Any good places to find (pre-privatization) British Rail WTTs?

[ChrisPBacon]

I'm looking for WTTs used around 1987-1988 for a project I'm working on and I wanted to know if there's any good places to find them for cheap (ideally <10£, not including shipping). This can be either digitalized or physical, however I don't live in the UK so there should be an option to ship overseas if its a physical book.

 

[CW2]

Timetable World – Historical transport timetables and maps

timetableworld.com

 

[ChrisPBacon]

Timetable World – Historical transport timetables and maps

timetableworld.com

Doesn't have the exact WTTs I'm looking for unfortunately, however I'll definitely keep an eye out for this website in the future if I need to buy timetables

 

[CW2]

Doesn't have the exact WTTs I'm looking for unfortunately, however I'll definitely keep an eye out for this website in the future if I need to buy timetables

Worth dropping them an email, as the website owner has a large backlog of timetables awaiting scanning, and knows of alternative resources.

 

[strimmer]

You could try British Railway Books.

Railway Timetables

Index page of old British Railway timetables both working timetables and public timetables from the present to pre-1948. Each region is represented with its own index page and each individual old railway timetable has a cover image, map of the area covered and contents breakdown plus availability

britishrailwaybooks.co.uk

 

[47296lastduff]

Have you tried ebay?

 

[jfollows]

I bought many, many such timetables from eBay since 2020. I generally set myself a price limit of £10 including postage when making bids. Set up a search and have it email you when it finds matches. In your case postage will complicate things a bit I imagine.

If you have specific information from specific timetables for which a couple of pages would meet your needs, feel free to message me and I can tell you if I have what you want. I don’t have a bulk scanning capability, however.

 

[D Mylchreest]

The National Archive at Kew. They encourage visitors to photograph the records.

 

[ChrisPBacon]

You could try British Railway Books.

Railway Timetables

Index page of old British Railway timetables both working timetables and public timetables from the present to pre-1948. Each region is represented with its own index page and each individual old railway timetable has a cover image, map of the area covered and contents breakdown plus availability

britishrailwaybooks.co.uk

Thanks for the recommendation, I found one of the books I was looking for

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jan 2026 ==

Have you tried ebay?

I did find some of the timetables I was looking for, however they're a bit over my budget, considering how I also need to pay for shipping.

 

[Pyewipecarshed]

Transport Past Times is worth a look;

Welcome to Transport Past Times

Transport Past Times is the site for transport memorabilia and collectables.

www.transportpasttimes.co.uk

 

[ChrisPBacon]

Transport Past Times is worth a look;

Welcome to Transport Past Times

Transport Past Times is the site for transport memorabilia and collectables.

www.transportpasttimes.co.uk

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll take a look at it

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jan 2026 ==

I bought many, many such timetables from eBay since 2020. I generally set myself a price limit of £10 including postage when making bids. Set up a search and have it email you when it finds matches. In your case postage will complicate things a bit I imagine.

If you have specific information from specific timetables for which a couple of pages would meet your needs, feel free to message me and I can tell you if I have what you want. I don’t have a bulk scanning capability, however.

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a shot. I'm not that worried with postage since most items I've looked at on Ebay ship to where I live, although a bit pricey.
I need quite a few pages from the timetables so I'm afraid that won't be able to help (unless you're fine with printing over 200 pages ), thanks for the offer though!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 18 Jan 2026 ==

The National Archive at Kew. They encourage visitors to photograph the records.

Fun fact, I actually tried their record copying service (because I can't visit in person), and it turns out every every page costs £1.20. You can probably imagine that would add up quick in a book with a few hundred pages.

 

[jfollows]

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a shot. I'm not that worried with postage since most items I've looked at on Ebay ship to where I live, although a bit pricey.
I need quite a few pages from the timetables so I'm afraid that won't be able to help (unless you're fine with printing over 200 pages ), thanks for the offer though!

No, even 20 pages would be too many! But good luck.

 

[Grumpy]

Might be worth trying the Vintage Carriage Trust shop at Ingrow. Their magazine shop is a bit of an Aladdin's cave.

 

[nw1]

Another source is the BR Coaching Stock groups.io group (requires signup and approval for membership, but this is just a formality).

They have an archive of various documents, including departure books and marshalling books. Not sure whether they have many WTTs though. Mostly up to mid-80s with a smaller number from the late 80s.
A lot of Western Region info from the 70s and 80s in particular, including many Paddington departure books (1974, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1985, 1989), and a lot of London Midland marshalling books from which you can get a good idea of the service.

Not sure if it's what you're looking for but might be of interest to those reading the thread.

My personal "goldmine" would be to find some CWNs and departure books for the South Western Division/NSE/SWT from around 1983 to 1999, but this period does seem to be rather hard to come by. A lot of documents for what one might call the "classic" era in the 60s and early 70s and a lot of documents from around 2004 onwards, but that late-BR, early-privatisation period seems problematic. (So if anyone has any possible sources for this era, not so much WTTs but rather CWNs and departure books, I'd also be interested!)