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right away


In the railway chain of command, the guard is in charge of the train and he waves a green flag to tell the driver that the "right of way" ahead is clear to GO. Drivers resent the power that the guard has, and so the guard exerts his authority by adding urgency to his command, resulting in the belief amongst guards that instead of giving the "right of way", they are actually telling the driver to GO "right away"! So ingrained is this morphing of the two similar-sounding commands that the term now appears in the Queensland Railways Guards' Handbook as "right away". This is probably unique in British railway tradition!: Start the train, right away!