Yeah west side helped, but I prefered the pre west side days where one always turned in the station. WSY, or "Wally World" as many of us called it could be a pain in the butt.
When building the yard, the RR did not put in a path to the yard adjacent to the tracks, so sometimes crews are forced to walk on the street from Penn Station to the Yard.
Not such a big deal I guess, but it was a pain sometimes, dealing with people on the street.
Especially on cold or rainy days.
One unfortunate Conductor was even hit by a car and killed on his way to the Yard.
In the pre wsy days, many crews would arrive in Penn Station, then have to Change ends and make equipment trains to eastern Electric terminals, that was the only way to lay up trains for the day.
There were a lot of Equipment trains to Long Beach and Port Wash, just to get the equipment out of the way in Penn.
Then another crew would report to the eastern teminal and bring the equipment back to Penn for the evening rush.
I dont think we lost many crews as a result, because around the same time wsy opened, electrification to KO was complete, and that added service, so it balanced out.
Marty, It runs on steam!