Hand Signals....a lost art

This may fall more along the lines of train handling, but hand signals played a part in
two occurances that I witnessed on the C&TS.
The first occurred during 1979 or 1980, and I was riding eastbound. As I recall, there was only one train per day. The exciting climb to Cumbres was over, the lunch stop at Osier was over, and most everyone was settled in his seat as the train wound its way through the aspens near Sublette. I was in my favorite spot....the open gon. There was caboose charter that day, and its occupants were ignoring Rule "G" in a major way. Quite suddenly, one truck on the caboose left the rails. It didn't take long to get the whole show stopped, and although the caboose riders were tossed around a bit, they were none the worse for their bumpy ride. It was almost amusing.
The conductor came on the PA quickly, explained what had happened, and described the process that would be used to rerail the caboose. The hoghead whistled the motorcar crew back to assist, and it wasn't long before the rerailing frogs were in place. Since the the rear end could not be seen from the locomotive, the crew placed itself along side the train to relay the signs forward. On the FIRST attempt the caboose was eased back onto the rails with nary a jolt.
On another occasion, I watched at Sublette, while the crew pick up a cut of empty flats, which had been used to distribute ties. Once again the headend could not be seen around the curve east of Sublette, and signals were relayed to locomotive by the crew members. The joint was made with just a gentle bump, and we were soon on our way. BTW, the cut of empty flats provided for some great photographs of what appeared to be a freight train.
Remember on both occasions, the moves were made without radio, and they done with a long train. It was fascinating to watch real railroaders at work.