3.12.2020 - Some old timetables, but where for and just how old.

[whole diary]

[RichardB]

Really struck by what a poor service 1 is.  The style of the timetable suggests late 60s - that design came in with the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Corporate Identity in 65.  I did wonder if it was Westbury - Weymouth in Winter 65 - the more frequent bit at the top being Westbury - Castle Cary, the last two stations being Upwey and Weymouth with just the SW services that called at Upwey.

[RichardB]

On 9, the two rows of connection times - but clearly not long distances - are suspicious. I reckon the penultimate row of through train times is London Bridge, the last line of through times is Cannon Street and the two lines below are Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

I agree.  I think 9 is Uckfield/Tunbridge Wells/East Grinstead - London just after Lewes - Uckfield shut in 1969.

[grahame]

Really struck by what a poor service 1 is.  The style of the timetable suggests late 60s - that design came in with the BR^▸ (British Rail(ways)) Corporate Identity in 65.  I did wonder if it was Westbury - Weymouth in Winter 65 - the more frequent bit at the top being Westbury - Castle Cary, the last two stations being Upwey and Weymouth with just the SW services that called at Upwey.

It is awful, isn't it?  Not our part of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom). Date about right; gone totally soon thereafter.  Perhaps the further north you get, the thinner the services as a rough rule?

[grahame]

On 9, the two rows of connection times - but clearly not long distances - are suspicious. I reckon the penultimate row of through train times is London Bridge, the last line of through times is Cannon Street and the two lines below are Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

I agree.  I think 9 is Uckfield/Tunbridge Wells/East Grinstead - London just after Lewes - Uckfield shut in 1969.

Spot on with the (main) line ... a few years later (1982), just before Tunbridge Wells West was closed.

Connections are Clapham Junction and Victoria, off London Bridge trains at East Croydon.  Waterloo and Charing Cross off Tonbridge.

[grahame]

I?m in full Amtrak mode at present, and as a gesture of confidence have re-booked my New York-Chicago-San Francisco run (Lake Shore Limited/California Zephyr) for next October - it should have been this year.

The California Zephyr has made it in Lonely Planet

For soaking up the scenic grandeur of the North American continent, nothing compares with Amtrak?s California Zephyr train. This classic three-day journey travels nearly 2500 miles (4000km) across prairies, deserts, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada on its way from Chicago to San Francisco. Scenery is magnificent throughout ? especially when seen through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the lounge car ? but if you can only do one section, opt for the riveting 185-mile (298km) stretch between Denver and Glenwood Springs, where the train travels through an often roadless wilderness of deep, narrow gorges near the Colorado River?s headwaters.

Personal choice of the Lonely Planet list - North Hudson line.   Rather, we took Amtrak up that way, beyond the end of the New York 'burgs through to Albany.  Stayed in Troy - perhaps the worst hotel experience in the world.

[grahame]

Is 5 the Exmouth branch, before the new stations started appearing?

It isn't - though the journey times look roughly right.  Look much further east, and this one's not (G)WR

I'm going to start filling in one or two of the really difficult ones - including this one.   An example of the all-too-many little lines which were snuffed out in the 1960s.

[grahame]

Here are the solutions to the three that were left







Elgin to Aviemore, shortly before closure

Scarborough to Hull, in the final seasons of Filey Holiday Camp

Oxford to Witney and Fairford in 1902