I've found, that when I call up a train on a track phone, e.g., sp24, that I cannot give him his prepared orders, as I can on signal phones. Is this intentional? It does not make sense.

normally you can only do that on signal phones. (those are recorded on tape...) the track phones were not recorded.

but I might look into that actually if I can make it possible on both. But in cases you can't get him: let the yard master do it... he can run out of his office and help you out!

Yeah, I have to use him in those cases, as it's the only option left. I just wanted to be able to do it over the track phones, as it is faster.

What do you mean, the signal phones are recorded on tape?

in real life the system had a possibility to record telephone calls on tape. But only for the signal telephones, not for all the other telephones. so for safety critical communications, the signal telephone was preferred.