Moffett said his job also relied upon the cooperation of other departments that included the Washington Terminal's engine and train crews, the car department and the communication and the signal department, which maintains all of the terminal's switches and signals.
"They make it all work," he said. "They keep the show going."
He was joined in K Tower the last night of his career by his regular three-man crew that included Mike Gossman, Dean Denno and Gavin Clark, also veteran train directors.
They were joined by Mike Queen, a longtime fellow railroader who had come in on his day off to record Moffett's last day with his camera.
During their shift, they routinely handled 100 trains, with the real crush coming between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., when departing commuter and Amtrak trains rolled in and out of the terminal.
The K Tower crew's dominion included the 30 sprawling tracks that serve Union Station, as well as the Ivy City maintenance facility, where locomotives and trains are serviced and cleaned.
"My job was to get all the passenger trains in and out of Washington on time with the help of all departments. I always considered the operation here to be a team effort, and I prided myself on running a tight ship," Moffett said.
"We were cool, calm and collected, and the work was pretty cut and dried. We were able to react instantly to whatever happened," he said.
Voices were never raised, and decisions went unchallenged. This was not a place for an Oxford Union debate over where to put or when to start a train.
It was a seamless performance, much like a stage manager watching over his actors.
Moffett and his crew sent MARC trains scurrying on their way to Baltimore via the Camden or Penn Line, with the latter going to Perryville. Other MARC trains traveled over what was once the B & O's West End, to Brunswick and Martinsburg, W.Va.
Virginia Railway Express commuter trains were sent to Fredericksburg and Manassas, while sleek, high-speed Acelas bound for New York and Boston, as well as Amtrak regionals, got their start and finish under Moffett's constant gaze.
Moffett also monitored four radio channels while giving instructions via a microphone to crews aboard moving trains.
On this day, the last day before beginning his retirement, he stepped over to the window for a moment and looked down while giving a farewell wave to the engine crew of outbound No. 29, better known as the Capitol Limited, that was beginning its long overnight journey to Chicago.
