Live close to railroad tracks constantly see cars being pulled with one engine forward and one backward. The one that really stumped me yesterday, was a train that started with 5 engines in the following orientation: forward, backward, forward, forward, backward
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Almost all freight locomotives in North America are Diesel-Electric. Instead of powering the wheels from a transmission, like in a gas powered car, the diesel engines generate electricity to power electric motors that move the train. One huge advantage, electric motors can run forwards or backwards with the same power and efficiency.
Why do they point in different directions? Well….it’s hard to turn a locomotive around. That is a part of it, whatever way they were coming down the track, that’s how they get hooked up. Alternating arrangements mean that the operator can be forward facing regardless of direction of travel, and stacking extra locomotives in alternating pairs means that you can easily reconfigure them based on load and requirements without having to try to get them to a turntable to rotate.
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