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Shawn: As long as the lead locomotive points forward, it doesn't matter which way they all point--the locomotive runs identically either way. The lead locomotive doesn't even have to point forward; it's just preferred. One night on KCS, I rode a steel train with a single backward-facing GE AC4400CW for 150 miles, before we were able to come up to a wye where we could turn the unit. Some railroads place a speed restriction onto trains whose lead locomotive faces backward, some don't. The people who dispatch and assign locomotives keep track of which whey they're pointing, so when they build consists they can provide a forward-pointing locomotive on the lead. If none are available, the usual turning method is a wye (turntables are rare). On a busy line, there's usually enough locomotives moving both ways each day to give sufficient numbers of forward- and backward-facing locomotives to choose from. On a line with one or two trains a day, the power dispatchers will attempt to build consists with one facing backward at the rear, so there's no need for turning the locomotives at the other end. But on one-locomotive jobs, it will almost always be facing backward for one-half of the run. Mark W. Hemphill Editor, Trains Magazine
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