Timetable Directions

I'm wondering what was the most common directions timetables used by railroad, east-west (and vice versa), or north-south (and vice versa)? My next question is, if a train was heading north, according to the compass, what direction would it be going timetable east or west? And if the timetable's north-south, what direction would the train be going if it's going 'compass' west, north or south?

No hard and fast rules. Some railroads, 'east' is towards a certain town; 'west' is away from that town (or vice-versa). You could have an 'east-bound' train traveling in a geographic westerly direction. If the railroad was largely north-south, they might use north / south instead of east / west.

All trains in the US used East-West in timetables.

UK specifc:

Most pre-grouping (1923) Railways considered heading towards London to be "Up" and heading away from London was "Down".

The exception to this was the Midland Railway, which considered that towards Derby was "Up". This, of course changed after grouping to follow the practices of the other railways that made up the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the other big four companies.