I'm not sure if the average person would pay enough attention to notice, but I thought it curious that, in places where RR's have 2 routes which are separated from each other and where they run one eastbound and the other westbound, the locals only see traffic going in one direction (i.e. UP RR has segments between St. Louis and Dallas that they run this way.) So if you live in a town on the SB route, far and away the majority of trains you see are going SB. (maybe an occaisional maint / derailment re-route goes north) but the trains are otherwise always going south. I wonder if it ever dawns on the locals that the trains go south, but never come back? Do they ever wonder where all the trains are piling up to the south of them.
I wonder if it creates any inherent grade crossing risks if people get used to the trains only going in one direction and only start looking for them in that direction... then surprise - re-route train going the other way.
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