without a dispatchers sheet to compare to it is hard to see the whole picture. Conductor reports which were made out for each train movement would also shed a lot of light were they still extant. #4 is definitely Eng.#4. Eng. #4 was the day helper out of Austin as well as night, so if you look at the section further down it appears that #4 was with #17 only to Larch. This would seem to be typical operation for a train once assembled at the small yard at Larch to continue with only one engine to Baker as it is all down grade. If you notice that the "Whitney Day Helper" Eng. #16 and "Austin Day Helper" #4 both appear to be helping Train 6 Whitney to Larch so this was likely a 3 engine train for this segment of the eastward movement. As #4 was apparently with #17 from Austin, this could have been a double head move with a rear helper being #16. Hard to say why any empty lumber flats were moving east, unless they were being used for other purposes such as hauling granite ballast to points west and were actually dropped off at Larch for reload. A photo of the loading of cars with granite at Larch shows them loading onto flat cars. The empty box cars moving east is not so unusual I think as EB Pengra mentions this in his testimony to Congress that box cars are usually loads west bound and empty east. They would be carrying all manner of LCL to the various depots/towns along the way, with very little handled in box cars coming back to Baker. Yes, when they say steel it is rail.