03-14-2009, 03:15 AM
What I have seen commonly done since the caboose was eliminated from most trains is for the train to be made up in a local yard with the switcher in the middle of the train. Cars to be delivered to facing point spurs will be in front of the engine and those for trailing point spurs behind the engine. When the switch crew gets to a spur to drop cars, they just push them in if it is facing point or back in if it is trailing point. I'm not sure that was a legal way to travel even short distances 50 years ago. I also don't know how well using two switchers with one kept on a siding in an industrial park would work back in the days of steam considering how long it took to steam up a locomotive from cold and the fact that they probably would not leave a steam engine sitting out in a public location with steam up without having someone standing by the engine. I'm just not sure how they would handle something like that situation.