A long train has to clear a switch (controlled by dispatch) then reverse when switch is thrown. Does the dispatcher know when the end of the train has cleared the switch or does the engine have to stop at the switch to let the conductor out and then pull the train forward and the conductor tells engineer when it's clear? Or something else?
If its a remotely controlled switch, which would be a system called "CTC" or an "interlocking", the dispatcher would have a display board that would have a light for each of the routes into the switch and the switch itself. When a train was standing on any of the track segments, the lights or those segments would be on. As the train moves across the switch, the dispatcher can see the track segments occupy and then unoccupy.
However the train will have somebody drop off to tell the engineer when to stop. Also, when a train shoves back, generally there has to be someone on the leading end of the cut so somebody with have to "protect" the shove, by riding the rear car as the train shoves back
How are local trains named? ex. "Springfield Local"; Is Springfield the town it departs from, arrives at or a town it works? Something else?
In most case the official name of the train is a called a train symbol. It is either a number or an alphanumeric code for the train. For example on the old MP, the local trains between Houston and Galveston were No. 329 and No. 330. If its an alpha numeric code, it typically has a code for the train type (local), then something that indicates where the train operates and a number to identify it, like L329 or L330, LHG29 or LHG30.
Those are the official names that are used on consists and those type documents. The dispatcher will call the train by its schedule number, "No. 329" (if its a timetable schedule local) or by its engine number if its running as an extra, "Extra 2142 South". Generically locals will also be called by the town or route they serve, or where they are based out of. The L329 was also call the "Galveston Local", because it went to Galveston and back. In addition a local might have a nickname, such as the L329 which was called "Salty".
On the MP at Houston, the local to Galveston could have been called, No 329, L329, "the Galveston Local" or Salty, any of those names and the railroaders would know which train your were talking about, all the paperwork for train would have listed it as L329, and the dispatcher and all the train orders, etc. would have called it Extra 2142 South.
For your purposes a train can have an "official" name (No 329) and a nickname (Salty). The official name is on all the paperwork and the nickname is what the crews call it.
