Old timetables - make for interesting reading.

[bnm]

Thanks to a thread on another forum I was pointed in the direction of this website:

http://www.timetableworld.com/timetable_catalog.php?cat=2

Which has a few comprehensive timetables from the British Railways regions post 1948. There's also one pre-nationalisation timetable for the LMS from 1947.

So, as I said, make for interesting reading. If you like this sort of thing of course!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Thanks to a thread on another forum I was pointed in the direction of this website:

http://www.timetableworld.com/timetable_catalog.php?cat=2

Which has a few comprehensive timetables from the British Railways regions post 1948. There's also one pre-nationalisation timetable for the LMS from 1947.

So, as I said, make for interesting reading. If you like this sort of thing of course!

Thanks for this. In the LMS June 1947 issue, tables 100 through to 109 shows how many interesting routes have been lost in North Wales. I was about two years old when this was published.

 

[Pyromaniac]

Wow that is an amazing find, many thanks for sharing! Granted my only interest is LTS but even that is completely different and I'm struggling to get my head round it.

Also I have acquired photocopies of the complete LTS Rail timetable from early 1994 if anyone is interested. Drop me a PM if you want me to forward them on to you.

 

[Holly]

Which has a few comprehensive timetables from the British Railways regions post 1948. There's also one pre-nationalisation timetable for the LMS from 1947. So, as I said, make for interesting reading. If you like this sort of thing of course!

Interesting that people would spend nearly 8 hours on the Saturday special "express" train from Paddington to Penychain Butlins Holiday camp. With no restaurant or buffet car onboard. Presumably the holidaymakers brought lots of sandwiches and thermoses.

According to Yahoo it would take 4h30mins to drive the same 250 miles today. But of course Butlins is long gone from there so there's little reason to make the voyage modernly.

 

[Squaddie]

According to Yahoo it would take 4h30mins to drive the same 250 miles today...

Not on a summer Saturday, it wouldn't...

 

[imagination]

Through trains to Penzance and Carmarthen starting at Ealing Broadway? I'd never have guessed that used to happen...

 

[Welshman]

Interesting that people would spend nearly 8 hours on the Saturday special "express" train from Paddington to Penychain Butlins Holiday camp. With no restaurant or buffet car onboard. Presumably the holidaymakers brought lots of sandwiches and thermoses.

Yes, these old timetables provide fascinating social commentaries on the times.

Just after the war, not many people had cars, of course, and not having being able to travel for leisure during the war years, they would have leapt at the chance to get away as a family to the seaside or holiday camp, and not be put off by the lengthy journey.

And I suppose that after the deprivation of the war years, they would not have expected a restaurant car, and the would have taken packing huge mounds of sandwiches and filling thermoses in their stride.

 

[stationpilot]

Brilliant, thanks for sharing

 

[Minilad]

Interesting that people would spend nearly 8 hours on the Saturday special "express" train from Paddington to Penychain Butlins Holiday camp. With no restaurant or buffet car onboard. Presumably the holidaymakers brought lots of sandwiches and thermoses.

According to Yahoo it would take 4h30mins to drive the same 250 miles today. But of course Butlins is long gone from there so there's little reason to make the voyage modernly.

And I bet they didn't even have wi-fi either tut tut

 

[bnm]

And I bet they didn't even have wi-fi either tut tut

No, but I'm sure you could have taken your Wireless along (with a large case for the batteries!) to listen to Dick Barton, ITMA or Worker's Playtime on the BBC Light Programme.

 

[Mojo]

To an extent, a lot of the services I use regularly are now better in terms of them being quicker or more frequent (or both). Saying that, the last trains at night seemed to be a lot later then at present; for example late night trains after midnight to Bristol from Birmingham and those services which didn't have very late trains did at least have later services. For example Bristol TM to Avonmouth the last service on a Sunday was 22.45 and now it's 17.53.

 

[northwichcat]

All the people who say heavy rail can't run a frequent service like Metrolink should look at the Altrincham-Manchester one:
http://www.timetableworld.com/image_viewer.php?id=7&section_id=1505

The service was once:
07:45 Altrincham-Manchester (all stops)
07:49 Altrincham-Manchester (all stops)
07:54 Altrincham-Manchester (most stops)
08:00 Sale-Manchester (all stops)
07:58 Altrincham-Manchester (express)
08:00 Altrincham-Manchester (all stops)

so heavy rail was running more frequently than Metrolink is now!

 

[Ivo]

Surely that level of frequency wouldn't have been needed though? With such intense service (even if it was at peak levels) it is clear to see why Beeching was called for...

 

[Jeremy B]

Thank you very much for this link. Following my recent St Enoch postings I've been able to study train services from that fine station from the timetables published online

 

[northwichcat]

Surely that level of frequency wouldn't have been needed though? With such intense service (even if it was at peak levels) it is clear to see why Beeching was called for...

That level of frequency was just for the busiest section of the peak period. In the off-peak it was a stopper around every 20 minutes and an express around every hour.

Less people had cars in the 1940s than in the 1960s when the Beeching Report was undertaken and one of the main reasons for Beeching recommending closing railway lines was it was believed a lot of rail passengers would be transferring to cars in the near future anyway.

AFAIK Beeching didn't have any problems with the service or frequency on Manchester-Sale-Northwich-Chester but did question whether two routes between Manchester and Chester were needed and if not he was looking at closing Warrington Bank Quay to Chester.

 

[bnm]

To an extent, a lot of the services I use regularly are now better in terms of them being quicker or more frequent (or both). Saying that, the last trains at night seemed to be a lot later then at present; for example late night trains after midnight to Bristol from Birmingham and those services which didn't have very late trains did at least have later services. For example Bristol TM to Avonmouth the last service on a Sunday was 22.45 and now it's 17.53.

I, too, was surprised to see the service on Sundays, for the Severn Beach Line. Be damn handy for me if there were still these late evening Sunday trains. But I supposed we should be thankful for small mercies. Until 2008 there was no Sunday service at all!

 

[Holly]

No, but I'm sure you could have taken your Wireless along (with a large case for the batteries!) to listen to Dick Barton, ITMA or Worker's Playtime on the BBC Light Programme.

More likely a few folks took banjos, mouthorgans etc. to give impromptu performances en route.

I wonder whether it would have been open or corridor coaches on the Cambrian Coast Express in 1947? I recall that in the 1950s it was the done thing to engage your fellow travellers in conversation, something that has largely died out, presumably due to noisier trains.

 

[Statto]

One thing reading old timetables, are the overnight Sleeper & non Sleeper services which ran 7 days a week, & not only to/from London, which are now long gone.

 

[Chapeltom]

Buxton Line, 3 trains on Sundays! No trains between 10:32 and 1:10 or between 6:40 and 8:32 from Buxton to Manchester! Just 17 services a day out of Buxton/18 services a day from Buxton but a few others didn't call at Buxton and terminated short, now there is 22. To Whaley Bridge there was 21 services a day, as already said 22 today, no change there then!

Also Chapel en le Frith to Manchester express services, 35 minutes, now the journey is 50! Just 3 trains before midday from Manchester to Buxton, now there's 5. Last train at 2225 from Manchester and took 1hr 19, now its 2310 and 57 minutes!

 

[Aictos]

Thanks for these, found them to be interesting

 

[Greenback]

I agree, I haven't had time to have a good look yet, but a little peek at the 1948 Scottish timetable was fascinating.

 

[tirphil]

Interesting that people would spend nearly 8 hours on the Saturday special "express" train from Paddington to Penychain Butlins Holiday camp. With no restaurant or buffet car onboard. Presumably the holidaymakers brought lots of sandwiches and thermoses.

According to Yahoo it would take 4h30mins to drive the same 250 miles today. But of course Butlins is long gone from there so there's little reason to make the voyage modernly.

There is still a holiday park at Penychain and the station can be surprisingly busy during the summer at weekends.

 

[button_boxer]

I guess the late/overnight trains were really mail or newspapers trains with a few passenger carriages tacked on at marginal cost (with the goods traffic paying the fixed cost of running the loco). When the goods traffic disappeared with the move to road haulage it wouldn't have been economic to keep the passenger carriages running on their own.

 

[Greenback]

I guess the late/overnight trains were really mail or newspapers trains with a few passenger carriages tacked on at marginal cost (with the goods traffic paying the fixed cost of running the loco). When the goods traffic disappeared with the move to road haulage it wouldn't have been economic to keep the passenger carriages running on their own.

That's right. There used to be an overnight train from London to South Wales via Gloucester which conveyed all sorts of things along with one or two passenger coaches.

 

[Holly]

That's right. There used to be an overnight train from London to South Wales via Gloucester which conveyed all sorts of things along with one or two passenger coaches.

It's hard to imagine what the overnight Euston to Afonwen (presumably via Chester) train was like.

 

[Buffer68]

Do you think there is any merit in collecting the current timetables - I guess most rail users would throw out their old ones; might they be collectible in years to come.

Also, I have thought about asking for the posters from stations - the more interesting ones of course - never be as valuable as the ones from the steam era but worth the hassle do you think?

 

[Chafford1]

And in the 1965 Western Region timetable, Paddington to Birmingham Snow Hill, Wolverhampton Low Level, Shrewsbury and Birkenhead services:

http://www.timetableworld.com/book_viewer.php?id=12&section_id=15

 

[Welshman]

I guess the late/overnight trains were really mail or newspapers trains with a few passenger carriages tacked on at marginal cost (with the goods traffic paying the fixed cost of running the loco). When the goods traffic disappeared with the move to road haulage it wouldn't have been economic to keep the passenger carriages running on their own.

Exactly - I remember an overnight York-Swansea Victoria via what we now call the Heart of Wales line - it ran mainly for mail, milk, parcels and any odd intrepid passenger!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Do you think there is any merit in collecting the current timetables - I guess most rail users would throw out their old ones; might they be collectible in years to come.

Also, I have thought about asking for the posters from stations - the more interesting ones of course - never be as valuable as the ones from the steam era but worth the hassle do you think?

Who knows? - perhaps if building High Speed lines in Britain really comes about, folks in 2061 might be surprised that way back in 2011 it took all of 2Hrs 5 Minutes to travel from London to Manchester!

 

[Greenback]

Exactly - I remember an overnight York-Swansea Victoria via what we now call the Heart of Wales line - it ran mainly for mail, milk, parcels and any odd intrepid passenger!

IIRC there was a remnant of that service that ran for many years after Swansea Victoria closed. It left Shrewsbury around 0345.

 

[Ivo]

Do you think there is any merit in collecting the current timetables - I guess most rail users would throw out their old ones; might they be collectible in years to come.

If there isn't then myself, MattE2010 and others need a new hobby! I have about 90 SWT timetables in a box back home, never mind any other TOCs or any I have collected since leaving home, with as many as roughly five of the same one. I used to go to Waterloo twice a year and pick out every one, much to the bemusement and interest of others around me. But of course, that isn't my largest collection on a table-by-table basis - as some on here will know, that "accolade" belongs to the Derry Line (at roughly 20 of the same issue)...

Allowing for buses, trains, compliations and other things, I probably have in excess of 1,000 of things, ranging from temporary one-page alterations to a massive book of everything operated in Munich dated 2005. Now that's sad.