HOW IT ALL WORKS - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 192

the lights on your car. Depending on circumstances, most engi-
neers will dim or even turn off their headlights when meeting or
overtaking another train.
Train crews help each other out and will look carefully at a
passing train for any sign of a problem, such as smoke coming
from an axle under one of the cars or a shifting load on one of the
flatcars. If a freight train is waiting on a siding as your train goes
by, the engineer of the freight will usually radio your crew to say
something like, “Good run-by, Amtrak,” when you've passed.
The foreman of a track repair crew will do the same.
Split Trains
Some trains separate into two trains part way through their route.
For instance, the Empire Builder leaves Chicago as one consist
but divides into two trains two nights later in Spokane, Washing-
ton. The main section continues on to Seattle, while a new engine
hauls a sleeper and a couple of coaches off to the Southwest and
terminates in Portland, Oregon. Three days a week, the Sunset
Limited and the Texas Eagle depart from Los Angeles as one long
train, but they split apart in San Antonio where the Eagle heads
north to Chicago and the Sunset continues east to New Orleans.
In both of these examples, the whole process is reversed when
those trains make their return trips.
Passenger Manifest
A few hours before a train's departure time, Amtrak's computer
prints out a list of all passengers booked on that trip. The print-
out provides the conductor and car attendants with the names
of all passengers, the stations where they will be boarding, their
destinations, and, in the case of sleeping-car passengers, their
car numbers and room numbers. The manifest will also note if a
particular passenger is elderly, handicapped, or might need some
special service.