Passenger Trains > UP 4141 and 21 car train returns home.

Today I went with twjurgens to see the return of UP 4141 and the 21 car Business car train back to Nebraska. Here are the results of the day.
One and Two 4141 on the North side of Nebraska City
Three Feather River bringing up the rear

Three more

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Next stop was Mynard Ne. south of Plattsmouth

4. UP 4141 and train
5. UP4141 and UP 9096
6. Once again Feather River 21 cars later.
Steve

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Was wondering this on the day of ceremonies...What's the purpose of the green light on the rear of the last car?

The funeral train between Spring and College Station was much shorter - perhaps nine cars?

ColdRainAndSnow Wrote:
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> Was wondering this on the day of
> ceremonies...What's the purpose of the green light
> on the rear of the last car?

It's used when the train is in a siding and clear of the main track. Tells a following train that they are in the clear.

According to Dave Seidel is from an old rule that was related to the "dump light " on the front of Engines which lit when a train went into emergency. He thinks it would signal a train behind on an adjacent track that it was OK to proceed past. This is very simplified and welcome to additions or corrections

ColdRainAndSnow Wrote:
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> Was wondering this on the day of
> ceremonies...What's the purpose of the green light
> on the rear of the last car?

This was the two trains combined. The Funeral train of I believe 12 cars and a support train of 1 business car, 1 Diner, 1 power car and the rest were Sleepers.
Steve

boejoe Wrote:
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> The funeral train between Spring and College
> Station was much shorter - perhaps nine cars?

Excellent images, Steve. Thanks for sharing your extra efforts to photograph this train.  --Kelly

wpjones Wrote:
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> According to Dave Seidel is from an old rule that
> was related to the "dump light " on the front of
> Engines which lit when a train went into
> emergency. He thinks it would signal a train
> behind on an adjacent track that it was OK to
> proceed past. This is very simplified and welcome
> to additions or corrections.

Actually traces back to an old timetable & train order rule. When a train got in the clear to allow a superior train moving in the same direction to pass/overtake them, the markers would be turned to hide the red against the side of the caboose and let either a green (or, on some roads, yellow) light be displayed to the rear to show the approaching train they were indeed in the clear. This is why marker lanterns had green (or yellow) lenses on the sides.

As kerosene markers were phased out in favor of electric marker lights, UP mounted large green and red lights on the end walls of the cupolas that the Conductor could turn on or off as needed to comply with this rule. SP and some Rock Island bay-window cabooses had a similar setup with the two lights mounted atop a tripod on the car roof.

Passenger cars with built-in markers would usually have had red and green vanes to turn from inside the car (like classification lights on a locomotive). In the case of this office car, I'm not sure what UP was thinking at the time, but if that light package was to be used as a built in marker like the cabooses, it would have needed the green lens for use when required. 

In some rulebooks there were situations (usually in multiple-track territory) where a train might only turn ONE of their two markers to green/yellow, leaving the other red, but that didn't appear to apply on UP, so ain't nobody got time for THAT explanation....

Hope this was helpful,

NZ

Nice shots Steve!

Always nice to see that Union Pacific has a few locomotives that are a: recently painted and b: clean.