Florida581, although you provide an explanation at the top of this thread as to why you don't track/post the symbols for coal/grain/mtys/as needed, I think it's still helpful to our newer members to post those symbols anyway. Then those newer members can learn those symbols for their respective areas.
Granted, most coal symbols are regular running symbols attached to one destination and routing, and are thus reliable as well as their mtys. The same goes for some of the grain symbols.
Why don't we try posting symbols for these trains and thereby track a history of these symbols then we can review months down the road which of the symbols are unreliable.
I invite other members to chime in as well with their thoughts.
Y'all can post whatever you want, but I'll throw my two cents on the floor. While some of the coal & empty trains usually use the same sets of symbols as a load from mine to power plant & empties to return, NS all too often relies on the "dynamic train plan" to assign symbols for both grain & coal. It might as well be designated as a random number generator, or akin to picking a train symbol from a deck of cards.
One day you may have a 56Z grain train loading in Columbus OH going to Gainesville, GA. The next day 56Z is given to a loaded grain train off yoUPee from St Louis to Baldwin, GA, and on day three 56Z may be given to Mansfield, OH to Columbia, SC. I've seen this plenty of times in the NS computer when I'm trying to find out where some stupid off the wall symbol is going & I'm trying to figure out if it will come my way to go to work.
My point is, I don't think any of us can safely say 56Z is a ABC to XYZ train because it isn't & will not have a set route or origin destination & this may confuse some people when they see 56Z going through their town between DEF to TUV.
***56Z used as an example in this scenario, substitute almost any three digit letter number combination and the point remains the same.