AtD translation: brakebeam stiff

[Jochen Stremmel]

*1 *a dead body.

*2 **chiefly North American *a boring, conventional person: *ordinary
working stiffs in respectable offices*.

*• *a fellow; an ordinary person: *the lucky stiff!*


That's my Webster entry.

If I hadn't found Leon Livingston's Testimonial – let me quote it again:
“People riding in coaches . . . cannot imagine how it feels to be rushing
through space 50 miles an hour over a loose sand ballasted track seated
upon a brake beam" – perhaps I would have given it a thought: brakebeam
stiff = working stiff at a brake. (And why should a stiff working a
brakebeam look helpless?)