You're basically correct in the reason for trains running
in more than one section, but the green flags or green lights
were displayed on the front of the engine were classification
lights ("class lights" or signals), not marker lights.
Marker lights were displayed at the end of the train. A
train without marker lights is not complete; in fact, under
the rules it is not a train.
The last section did not carry green signals. Green signals
meant one or more sections were following. Whistle signals were
prescribed to call the attention of trains being met or passed to
the green signals (following section) because the schedule was
not fulfilled until the last section passed. This whistle
signals was required to be acknowledged by a whistle signal
from the train being met or passed.
Multiple sections could also be used as a convenience
to provide a schedule for a business train, a troop train,
or other special movements.
White signals designated an extra train. Many railroads
ran all freight trains as extras.
Wes Leatherock
wleath@s...
On Mon, 4 Jun 2001, Stephen J. Levine wrote:
> The 1956 Denver Zephyr during the summers or winter holidays would have so
> much
> business that one train could not carry it all. So the train would be split in
> two and additional cars added to each of the two sections.
>
> Particularly in the winter, they would run two sections because the train was
> steam heated and there was a maximum number of cars you could reliably heat
> without the steam line freezing.
>
> During the winter holidays in 1966, I rode the Denver Zephyr to and from
> Chicago. As I rode, as I always did on the Zephyr, slumbercoach, I was in the
> rear section of the train. That section consisted of everything from the
> Observation car through the Chuckwagon. It also included a mail car and
> several
> baggage cars. If I recall, the section was 12 cars long and was pulled by 3 E
> units. It was weird looking through the front door of the chuckwagon and
> seeing
> the solid door of the mail car.
>
> Coming back, both sections shared a platform in Chicago, and, believe it or
> not,
> the diners were positioned right across from each other. That on the
> Chuckwagon-rearward section was the Silver Chef, and that on the coach section
> was the Silver Feast. Talk about appropriateness with the feast in front of
> the
> chef. Interestingly the Chuckwagon-rearward section operated as first number 1
> and the coaches as second #1. In Colorado, I noticed green marker lights on
> the
> Silver Veranda while riding in the Silver Cup Chuckwagon Dome. (Green marker
> lights indicate a section following.).
>
> sjl
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