Trivia - journeys which start in one direction before doing a 180 degree (ish) turn

[David Goddard]

Leaving Grantham heading for Sleaford
Leaving Sleaford heading for Lincoln

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Aberystwyth to Machynlleth runs inland (East) before curving vaguely Northwards past Bow Street, then heads back Westbound towards the coast and follows the shoreline through Borth and Ynyslas before following the Dyfi estuary back Eastwards.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Ipswich to Lowestoft.

Good shout. How about Ipswich to Felixstowe Town, which passes through Derby Road?

 

[xotGD]

Newcastle to Dunston.

Glasgow to Leeds on Cross country.

 

[Glenn1969]

Halifax to Leeds given that Bradford Interchange is a cul de sac
Leeds to Lincoln via Barnsley and Sheffield?

 

[Masborough]

Stockport (leaves heading southish) to Sheffield (enters heading north).

 

[dan4291]

Battersby to Middlesbrough due to the reversal at Battersby

 

[Parallel]

Exmouth to Paignton

 

[55002]

Newark Northgate to Peterborough via Lincoln

 

[AlbertBeale]

Faversham to Ramsgate
Dover to Martin Mill
Cromer to Roughton Road (and beyond)
Lincoln to Newark etc
Newcastle to Hexham (via HL Bridge)

Mainland Europe:
Frankfurt Hbf (main) via Sued towards Nuremberg/Berlin/Hamburg/Dresden
Munich Hbf via Ostbhf towards Salzburg/Innsbruck
Hamburg Altona towards Bremen/Hannover
Stuttgart towards Zurich (main line)
Heringsdorf (Usedom) towards Wolgast
Zurich HB via Enge towards Chur/Gotthard/Luzern
Luzern HB towards Gotthard via the original route (Kuessnacht)
Wien Hbf to Westbhf.
Andermatt to Oberalppasshoehe - and many more mountain lines!
Trieste to Ljubljana; Milan Centrale and Rome Termini would be candidates too.

You beat me to it with Trieste-Ljubljana.

Also on the mainland - some regional trains from/to/via Brussels use the through line between Midi and Nord in the opposite direction to the way they head after leaving Brussels. Eg Brussels-Namur trains start from Mid, go via Central and Nord, then loop round 180 degrees to the south and call at other Brussels stations before heading out south-east to Namur. (I think there's a lack of a sensible connection into the south end of the through line from the Namur direction; but perhaps, anyway, there's a policy of regional trains running via lots of Brussels stations on their way in/out.)

Another Italian one is Turin. Anything long-distance starting from the Porta Nuova terminal which is heading to almost anywhere else in Italy - unless it goes to Genoa and along the coast line - has to do a loop 180 degrees from southbound to northbound to go via Porta Susa, and then another 90 degrees to the east to head on the main line towards Milan.

 

[Midnight Sun]

Does Corrour even count as wayside hamlet noting the OP's original criteria of the origin and destination having to be a different town/city?

People do live in the house by Corrour station and the hostel by the loch is open most of the year, as is the lodge, plus a eight cottages spread around the estate. So Corrour can be classed a hamlet as it has a population.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

But scarcely a town or city as per the OP's original criteria.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Leeds-Doncaster heads out west alongside the Manchester line before looping round to the south east.
The Midland route does the same even more sharply to reach Woodlesford - and the original route then did a big reverse loop through South Yorks to reach Swinton.
Lincoln-Retford does a huge loop via Gainsborough - 20 minutes from Lincoln you can still see the cathedral towers on the left across the Trent Valley.
Even Paddington has its final sharp twist in the line from Royal Oak into the platforms, and Liverpool St is similar with a sharp turn in the final mile from Bethnal Green.
Three main lines to the north out of London have big loops to the west soon after leaving the terminus to minimise tunnelling - Euston, St Pancras, Marylebone.

Leipzig is another German city where many trains loop right round the city to reach the Hbf (although it now has a through S-bahn line underneath).
Anything from the Bonn direction loops right round Köln to reach Hbf and across the river towards Dortmund.
Anything heading from Marseille St Charles to the west has to run east and north for a spell before turning west.
Milano Centrale is the archetypal terminus with everything looping round the city to reach it from the north east.
These days some trains avoid all that by using the shorter underground east-west through route via Porta Garibaldi.
Something similar happens at Napoli Centrale, but the low level through line via Piazza Garibaldi in the basement is much less used by long distance services.
Budapest Keleti, a terminus facing north east, also takes trains from all directions including Vienna to the west.
There's a recent tendency to route services from SK/CZ/PL via Bratislava into Nyugati station (the original terminal for the Staatsbahn line) again.

 

[Richard Scott]

Montreux to Gstaad and Zweisimmen, one of many in Switzerland no doubt. Don't Genève-Aéroport to the rest of Switzerland SBB/CFF long-distance trains effectively go the wrong way into and out of the Airport station?

The airport station is a terminus. Think all trains are now units or push-pull operated. When I first went there about 10 years ago the IR trains were often non push-pull and a fresh loco would drop on the other end upon arrival. There's a short headshunt at the country end of the station where the loco would wait.

 

[Grumpy]

Bradford FS to Kings Cross.
Starts by heading North to Shipley

 

[43055]

Derby to Crewe. Starts going south before heading west to Crewe and then north for the last stint into the station.

 

[xotGD]

Kidderminster to Marylebone

Are there still direct services from Carlisle to Stranraer?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Are there still direct services from Carlisle to Stranraer?

Dont think so. Believe you'd have to change at Kilmarnock or Glasgow Central these days.

 

[PHILIPE]

Chester to Chester via Merseyrail

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Chester to Chester via Merseyrail

Fails the OP's test of the origin and destination being a separate town/city.

 

[Ianigsy]

Leeds to Manchester Vic via Dewsbury and Todmorden- in spite of being generally south-westwards includes the north-west bound section through Brighouse and a stretch heading south-east between Walsden and Littleborough.

 

[Huntergreed]

Blackpool North to Euston on a pendo starts heading north out of Blackpool before turning south for most of the journey

 

[xotGD]

Through trains from the Durham coast to the Carlisle line do a U when they cross the Tyne twice to call at Newcastle. They can even do a loop-the-loop if they use the opposite bridges and go past the site of Gateshead depot twice.

 

[Roverebbw]

Through trains from the Durham coast to the Carlisle line do a U when they cross the Tyne twice to call at Newcastle. They can even do a loop-the-loop if they use the opposite bridges and go past the site of Gateshead depot twice.

Crewe to Cardiff via heart of Wales line

 

[flitwickbeds]

Fails the OP's test of the origin and destination being a separate town/city.

And the first rule - "no circular routes"

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Otherwise, it wasn't a bad shout!

 

[London Trains]

Crewe to Liverpool (Northern) - goes the complete wrong way Northeastwards into Manchester, then uses the Castlefield corridor to U turn and run Southwestwards down the CLC to Warrington, then turns West and then finally Northwest into Liverpool.

 

[30907]

When travelling around the North West last summer, catching a train at Blackburn confused my sense of direction. I can't remember the details, but the train I caught to Victoria via Rochdale not unreasonably headed east out of Blackburn but it continued Northwards from Manchester as the same train to, I think, Southport, and was shown as a through service at Blackburn. Another service, leaving at about the same time, headed West but its ultimate destination was to the S.E. of the town via Entwistle and Victoria. Presumably, it's the result of linking several services end-to -end. The current timetable doesn't seem to have these workings so I'm sorry I can't provide fuller details.

Blackburn is one of those places (like Exeter - and also a cathedral city!) where you can leave in opposite directions and end up in the same place (indeed, the same station, which beats Exeter!). In the normal timetable it's Blackburn-Todmorden-Rochdale-Manchester-Wigan and Blackburn-Bolton-Manchester-Rochdale.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Blackburn is one of those places (like Exeter - and also a cathedral city!) where you can leave in opposite directions and end up in the same place.

Same with Edinburgh Waverley to Birmingham New Street (via WCML or ECML).

 

[xotGD]

Same with Edinburgh Waverley to Birmingham New Street (via WCML or ECML).

Also Man Pic to Leeds. Man Oxford Road to Leeds is unusual in that trains now depart in the opposite direction to how they did previously. And do a U turn now.

Trains booked to arrive or depart from the 'wrong end' of Birmingham New Street also do a U turn.