Re: Quiz for 3rd div Fans

Markers always had to be on the train so that any observer like an operator or passing train crew knows for sure that they observed the end of the train. Seeing an end of train with no marker(s) indicates part of the train has not arrived, either by design or accident.

A thought on the yellow flag waving from the cupola. It seems unlikely that it is a movement signal given the distance to the locomotive. Could it be a signal to the enginemen that the caboose is on the move? Conductors on freight trains I have ridden when I was an engine messenger with our #89 typically called the engineer on the radio when the caboose started to move. This did two things. It told the engineer the slack was out and it told him he had the entire train, as a precaution against a closed angle cock and open knuckle somehow occurring somewhere in the train at the same location.