The up and down lines are both fitted with protecting points to deal with runaways or runbacks, however the hardware is slightly different. The up line only has the switch rails, with the inner being the longer of the two, so an up direction train running back should end up with its right hand wheels still in the four foot, as shown in the pictures. In the down direction the switch and crossings are complete with the common crossing, and lead away to a full sand drag.
I think it was explained to me once that the setup is designed around likely failure modes in normal direction running, hence the down line having a more complete set of hardware...
If you zoom in on Google maps satellite view the difference is clear...
Paul
Correct....Facing runaway points are referred to as TRAP POINTS designed to direct a train passing a signal at danger away from a conflict and trailing runaway points are referred to as CATCH POINTS designed to direct a train running away in the wrong direction (usually on rising gradients) and usually into the ballast
Now then in
BR▸ days trains would have been running past on the Down Line by now (which after all is signalled in the UP direction here) as there doesn't appear to be anything foul of it in the photograph
