From
WikiPediaBradshaw's name was already known as the publisher of Bradshaw's Maps of Inland Navigation, which detailed the canals of Lancashire and Yorkshire, when, on 19 October 1839, soon after the introduction of railways, his Manchester company published the world's first compilation of railway timetables.
A good history there ... and the individual timetables each provide a fascinating snapshot of the services that were offered through from 1839 to the final versions in 1961, by which times the railways were nationalised and there was a single set of timetables to cover all public rail services in Great Britain.
See also
http://www.rinbad.free-online.co.uk/Bradshaw.htm with links to much more history and for researchers a listing of where they may find originals and reprints in publicly accessible libraries
Coming to current times, National Rail publishes (but does not sell printed copies) of the National Rail Timetable - they can be downloaded from there - and we mirror a set at
http://www.passenger.chat/nrtt_may23 too. There have been (still are?) printed copies available from Middleton Press, and a number of reprints available which by the very number of them seem to be popular. There is also the European Rail Timetable - a successor to Bradshaw's continetal product, printed four times a year which I have personally invaluable when Interrailing - though it's a "broad brush" product which does not attempt to cover every service and station.
