by N340SG
I've been on trains where the lead car wouldn't operate properly so the engineer was operating the train from the third car and the conductor was in the lead car calling out the signals.Generally due to P-wire problem and/or weak battery set in head pair. On paper, a weak battery in the head pair (M/A also probably down, but not always) should not cripple the train, because there is battery trainline through the couplers. The rest of the train's batteries and/or rectifier outputs (with M/As running) should be able to power the weak pair. Reality is much different, however, as any Engineer or Conductor will tell you.
My department should take better care of batteries. They should be a life-limited part...refurbished on a regular basis.
