In my experience most crews at 'outlying' locations have a preferred direction for their engine to be facing. I notice the red & yellow SW15 had the cab on the North end and its 'replacement' from the shop has its cab on the South end. With a conventional crew, passing hand signals to the engineer was critical and to do that a line of sight was necessary. I guess with Remote crews that is no longer necessary as the Remote Operator is normally at the center of the 'action' and has the locomotive controls on his beltpak.
