Normal for perhaps later in history... but maybe common for late 30's. Somewhere I remember a bit of San Juan history involving Railway Express items. If memory serves, at some point in the late 30's or early 40's, the railroad was doing a lot of express business often requiring more than 1 car. The trainmen's union sued, claiming their members were doing double duty handling express, and the union won. Express was strongly discouraged after that.
Anyone else remember any details of that??? Can't remember if it was some of Bob Richardson's writings, or somewhere else.
In regards to the K28, it does not look like there are any snow issues. And at that point, there were 10 of those girls still on the roster.