Just remembered that part of the reasoning was that there would have been a huge delay to the on-time #5 waiting for the late one to unload all its passengers and baggage at the single-platformed Reno station, then back out of the way.

I also remember that both trains were near sold-out and what a clusterf__k the crew and station agents had trying to get the new passengers waiting for both #5s onto either the buses or the on time train, depending on what day they were originally supposed to travel.