Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Three railways converged on the city of Wells - all trains leaving Wells were 'up' trains, regardless of their geographical direction of travel.

 

Nothing from Swindon matters.

 

In signalling terms, I agree - but there is more to railways than signalling.

 

Not from @RailWest’s point of view, I suspect!

Tom

 

Quite right. We Southerners always talk of going "up north" - but we do so on a down train!

 

The concept of up and down regarding London dates back at least as far as the stagecoach era so it was nothing new when the railways adopted it.

 

So if I go 'up north' on the M1, am I on the 'down' carriageway?

 

No!

Peter

 

Motorway signs have strict guidelines about their size, format and what appears on them. As far as I can see 'up' and 'down' would be too vague to be acceptable.

Not sure Motorway's have much to do with stagecoach terminology albeit some of the roadworks seem to date back to the 1700's......

 

We seem to have drifted well away from the L&B ...... just sayin'.
Ray.

 

Ah - but have we drifted up or down?

 

Wouldn't half confuse the motorists though.

 

At least it's not going round in ever decreasing circles as in certain other s.g. threads I suppose!
Ray.

 

Medway Valley line trains leaving Strood have always been Down to Maidstone West, but become
Up trains from Maidstone West towards Paddock Wood. And that's all on the S.R.

 

Motorways have an A and B carriageway. Normally, A=Away from London, and B=Back to London. I'm not sure about the M25 though. Anyway, after all that diversion, where are we at the L&B, are we Up to Lynton, or Up to Barnstaple? or should we stick to the Welsh and French ends?

 

The M25 also has A and B carriageways. They helpfully stand for an “around” and a “bout” direction respectively


Tom

 

Talking of up and down why does the woody bay station have down signals but when they were put up years ago they were up signals. Some point they were swapped. Why did they changed? I will probably get a message for asking a question now

 

Sorry, I can't answer your question, but just would like to clarify something.

When people refer to up signals or down signals it is normally only about the direction of trains.

Signals which go up when they are showing 'clear' or 'proceed' are normally referred to as 'Upper Quadrant' signals, as opposed to the signals which go down for 'clear' or 'proceed' which are normally referred to as 'Lower Quadrant' signals. Just thought I'd offer this to avoid confusion.
In general, as you may already be aware the Lower Quadrant signals were more common originally. The Upper Quadrant type became more popular because they can 'fail safe' by dropping back to Danger or Stop or Caution simply by gravity in the event of a broken wire. With Lower Quadrant signals they require extra balance weights at the signal post in order to ensure the signal arm lifts back up to to the horizontal position in the event of a wire failure.
Strangely it is still common practice to refer to 'lowering the signals for a train to proceed', even though this may actually involve raising the signal arms.

 

A bit like a signalman that I used to know who talked about "giving them a swing" when he was referring to lifting barriers, rather than gates, at a level crossing.