Line names and designations

Main and Electric Lines from Liverpool Street to Shenfield, they are all electrified of course but the initially Electric trains only ran from Liverpool Street to Shenfield on these lines with class 306 units being used with the remaining services retaining Steam.

I'm route learning Preston at the moment - it's a cracker, with an Up Goods, Down Goods, 'Up and Down Goods' and 'Down and Up Goods'. Plus an Up Through and a Down Through which are both actually platform lines (6 and 5 respectively). Not confusing at all!

The GWR actually uses "main" and "relief". The Met I believe uses "main" and "local". At Liverpool Street since the West Anglia and Great Northern routes converge, you end up with (from north/west to south/east) the "suburban", "fast", "main", and "electric" lines!

I also enjoy the lines around Doncaster which have baffling names like the "up west/down west slow" ("Oh what fun, it is to ride on the up west/down west slow!").

lIsn't there a short stretch near Kirk Sandall which is four tracks, two for one direction and two for the other direction, but three are Up lines and only one is a Down line?

The Met I believe uses "main" and "local".

The old Southern Railway (and BR(S) for some time after 1948) used 'through' and 'local' for their line designations. Between Waterloo and Clapham Junction there are of course two separate groups of lines, the mains and the Windsors. Therefore the route indicators controlling departure from Waterloo used to show ML, MT, WL and WT (now altered, since the resignalling, to MS, MF, WS and WF).

kbarber in post 112834 said:

The old Southern Railway (and BR(S) for some time after 1948) used 'through' and 'local' for their line designations. Between Waterloo and Clapham Junction there are of course two separate groups of lines, the mains and the Windsors. Therefore the route indicators controlling departure from Waterloo used to show ML, MT, WL and WT (now altered, since the resignalling, to MS, MF, WS and WF).

Actually the lines one signal out of Waterloo are (from east to west) the down main slow, up main slow, down main fast, up main fast, up main relief (which is bidirectional), down Windsor, up Windsor, Windsor reversible. I'm not sure exactly what the route indicators display for all of these (though MS and MF are definitely correct).

After the first signal (protecting Carlisle Lane Jn) the up main relief becomes the down Windsor slow and the down Windsor becomes the down Windsor fast.

After the Stewarts Lane Curve the down Windsor slow and fast merge into the down Windsor.

After the Brighton Main Line bridge, the down Windsor splits again into the down Windsor slow and fast.

Finally, after Clapham West London Jn, the up Windsor becomes the up Windsor fast, and the Windsor reversible becomes the up Windsor slow.

ISTR there are plans to bring the Windsor lines down to 2-3 tracks instead of 3-4 as present, and use the remaining track to extend the up main relief all the way back to Clapham Junction. I might be slightly wrong on this though...

I think Main and Local are used in other places on LUL - Earls Court for instance.

And of course you have Inner and Outer on the Circle Line.

I believe the Tyne & Wear Metro uses In and Out.

Manchester Metrolink uses 'Inbound' and 'Outbound', all with respect to the triangle junction at Piccadilly Gardens in the centre of Manchester.

I think Main and Local are used in other places on LUL - Earls Court for instance. And of course you have Inner and Outer on the Circle Line. I believe the Tyne & Wear Metro uses In and Out.

Kev