Why Some Train Engines Ride Backwards

You're stopped at a crossing. The gates are down, the bell is going, and the head end rolls past, one engine, two engines, three. And the second one is facing backwards. Nose pointed at the engine behind it, cab looking back down the train. Nobody reacts. The train doesn't slow. It rides through the crossing like that because that is exactly how it left the yard. It wasn't left the wrong way round by a crew in a hurry. Nobody forgot to turn it. This is a railway choosing between an engine that looks wrong and a train that leaves late, and it picks the same way every time. This is the story of the wye, the turntable, the reverser lever, and one letter of paint that turns out to be the only front a locomotive has. Rail Mechanics. How it really works.