Comments on: Mobius Tube

By: james

james — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:28:54 +0000

I found myself thinking about the same sort of thing a couple of months ago, only about the crossover between Shepherd’s Bush and White City. These sites seemed to cover that in a bit more detail…

http://www.trainweb.org/tubeprune/Woodlane%20whitecity.htm
and http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php

seems mostly that they crossover either because the track had junctions that forced it to run under or over the track they now use, allow for easier cornering, or to avoid tunnelling through something they don’t want or can’t go through.

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:58:26 +0000

That’s what I’m talking about!

What exactly is a Quail Track diagram though?

By: Richard T

Richard T — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:49:11 +0000

Track maps produce a complete set of railway diagrams in 5 volumes inclding London and the south east – thier website is http://www.trackmaps.co.uk

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:42:08 +0000

Thanks Matt, but I’m looking for one in more detail, which actually shows the tracks, junctions, points, that sort of thing.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 09:44:39 +0000

here’s one: http://solo2.abac.com/themole/geog.gif …

By: Clarice

Clarice — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:00:58 +0000

Yes, this happens at various points on the system. I have often wondered about it, but not being very good at maths or spatial reasoning, the only explanation that I have thought of is to work in three dimensions. That is to say that the crossing-over occurs where one line goes above the other, for evolutionary, geophysical or other reasons.

Obviously, both directions have to be at the same vertical level in stations (except for eg the central line at Notting Hill, where they are not), but outside of stations, anything is possible.

Another more simpler explanation that occurs to me could be that the lines actually touch eachother, ie they share a portion of the track, which is controlled by points. In this case, the cross-over is fairly straight-forward, even if the control of train-traffic at that section is a logisitical nightmare.

Then there are the fourth and fifth dimensions of tube travel, but that is another story altogether.