When you say right & left which way are we looking - in or out?
I'll admit I was mostly joking with my comment about right-left although generally in a hobby environment it's not life or death like it can be on the real railroads.
And yes, the problem with right and left is you don't absolutely know what perspective the communication is coming from...so for example that's where you get the terms "stage left", "stage right", etc. I generally would think about my vehicle as: left is drivers side (in the U.S.) as I am facing forwad sitting in my car. Same with a locomotive. But what about your home? Is the left side of your home based on you sitting on your couch looking out your front window? Probably not...most would think of the perspective of standing in the front yard looking at your house.
So, somebody tells the maintenance guy to change the "right ditchlight" and he changes it based on looking at the front of the locomotive, then said locomotive crashes into an automobile and kills somebody, then you can understand why they would still use those terms. (not suggesting a ditchlight is the cause, btw...just that "faulty, ill-maintained locomotive" would be a reason for a frivolous lawsuit, etc.) There's probably a better railroad example to use, but that's all that I could come up with.
Am I right or am I right?
(I'm here all week folks, tip your waitresses)
