I am a big fan of rules of thumb - anything that dumbs down complex systems into bite size phrases one can easily remember and apply.
Not sure if it is obvious to everyone but one thing I realized when I'm doing this project is that "When I am in Manhattan, facing uptown (north), the uptown train is always on my right". And I thought, you can just remember the word "UPRIGHT". I hope a gif like this will help too:
