This reminds me of what I saw in the late 70's while driving truck near Elizabeth NJ. There was a long line of the old style , as in open top, auto transport cars. As far as I could see every auto on the top level had it's roof torn off. It was a time in railroading where the 3 level rail cars were not yet in wide use like they are now and there were a lot of low clearance bridges on main limes. I would assume that in both these cases a dispatcher is most likely on an unscheduled vacation, if not out of work altogether.