Deepgreen
Established Member
Purely out of curiosity - at what point do the up and down lines swap in Thameslink's central London zone? Same question also applies to Crossrail.
On Crossrail, the two lines are being designated "Westbound" and "Eastbound", not "Up" and "Down", so there will be no single location where Up changes to Down.
Would you expect the name changes to be made at the three NR/TfL infrastructure boundaries?
There must have been a designated Up direction through the station, between the junctions either side, though. For that short distance, all trains in that direction would be described as travelling in the Up direction, even if they're broadly Down trains as far as the rest of their journey is concerned. Leicester is another example - Stansted to Birmingham trains are Down trains throughout the vast majority of their journey, but travel in the Up direction between Syston and Wigston (as well as for a short distance after leaving Stansted Airport).Well, as the header for this thread is trivia there used to be a wonderful bit of trivia concerning up and down lines at Mitcham Junction. In the days before Tramlink the direction from Wimbledon to West Croydon was up whilst the direction from London Bridge to Sutton was down.
This meant that a train going through Mitcham Junction station to-wards Croydon was going up but a following train going in the same direction through the same platform to-wards Sutton was going down. I can't off-hand think of another station/location where trains are going both up and down in the same direction on the same platform.
Well, as the header for this thread is trivia there used to be a wonderful bit of trivia concerning up and down lines at Mitcham Junction. In the days before Tramlink the direction from Wimbledon to West Croydon was up whilst the direction from London Bridge to Sutton was down.
This meant that a train going through Mitcham Junction station to-wards Croydon was going up but a following train going in the same direction through the same platform to-wards Sutton was going down. I can't off-hand think of another station/location where trains are going both up and down in the same direction on the same platform.
The nearest I can think of is Exeter St Davids to Cowley bridge junction pre 1964 where up trains to London GWR would be travelling north as would down trains SR (and vice versa)
The NWT Rochdale to Euston services may have been an oddity for the short time that they operated. Up from Rochdale is towards Victoria, and once on the WCML up is towards London... but depending on the route taken from Victoria (Earlestown or Denton) there'd have been at least one section where London-bound services were running Down away from Victoria.
Well, as the header for this thread is trivia there used to be a wonderful bit of trivia concerning up and down lines at Mitcham Junction. In the days before Tramlink the direction from Wimbledon to West Croydon was up whilst the direction from London Bridge to Sutton was down.
This meant that a train going through Mitcham Junction station to-wards Croydon was going up but a following train going in the same direction through the same platform to-wards Sutton was going down. I can't off-hand think of another station/location where trains are going both up and down in the same direction on the same platform.
To my knowledge, one of the most unusual up/down switchover lines was Blackburn to Preston.
When I worked there in the late 1960s up and down switched several times in the few miles between the stations because of numerous junctions, existing and removed.
For example, up and down changed sides at Cherry Tree because of the junction there, even though it had been removed.
I have no doubt it has since been rectified.
ISTR that for management/control purposes Crossrail was to be part of the Anglia route. If so that might have suggested a change in designation as far west as possible. The "Eastbound" and "Westbound" designations are clearly TfL-speak; it'll be interesting to see which set of wordings prevails under the pressure of everyday operations.