Does the East Coast Mainline sit entirely west of the prime meridian?

[OLJR]

I was pondering last night ... does the East Coast Mainline ever cross east of the prime meridian and enter the eastern hemisphere? I don't think it does, but am thinking that it just might somewhere between King's Cross and Peterborough.

This question is just to satisfy my own curiosity, so if anyone knows I would be grateful.

 

[jopsuk]

the West Anglia line (Liverpool Street to Cambridge) wiggles back and forth across 0° longitude. The ECML doesn't even get close, not even on the Hertford loop.

At least the ECML does, eventually, run close to the East Coast for a while. The West Coast main line gets close to the sea around Lancaster then decides it's allergic to saltwater.

 

[musicman]

It begs the question - where can I find a map that shows the rail route?
I have a road map which provides an intermittent clue as to the railway, and I have seen a soley rail map with terminus names etc. But it would be great if there was a clear map that combined the two, without resorting to the Ordnance Survey

 

[jopsuk]

I'm struggling to think of an online map that shows railways clearly and has lines of latitude and longitude marked. Open Street Map has a very good "Transport" layer that shows the railways

 

[Bill EWS]

You could try following it on Google Earth!

 

[eastwestdivide]

I'm struggling to think of an online map that shows railways clearly and has lines of latitude and longitude marked. Open Street Map has a very good "Transport" layer that shows the railways

Maybe Bing maps, and click Ordnance Survey on the drop-down on the left that normally starts with "Road". Shows all railways and roads.
It doesn't have lines of lat/long, but you can just right-click to get lat and long in a pop-up.
The OS National Grid isn't perfectly aligned with due N/S, as you're on grid line 39ish around Greenwich at 0°, but grid line 36ish by the time you're near Peterborough at 0°.

 

[PaulLothian]

This (http://www.mytrainticket.co.uk/project/uploaded-media/great-britain-national-rail-railmap24.pdf) is quite good, although not answering all the requests for info above.

 

[snowball]

The most easterly point on the ECML seems to be near Harringay station, close to where the ECML goes over the GOBLIN and about three miles north of King's Cross. At that point it's about four miles west of the meridian.

Another easterly point is just north of Huntingdon, about 8 miles west of the meridian.

By Peterborough it's 10 miles west.

Once north of Peterborough it goes overwhelmingly more west than east. Edinburgh is west of Carlisle and Liverpool.

Edit: The Hertford loop is also entirely west. Going from King's Cross to Cambridge you don't enter the eastern hemisphere until after Royston. Much of the Liverpool St - Cambridge route is also in the western hemisphere.

 

[Bedpan]

The OS National Grid isn't perfectly aligned with due N/S, as you're on grid line 39ish around Greenwich at 0°, but grid line 36ish by the time you're near Peterborough at 0°.

Could this possibly be due to the difference between Magnetic North and True North?

 

[snowball]

Could this possibly be due to the difference between Magnetic North and True North?

No, it's due to the map projection used (transverse Mercator). This is a good projection for a country with a large north-south extent but limited east-west extent.

The "central meridian" of the projection is the line of longitude 2 degrees west of Greenwich. That's the only grid line that coincides with a line of longitude or latitude. If you're there, grid north and true north coincide. If you're west of that, true north is east of grid north. If you're east of that, it's the other way round.

The map key has a diagram with three north arrows: true, grid and magnetic.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Could this possibly be due to the difference between Magnetic North and True North?

Not to do with magnetic north, but all about projections of a spherical object (the Earth) onto a flat surface.

The OS paper maps show three norths: grid north, true north and magnetic north (the latter is dated, as it wavers around with time, and can easily be different on different editions of the same map).

More detail than anyone would reasonably need on these links:

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/resources/maps-and-geographic-resources/the-national-grid.html
http://www.threelittlemaids.co.uk/magdec/explain.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transverse_Mercator_projection

 

[snowball]

One context where the difference matters is if you're trying to answer the question "Where is the most westerly point of the British mainland?" The true answer is in the Ardnamurchan area, but if you try to judge it by grid references you'll think it's Lands End.

 

[Ediswan]

Open Street Map has a very good "Transport" layer that shows the railways

As your link shows, those OSM URLs include the lat/lon of the centre of the map shown.

 

[D869]

And does the northern end of the East Coast Main Line sit west of the original western terminus of the Great Western Railway?

Yes.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

It is at times like this on threads when I am reminded of the typical American lack of geographical understanding that saw the title of the film..."Krakatoa, east of Java", when any schoolboy worth his salt knew that the volcanic island was situated west of Java.

 

[jopsuk]

As your link shows, those OSM URLs include the lat/lon of the centre of the map shown.

As do links to google maps these days- but what would be useful for the question is here is a meaty big line drawn on the map!

 

[MatthewB]

If you visit the UK map at RailMapOnline.com, then select the OS 1920s map (drop down list at top left), at zoomed-out levels the map includes Lat,Long lines every 0.5deg. Not quite a "meaty big line", but might help. Once you zoom-in it reverts to an OS grid.

You can also see the position of the cursor in Lat,Long or grid on the Tools tab on the right of the page.

If folks think it would be a good feature to add a Lat,Long grid option to the map then let me know and I'll add it to the to-do list.

 

[snowball]

It is at times like this on threads when I am reminded of the typical American lack of geographical understanding that saw the title of the film..."Krakatoa, east of Java", when any schoolboy worth his salt knew that the volcanic island was situated west of Java.

Cecil B. De Mille,
Rather against his will,
Was persuaded to leave Moses
Out of the Wars of the Roses.