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[quote user="wjstix"][quote user="Bucyrus"] The word, highball was used a lot by anyone in the cab to acknowledge a signal by the conductor when he was on the caboose on the hind end.[/quote]True, the conductor's signal telling the engineer to proceed was often called a 'highball' signal. But I don't think the engineer would say "highball" when he got it, although if the train were on a curve so the engineer couldn't see the conductor, it's possible the fireman might say "highball!" to the engineer in relaying the signal to him. Otherwise highball mean a clear signal ahead, coming from pre-semaphore ball signals...the ball raised all the way up to the top of the mast meant the track was clear ahead..."high ball" was similar to the later "green board" I mentioned earlier.[/quote]An engineer might get a highball from someone in the caboose (in the caboose era), from someone on the ground, or from someone else in the cab who is relaying it from the originator elsewhere.  Assuming there was somebody else in the cab, the engineer would acknowledge the signal by repeating the word, highball, no matter from whom he received the signal.  It was just a matter of calling signals where whomever gets a signal repeats it, and then everybody in the cab that hears it repeats it in acknowledgement.
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