Which Way is Up?

[jnty]

Just a bit of trivia but the Borders Railway plans use the original Up and Down directions despite only going to Edinburgh. Maybe NR/the contractors are pretty confident the original direction to London will be useful one day?

It might actually be because the existing stub of the line through Brunstane and Newcraighall still uses that up/down convention, but don't let that dampen your hopes!

 

[Tomnick]

I believe it comes mainly from the southern region with the sailors going 'up to London' on the train. This made sense as London is up from the south , ie to the north. I believe that this spread to other regions which is why with lines north of London you still go up to the south.

I don't suppose anyone knows the definitive answer, but the best suggestion I've ever heard is that the convention originated from early timetables where trains in both directions would be shown on the same table - with the principal station listed at the top of the table, those heading away from there would go down the page, and those returning would go back up the page.

 

[Muzer]

I suspect this beeb asked before but here goes ...

Up is towards London but what is the principle for lines that neither start nor finish in London (e.g. Southampton to Salisbury)?

For that particular question, the original line from Southampton to Salisbury (actually from Eastleigh via Chandler's Ford) was built to give Salisbury a connection to London (with a reversal at Eastleigh - it was the first line to Salisbury, predating the one through Andover). So towards Eastleigh is up in this case. Up on the line between Redbridge and Eastleigh itself is obviously towards Eastleigh/London because it's the mainline. And up on the line between Romsey and Redbridge (which was originally part of the Andover and Redbridge Railway, colloquially known as the Sprat & Winkle Line, the section between Romsey and Andover having sadly fallen to the Beeching axe) is towards Southampton - I'm less certain of the reasons for this, I expect it's because Southampton is a more important place than Andover, or possibly to make it match with the line between Salisbury and Eastleigh. These lines together today compose the Salisbury 6, which I'm assuming is the line you were talking about.

 

[Starmill]

Where does Up become Down and vice versa on the Hadrians Wall line?

 

[34D]

Where does Up become Down and vice versa on the Hadrians Wall line?

King Edward Bridge jun - ie Carlisle to just outside Newcastle is 'up'

 

[Hellfire]

I don't suppose anyone knows the definitive answer, but the best suggestion I've ever heard is that the convention originated from early timetables where trains in both directions would be shown on the same table - with the principal station listed at the top of the table, those heading away from there would go down the page, and those returning would go back up the page.

Interestingly long distance Amtrack services use timetables with both directions on the same table. Mind you, they don't have that many trains to fit onto a particular route.