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

[whole diary]

[grahame]

As regards the actual timetables, no 5 has stations that are notably evenly spaced as well as being close together. That, its length, and the poor Sunday service suggest it is mostly a commuter line* in a large town or small city, but I can't place it yet.

*The fact that there are no more trains at rush hour times still confirms this to me. I remember just how poor the timing of some commuter services were just at the times you need them.

Possibly 1980s.

MANY thanks for your feedback of the quiz; I might reuse this particular formula again some time before Christmas.  I have a couple of member who have offered to do GUEST DAYS ... help further with variety, and such fun to set and (I am told!) to answer  . ... a couple more offers would be gratefully accepted too.

Right ... number 5. Classic single train shuttling up and down; I don't know how much commuter traffic there was - but sadly there was not enough total traffic and the service no longer runs, the tracks have been torn up, and you'll see sad pictures on "disused stations".

[grahame]

I think no. 3 is Maidenhead-High Wycombe - you've already given the date - early sixties - which stylistically looks right as well.

Yes ... just had time to confirm before my next meeting. Here are the full timetables in each direction, summer of 1963.

[JontyMort]

I'm going to have a very wild guess that 6 is somewhere in the USA.

Sounds plausible, because of the use of train numbers at the top of each column, plus ?[redacted] time? - suggesting a country with various time zones.

[JontyMort]

I think No. 7 is from North America and quite recently. The wording 'Rail Station' is not East Atlantic English and I swear I read the word 'Transit' on the page behind - in reverse of course. Was it 2018 you and your good lady took the cruise?

But you can also read ?Wiltshire? on the back - so it?s closer to home.

[grahame]

I am underwhelmed by guesses too - please free to make multiple guesses

On that note, there is something about No. 1 that suggest Yeovil possibly even Swindon (and dare I say Melksham) down to Weymouth. It is the sparce Sunday service with just the last two stations served. Time: in the 1990s. The letter 'b' looks like a request stop notation of sorts

Looking back at the data, I can see that pattern - but it's a long way from there.  "Something about the pattern", yes, indeed.  The first part of the route shown in the table now has a much better service (though not faring well under Covid) correction - it's closed - I misread the bit torn off but the rest of the line has been closed - that was within a few years of the timetable I have shown. The final section now offers a heritage service.   Almost a microcosm of how the sparse services have gone and the more frequent ones have built up - wasn't it "twice the number of passenger journeys being made by train, but I half the route mileage"?

I have just gone back and corrected my hint, which was - err - plain wrong.  Sorry folks.

[JontyMort]

I'm going to have a very wild guess that 6 is somewhere in the USA.

No. 6, Shipping lines had timetables like that with fixed places and return times reading bottom up. 1930s my guess.

I think No. 7 is from North America and quite recently. The wording 'Rail Station' is not East Atlantic English and I swear I read the word 'Transit' on the page behind - in reverse of course. Was it 2018 you and your good lady took the cruise?

No. 6 is indeed in the USA.    My wife and I did indeed take a cruise to that country last autumn, but the timetable 'sampled' was purchased in Birmingham (England) the previous spring.  Much more recent than the 1930s.

I think 6 is the Chicago Burlington & Quincy between Chicago and Kansas City. Trains 35/36 and 55/56 are the Kansas City Zephyr and the American Royal Zephyr respectively. Presumably the era is immediately before Amtrak, so 1960s?

[RichardB]

2 is Par - Newquay. 1962ish

[grahame]

2 is Par - Newquay. 1962ish

Yes, it is. Right in both aspects. Summer of 1963 - same book as the Maidenhead to High Wycombe table. Quite a rarity in the examples I have looked at, as most services have been totally lost or greatly improved over the last 60 years.  Perhaps with a return of a morning commutable / day out from Newquay train, then maybe Mid-Cornwall Metro, we'll see this line following that same (the more positive) trend in coming years.

[grahame]

I think 6 is the Chicago Burlington & Quincy between Chicago and Kansas City. Trains 35/36 and 55/56 are the Kansas City Zephyr and the American Royal Zephyr respectively. Presumably the era is immediately before Amtrak, so 1960s?

Spot on ... and 1966



Really amazed that I can take a random, interesting-looking page from an obscure overseas publication that a vendor was offloading cheap, strip out all the key words and have a member identify it exactly. Truly we have some  impressive members here.

[grahame]

Here is an update - refreshing the timetables not yet worked out.

1.


2. Par - Newquay, 1963. RichardB

3. Maidenhead - High Wycombe, 1963, Stuving

4.


5.


6. Chicago - Kansas, 1966, JontyMort

7. Westbury - Swindon, 1992, bobM

8.


9. Uckfield and East Grinstead to Crodon, Tonbridge, London - JontyMort and RichardB


All remaining un-identified timetables are from Great Britain, though only one is former GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).  Two of them remain mostly (but not totally) open; three have gone as lines between the places, though at least one station on all three of them remains open for other services to other places. 

[JontyMort]

Really amazed that I can take a random, interesting-looking page from an obscure overseas publication that a vendor was offloading cheap, strip out all the key words and have a member identify it exactly. Truly we have some  impressive members here.

<blush> I think I might have been struggling if you hadn?t left the word ?City? in ?Kansas City?. The thought process was that (i) it couldn?t involve the Rockies - because the speeds are quite high (ii) the Washington-NY-Boston route was out because the frequency wasn?t enough and you wouldn?t really call that eastbound and westbound (iii) so the speeds, orientation, and distances indicated the plains - for which the natural starting point was Chicago Union. Then there are not that many ?Cities? and the distance to Kansas City looked about right.

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.

[bobm]

2 is Par - Newquay. 1962ish

Yes, it is. Right in both aspects. Summer of 1963 - same book as the Maidenhead to High Wycombe table. Quite a rarity in the examples I have looked at, as most services have been totally lost or greatly improved over the last 60 years.  Perhaps with a return of a morning commutable / day out from Newquay train, then maybe Mid-Cornwall Metro, we'll see this line following that same (the more positive) trend in coming years.

Quite an interesting timetable.  Trains crossed at Roche but within a year the loop was lifted reducing the capacity. 

[eightonedee]

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

[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

[JontyMort]

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.