61.2%. The dynamics of the working capacity of machinists and locomotive crews of reduced composition, in comparison with full-time machinists, is characterized by a longer period of service life, a shorter period of sustained working capacity and a faster development of fatigue. These features of the work load of machinists working without an assistant necessitate the development of sound working conditions using physiological and hygienic criteria and updating the system of medical and preventive traffic safety, primarily in the organization and conduct of regulated medical examinations and dynamic monitoring throughout their professional activities.Ethics. The study was conducted in accordance with the generally accepted scientific principles of the Helsinki Declaration of the World Medical Association (ed. 2013) and in accordance with the Program-methodology developed by FSUE VNIIZHG and coordinated with the structural unit of the employer, which is responsible for employees of locomotive crews. The employees of the locomotive crews were informed about the procedure for conducting production research in terms of a list of methods and principles of voluntariness and anonymity. Due to the absence of personal data in the research materials, informed voluntary consent of the staff is not required.Contributions:Wilk M.F. — the concept and design of the study, discussion of the results, conclusions;Tulushev V.N. — collection of material, analysis of results, writing of text, formulation of conclusions;Pankova V.B. — research concept and design, discussion of results, writing and editing of text, conclusions.Funding. The study had no funding.Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.Received: 27.11.2025 / Accepted: 25.12.2025 / Published: 15.02.2026