I refer to car sides as this side and that side.
Viking longboats didn't have a rudder, they had a board (kinda like an oar) mounted on the right side of the ship to steer with. When they came into a port to dock, that meant they had to tie up the ship so the pier or dock would be to the left of the ship. So the port was on the left side, the steerboard on the right.
If the Navy didn't identify their railway guns as port and starboard, I'll be a monkeys uncle https://www.navalhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/ammunition-car-L-and-gun-car-R-sm.jpg
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Imagine you are a brakeman turning the brakewheel on a boxcar. The side of the car to your left would be the left side of the car, the side to your right would be the right side. See Jeff Wilson's "Freight Cars of the '40's and '50's", page 24.
Some railroads had slogans on the car that differed from left to right, so like on a Santa Fe boxcar the map would always be on one side and the slogan for the Super Chief or El Capitan etc. would always be on the other side...so like the map would always be on the left side and the slogan on the right (or vice versa, not sure which side they used, but I'm pretty sure it was always the same.) CB&Q did it the same way with their slogans I believe.
dbduck maxman I believe that if you face the end of the car with the brake wheel, the left side of the car is on the left and the right side is on the right that would make sense if the A end is considered the front of the car
maxman I believe that if you face the end of the car with the brake wheel, the left side of the car is on the left and the right side is on the right
I believe that if you face the end of the car with the brake wheel, the left side of the car is on the left and the right side is on the right
that would make sense if the A end is considered the front of the car
There's no "front" or "rear" to a freight car. Freight cars don't have direction.
It's just "A" and "B" end. ("B" end usually being the hand brake end, but some larger heavy-duty cars with multiple trucks have brakes at both ends - in this case the car will be stencilled to identify one end as "A" and one end as "B".)
Left or right is based on looking at the "B" end.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
To determine which side of the car is left or right, the car is to be viewed from the B-end (brake wheel end), so the side to the left is the left and may be lettered as such, and the side to the right is the right side.Click on the photo below to enlarge it, and you'll see the "L" on the solid door, positioned just ahead of the small S.A.L. lettering....
...and the car's brake wheel is visible to the right.
Wayne
It is left or right, based on the position of the brake wheel, but I cannot remember which is which.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I think it might be left and right sides, but I'm not sure which is which.
I believe that if you face the end of the car with the brake wheel, the left side of the car is on the left and the right side is on the right.
But I might have them reversed. I'm sure I'll be corrected one way or the other.
How are the sides of train cars identified. I realize it's probably not left side right side, so possibly AB, BA as you look at it from side?