Re: Why is it called "up"?

[Deeg <galtfd@att.net>]

On Thu, 25 May 2000 21:52:00 +1000, "Bernard Smith"
<epping.smiths@gatewaynet.bigpond.com> wrote:

>"Chris Brownbill" <cbrnbill@enternet.com.au> wrote in message
>392D0F4C.C29D1039@enternet.com.au">news:392D0F4C.C29D1039@enternet.com.au...
>>
>> A variation on the question though - What's the origin of the tradition of
>Down
>> trains being given odd numbers and Up trains given Even numbers?
>
>Odd numbers out of town.  Even numbers when returning.  Seems pretty
>logical.
>

You might be interested in North American convention: "Up" and "down"
are unknown; there are only "westbound" and "eastbound." Westbound
(odd-numbered) refers to trains travelling more or less west;
Eastbound (even numbered) are trains travelling more or less east.

No need to stop and puzzle at illogic: trains down the eastern
seaboard of the US from Boston to New York to Washington are westbound
Beyond Washington, the same convention applies, whether the
"westbound" trains are mostly southwesterly or southerly towards
Florida.

On the onetime  Illinois Central, due south from Chicago to New
Orleans is "westbound." But in other areas, as in Canada between
Calgary and Edmonton, the odd-numbered trains are the northbound ones.

And on the west coast, Los Angeles - San Francisco - Portland -
Seattle - Vancouver, very much north, is likewise "westbound."

A single train might change numbers as it passed from one subdivision
to another within a company: Travelling from Toronto to Niagara Falls
on Canadian National, you started out odd-numbered going southwest.
But at Hamilton, having come around 300 degrees or so and heading for
the sunrise, you became even-numbered.

In general, you might say that "westbound" is equivalent to "down" and
"eastbound" to "up," but adapted to a system with many centres rather
than one. A convention is only a convention, after all.

Don Galt