 CHAR: When the gang separates the train and backs it up to separate  it from the train, the young conductor says in amazement, "I didnt  know these things went backwards." Cute, but this is a very unlikely  line from an apprentice conductor "studying to take the motormans  exam." Besides the usual running back and forth while making up  trains in the yards, every subway car runs in both directions,  because they usually do not turn the train around at the end of the  line. Instead, the operator stops at the last station, walks from  the former front to the former back, switches controls to the new  "front end" and goes back the way he came. So all subway cars spend  half of their life "going backwards," as any conductor would know.