Notes on "A Day at the Park Street Yard Office

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Reading through Mason Cooper's article about "A Day at the Park Street 
Yard Office", I would like to pass on the following;

Page 8 refers to a "decidedly overpowered" Glasgow Turn with MoW cars in 
tow.
There obviously was not a unit train of empty hoppers to be returned to 
the C&O at Glasgow this day (It would hard to say where the MoW cars 
were to be set off on line). All of that power would be needed to move a 
train of about 100 loads of coal off of the passing siding at Glasgow to 
Roanoke.

A caption on page 9 refers to train #40.
I have been at a loss as to why Mason refers to shifters on the Roanoke 
District as having numbers? Those of us that worked there never knew 
these trains to have any number at all. They were always known by their 
names.
Appo Turn - Worked between Roanoke and "Appo" (A control point signal 
near MP H184 a mile north of the station at Buena Vista.) The grade 
north out of town was known as Appo Hill.
Buch Shifter - Worked between Roanoke and Buchanan serving the limestone 
quarries between MP H213 & H212.
1st & 2nd TV shifters - Working between Roanoke and Lone Star Cement Co. 
at the end of the Cloverdale Branch.
Only later on in life, after the train clearances started coming over 
the printer, did these shifters get assignment numbers (V80 for the 
Buchanan job and V81 for the cement job). By then the Appo Turn had been 
abolished.

A mention was made to "1040" crew.
The yard crews working the hump bowl was known as the "40" crews. The 
correct pronunciation for these crews would be Eight-Forty, Nine-Forty 
and Ten-Forty.

Top caption on page 13 says the train is making its way to the empty 
side yard. Being that the cars in the train are freight rather than 
empty coal hoppers and there are only two small units, the train is more 
likely to be making its way toward the westbound running track to the 
hump and then out the receiving or as everyone knows it, the "Big Hopper 
Yard". The "Empty Side Yard", being that most of them were the longest 
tracks in the north yard, was mostly reserved for long empty hopper 
trains. Long auto rack and unit coal trains could also be found there too.

Jimmy Lisle