Up or Down?

[erniep48]

Hello all-
Could someone please explain the use of up and down in relation to track names or train movements? I confess I'm at a loss on this one . I seem to remember someone saying at one time it was to do with to or from London, but I'm probably wrong there. Thanks for your help.

cheers,
Ernie

[Riche]

Up=Line heading north/Line heading East
Down=Line heading South/Line heading West

[asalmon]

No no no!!

Up is heading towards London - for much of the coutry this is going south!

Down is heading away from London.

Alan

[montylowe2]

Hi all

Yep thats right.

Regards
Richard Lowe

[Lad491]

Alan is right - towards London is always up. Away is always down.

[Hymek]

thats why im always getting confused at the SVR

Because kidderminster is in the UP direction and Bridgenorth is in the down direction, now i understand why, lol

[terryhfs]

So what if you had an East / West route in the Midlands that has its centre directly above London ? Neither direction would take you nearer London, unless up became down in the middle.

Sorry, being pedantic !

Terry...

[suffolk]

Well here's a conundrum, in the old days of "The Bury Fenman" the service would leave Liverpool St as a DOWN Bury St Edmunds via Ipswich service, when it got to Ipswich it then became an UP service to London via Bury and Cambridge, (somebody will correct me if I'm wrong but I think the Up becomes Down on the Ipswich - Cambridge line at Hauleigh Jn.)

[saddletank]

So what if you had an East / West route in the Midlands that has its centre directly above London ? Neither direction would take you nearer London, unless up became down in the middle.

Sorry, being pedantic !

Terry...

It would depend on historical circumstances. If a cross country route had originally been built by an independent small company then Up would be towards the station where that company had its head offices.

Or Up would be towards a most convenient/frequently used connecting line to London.

The M&SWJ had it's HQ at Swindon Town which when it was first opened was at one end of teh route but after a few years it became the centre of the route, so originally trains ran Up to the middle of the line from both ends! It was quickly decided that Up should be all the way to Cheltenham.

Other independent companies absorbed by larger ones might find their Up trains became Down ones after the takeover. The GWR was fond of doing this, all Up trains ran to Paddington, or in the general direction of Paddington if a connecting service was required to actually get to the capital.

Didn't we have this very discussion about a year ago? Someone please find the thread!

[qzdcg8]

Hurrah - I'm glad someone finally explained this one!

[erniep48]

Thank you everyone, for your input. Perhaps we should put an end to this before we are all tearing our hair out. I didn't realise it was so involved, but I think I've got it fairly straight.

cheers,
Ernie

[jimbob]

Well here's a conundrum, in the old days of "The Bury Fenman" the service would leave Liverpool St as a DOWN Bury St Edmunds via Ipswich service, when it got to Ipswich it then became an UP service to London via Bury and Cambridge, (somebody will correct me if I'm wrong but I think the Up becomes Down on the Ipswich - Cambridge line at Hauleigh Jn.)

Yes its at Haughley Jn, but it then changes at Chippenham Jn, to down again if you go towards Ely!

[duncharris]

On The MS&LR/GCR's London Extension up was towards London (i.e. south), down was away, but that is/was the exception to the rule. On most of the lines e.g. MML, WCML, ECML up is northwards as it is upwards on a map.

[IWCRLY]

The "up" and "down" directions are normally historic with up towards London, this can result in some odd circumstances, eg: Exeter St Davids, this was (is) a GWR station used by both the GWR and SR, each company ran main line trains to London, both "up" trains, the GWR train ran on the "up" lines, the SR train ran in the opposite direction on the "down" lines. This also occured at Plymouth and no doubt elsewhere with other companies.

Pete.

[jimbob]

On The MS&LR/GCR's London Extension up was towards London (i.e. south), down was away, but that is/was the exception to the rule. On most of the lines e.g. MML, WCML, ECML up is northwards as it is upwards on a map.

The GE main line is up towards london, down away, I belive your info maybe a little dodgy as I am sure this applys to all routes, I don't think that this is an exception!?