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Is there an official source of station distances of mainline railways in Great Britain?

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miklcct

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I want to know the track distance of all stations on South Western Main Line. Is there an official source of that? I believe there has to be one in order to calculate route validity based on shortest route.
 
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Bevan Price

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I want to know the track distance of all stations on South Western Main Line. Is there an official source of that? I believe there has to be one in order to calculate route validity based on shortest route.
Yes - in the Sectional Appendix. But you cannot believe it as 100% accurate. Surveys by the Railway Performance Society (RPS) indicate that many mileposts on the line are incorrectly placed, and the error increases progressively as you approach Exeter. Details are in the RPS Distance Charts, but available on line only to members. However, the total error is not great, less than one mile.
 

The exile

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Presumably if the aim is to check “ the shortest route” for ticketing purposes, then what you want are the figures given in the public timetables, as that’s what they are there for (albeit originally to help calculate “ pence per mile@ fares).
 

Ken H

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If you want station to station distances where do they measure from/to. I assume the buffers at termini, but where at New St, Crewe, Leeds, York and Waverley etc.
And also a euston-glasgow train will do less distance than the distance between the bufferstops!
 

LNW-GW Joint

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If you want station to station distances where do they measure from/to. I assume the buffers at termini, but where at New St, Crewe, Leeds, York and Waverley etc.
And also a euston-glasgow train will do less distance than the distance between the bufferstops!
There's this rather unambiguous milepost on P5 at York near the footbridge (pic from the web):
1627283634098.png

And I think there's a 158 milepost on P6 at Crewe.
Generally, for through stations, mileages are measured to "the middle of station platforms".
 

zwk500

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If you want station to station distances where do they measure from/to. I assume the buffers at termini, but where at New St, Crewe, Leeds, York and Waverley etc.
And also a euston-glasgow train will do less distance than the distance between the bufferstops!
Major stations will generally be the centre point of the through platforms, although some might be the old Signal box or other key feature. At Termini it is usually the buffers, although as platforms have changed not all buffers are at 0, some are even at Minus values! At Waterloo the official '0' is at the former junction at Waterloo East.

Mileages in NESA also have the little quirk of Short/Long miles, where realignment has meant that the length is no longer accurate, but to avoid resurveying the entire track they just call Mile x 75 or 87 chains long (as examples). And routes thought of today as one continuous route often have multiple zero points for corporate history reasons.
 

Senex

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This was one of the things the Railway Clearing House existed to do, as an accurate and agreed record of distances was crucial if money was to be fairly distributed amongst the companies. The rules were firmly established by the end fd the nineteenth century and here's the appropriate bit from the R.C.H. Regulations 1895:
ScanImage001.jpg
These were the rules that applied just a few years later when companies like the Midland and the North Eastern compltely re-measured and re-mileposted their systems (see the reproduction of the famous York zero in a post above). On every North Eastern station there was a "DP" post which marked the point at which measurements were taken. Where you had platforms that didn't overlap, the measuring-point could actually end up not on the platform at all! Junctions were generally measured from the toe of the switch-blade.
Other countries had their own rules which tended to vary more in detail than in major principles. In Central Europe, for example, the point of measurement is normally the middle of the main passenger building ("Mitte EG" in Germany, "Mitte AG" in Austria) — with a very interesting instance being those early terminal stations where the trakcs carried on through the station into a turntable which then had a single trakc extending just a little behyond it. Who remembers Leipzig Bayrischer Bahnhof?
 

Annetts key

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There will also be inaccuracies due to track realignment on or at curves or junctions that has taken place since the respective railway company last measured the distances.

Although this is only likely to be a matter of a handful of chains or less over the whole route.

Also just to state the obvious, when working out distances between stations, be aware that in some cases it depends on which route the train takes (where there is more than one route available).
 

The exile

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This was one of the things the Railway Clearing House existed to do, as an accurate and agreed record of distances was crucial if money was to be fairly distributed amongst the companies. The rules were firmly established by the end fd the nineteenth century and here's the appropriate bit from the R.C.H. Regulations 1895:
View attachment 100302
These were the rules that applied just a few years later when companies like the Midland and the North Eastern compltely re-measured and re-mileposted their systems (see the reproduction of the famous York zero in a post above). On every North Eastern station there was a "DP" post which marked the point at which measurements were taken. Where you had platforms that didn't overlap, the measuring-point could actually end up not on the platform at all! Junctions were generally measured from the toe of the switch-blade.
Other countries had their own rules which tended to vary more in detail than in major principles. In Central Europe, for example, the point of measurement is normally the middle of the main passenger building ("Mitte EG" in Germany, "Mitte AG" in Austria) — with a very interesting instance being those early terminal stations where the trakcs carried on through the station into a turntable which then had a single trakc extending just a little behyond it. Who remembers Leipzig Bayrischer Bahnhof?
The answer to the last question - very well!
However precisely the distances were measured "on the ground", the basis of standard "Pfennigs per kilometre" fares on DB was neither the actual distance between two stations, nor the distance as given in the timetable, but the "Tariff-Kilometre", which, as was made clear in the timetable "does not always represent the actual distance" (DB timetable 1989). In that year, once you were travelling further than 111Km (!) the second class single fare for 1 tariff kilometre was 21 Pfennigs, though fares were calculated to the nearest DM, thus rising every 5 Kilometers (with the odd step up after 4Km to keep things in line with the fact that 5 Kilometers actually cost DM 1.05!)
 

Ken H

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There will also be inaccuracies due to track realignment on or at curves or junctions that has taken place since the respective railway company last measured the distances.

Although this is only likely to be a matter of a handful of chains or less over the whole route.

Also just to state the obvious, when working out distances between stations, be aware that in some cases it depends on which route the train takes (where there is more than one route available).
Yes. do they calculate the mileage to Newcastle from the south via the King Edward bridge, or through Gateshead and over the High level bridge, bearing in mind the high level bridge is an older route.
 
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