Print Publication No.: 349069/00070

February, 1999 Issue No. 179 (Vol. 16 No. 2)

Dear members and friends,

1. Media attitudes to people who like timetables: Twice in the past month I have come across references in the media about people who like timetables. The first was in The Courier Mail newspaper on Thursday 14th January 1999 page 13. There was an article about how rock star Rod Stewart and his partner Rachel Hunter have separated. The article tells how Rod Stewart has a large train set laid out in the attic of his London home and what a "vicious and destructive hobby" it must be. It then talks about how some people have timetables of the real trains and try to replicate the running of them with their model train set. The author of the article likens this to a drug and that it "leads to an encyclopaedic knowledge of, and proselytising zeal for the minutiae" of the railway system being run. It concludes "there is no known cure." No doubt some of that article was probably written light heartedly with tongue in cheek to give readers something to smile or laugh at.

The second reference in the media to timetables was in the television comedy show "The Vicar of Dibley" on Channel 2 (Our ABC) on Saturday evening 16th January 1999. The scene is a meeting of the Dibley Parish Council and it is mentioned that there has been no bus service to Dibley for the past 12 years. Frank, the Parish Clerk, comments that if there was a bus service he would like to go on it to an exhibition of "The Timetables of Whitworth in the 1920’s". Of course there is laughter at this gag, no doubt because it must have seemed strange to the audience that someone would find looking at timetables interesting. No doubt, for most people, looking up a train or bus timetable is a means to an end for getting from point A to point B rather than something to be read for enjoyment.

So what do we make of this media attitude about people who like timetables? I believe it is telling us that there are people in the community who find our interest in timetables amusing or "a bit funny". I can live with that because those same people are always pleased when we can tell them when the next train or bus is due to arrive and when it should reach their destination. What I do find hard is that sometimes some of us timetable collectors behave or do things that give the community justifiable reasons to consider us "a bit funny." I’m referring to what is generally known as the "gunzel" or "foamer" (for our American readers) element in the hobby. Fortunately I don’t see too much of it in our Association so I’d like to thank everyone for this. That being the case I’d like to encourage each one of us to continue with this balanced attitude to our hobby so that the good it achieves can be clearly seen in the community without the "gunzel" or "foamer" element clouding our achievements. The last thing our hobby needs is to become the regular butt of journalists’ jibes and comedians’ jokes.

2. Summer Timetables: Have you noticed that there seems to be an increasing trend for transport operators to have summer timetables? During this present summer I have noticed summer timetables operating for some Sydney harbour ferry services, some Sydney Buses routes, National Bus Co (in Brisbane and Melbourne), some private bus companies and even CityRail in Sydney who in one publication I saw referred to some of their weekday services between Christmas and New Year as operating to a summer timetable (CityRail code for fewer services based on the weekend timetable).

The reason I am mentioning the matter of summer timetables is that unless you are a regular commuter on that operator’s services there is a very strong possibility that you wouldn’t know their services are running to a summer timetable (which may require you to travel earlier or later). Why? Because of the operators I know about on the east coast of Australia who are using summer timetables, not one of them indicates in their regular timetable that their services will be different over the summer period. (Please let me know if you find any). The result is that for a period of time each year the regular timetable of that operator isn’t worth using because they ain’t running to it! For us timetable collectors this can be a real trap if we ever in the future try to reconstruct what services might have been like during a summer period.

I’m sure that most of us would agree that operators who wish to run to summer timetables should indicate in their regular timetables that summer timetables will be used. That way everyone with a regular timetable remains informed of what to expect, which when you think about it is the major purpose of producing a timetable.
 

Yours in the cause of happy timetable collecting,

Graham Duffin.

Editor, The Times.

Accompanying this article are illustrations of the 1 February 1951 Public T.T. of the U.S.’s St Louis Southwestern Railway, traditionally marketed under the name, Cotton Belt Route. The T.T. is a double-sided sheet 378 x 224 mm folded concertina style. Most of it is illustrated here. The Cotton Belt Route was unusual among U.S. medium-sized railroads in that its passenger services were self-contained, without through services to any other railroad. A glance at the map shows that the Cotton Belt Route consisted of a main line St Louis-Dallas with a number of short branches. Surprisingly, as late as 1951 there was still a passenger service on most of the branches.

The tables show that passenger service consisted of two major train services: the Morning Star St Louis-Dallas and the Lone Star Memphis-Dallas, the latter sharing all but 111km of its 774km route with the former. These named trains are supplemented with three branch line passenger trains in each direction: Lewisville-Shreveport, Mt Pleasant-Corsicana and Mt Pleasant-Corsicana-Waco. All these made good connections with the main line services. The first named even had through sleeping cars Memphis-Shreveport. There were also Mixed services on a further seven branches: some of these had fair connections in both directions; others showed a connection in one direction only; a few branch services made no attempt whatever to connect. In this respect the most interesting is the Mt Pleasant- Waco-Gatesville branch (Tables 3&8) where a connecting pass. service ran as far as Waco but there was no real attempt to to link it in either direction with the Waco-Gatesville Mixed.

Note the symmetry in the train numbering. Nos 101 and 201 both connected off No.1 whereas Nos 102 and 202 made the connection with No.2. Similarly, 5 met 105 and 106 connected with 6. There was no such pattern to the numbering of Mixeds.

The Cotton Belt Route started life in 1871 as the three foot gauge Tyler Gap Railroad. After purchases, takeovers and gauge conversion it emerged as the St Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt Route) in 1891. The beginning of the end for passenger services occurred after publication of the timetable we are discussing, the Lone Star being discontinued in 1953. By 1959 all passenger services had gone. The road increased somewhat in size between 1973 and 1982 due to purchases from other companies. In 1983 it was absorbed into the Southern Pacific Railroad that, in turn, became part of Union Pacific.

Freight was always more important than passenger services to Cotton Belt. Interestingly, this was reflected in the 1951 Public T.T. Contemporary Publics from most other American railroads were full of enticing advertisements for the companies’ passenger trains and services but there were only two adverts. in the Cotton Belt T.T. - both for freight service.

As a foreigner, I really have little background information about the Cotton Belt Route other than what appears in the preceding paragraphs. To all intents and purposes, I have read the 1951 T.T. in a vacuum and this poses a number of problems to which I don’t have any answers:

• The first is a dousey. A cursory glance at Table 5 shows a neat service Malden-Lillbourn-Wyatt with the westbound also providing a return service on the Lillbourn-New Madrid branch (during a 95 minute break in mainline services at Lillbourn); the branch service also providing good connections off the eastbound mainline train. However, a look at the "Explanation of Reference Marks" reveals that the service did not run daily but rather on alternate days in each direction, presumably run by one train set. This T.T. would therefore have been impossible to operate because of the New Madrid service! My hypothesis, and I must stress that it’s only speculation, is that the service we see was originally daily (it was certainly thrice weekly by May 1949). A daily service would certainly have worked. I have to assume that the New Madrid-Lillbourn service was actually run on Tue, Thu, Sat and not Mon, Wed, Fri as shown, the service being provided by the Tue, Thu, Sat Wyatt-Malden train. This service would have worked, although it would have meant there were no connections westbound between the main line and the branch.

• On the main line (Table 1) there were different stopping patterns in each direction. Kingsland, and a number of stations between Nevada and Dallas, got two stopping trains in one direction but only one in the other. Why?

• The refreshment services are interesting. The Morning Star made three refreshment stops in each direction. The Lone Star had no refreshment facilities during the evening portions of its journey but a dining car ran Texarkana-Dallas-Texarkana providing refreshments during daylight hours for both the eastbound and westbound. Presumably, the refreshment room at Texarkana was used also to stock the dining car. However, why was the stop as long as 25 minutes on the westbound at Texarkana? Was the R.R.R. open for breakfast for this train? (For that matter was the Texarkana refreshment room open during the Lone Star’s 15 minute eastbound stop?)

• What were the Pine Bluff Shops shown in Table 1? There is also a stop at Pine Bluff Station. The fact that Pine Bluff Shops is shown as another refreshment stop suggests it may have been a stop alongside a shopping centre rather than being ‘shops’ in the Australian railway jargon of workshops. This hypothesis may be contradicted by Table 7 that shows Pine Bluff Shops as the actual junction for the North Little Rock line.

• Talking of Little Rock: it is surprising to see such a relatively poor service to such a major city. It is even more intriguing that the large city of Fort Worth did not get even a Mixed service. Sure, Fort Worth was served by other railroads with trains coming in from seven different directions, including a direct Texas and Pacific service from nearby Dallas.

• Why did Mixed trains run on the Paragould-Blytheville line (Table 10) only between the hours of 7.00am and 9.45am? This service involved two train sets whereas, on the surface, it would have been quite possible to run the service with one train set.

• Also on the Blytheville line, the two Mixeds crossed at Hornersville, the place where the Blytheville line crossed the Truman line (Table 9). Was there a reason for this?

The questions raised are probably a prime example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. Perhaps if I knew more about the Cotton Belt Line.....
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

George H. Drury, The Historical Guide to North American Railroads, 1994.

National Rail Publication Co., The Official Guide to the Railways, May 1949

How about this for an unusual timetable? A regular service by timetabled cycle! This timetable  is from an advertisement in the Coolgardie Miner newspaper of 9th June 1894.

This service operated around Coolgardie on the Western Australian Goldfields in 1894. The "main line" of the service connected Coolgardie with the railhead which was then at Southern Cross. The timetable states that this Cyclist "beats Coach by 36 hours". "Branch" services were operated by Hannan’s, White Feather and Kurnalpi. Hannan’s was soon renamed Kalgoorlie and overtook Coolgardie in importance.

An earlier extract from the Coolgardie Miner of 21st April 1894 headed "Prospectus of the Cyclists’ Express Co" explains the service (see below). It says it was for "speedy communication for messages." Another extract from the Coolgardie Miner of 12th May 1894 (see below) shows the train service to Southern Cross from 12th April 1894.

Nearby is Kalgoorlie. The Kalgoorlie Miner of 22nd November 1898 printed the suburban train timetable, as it did in every issue of that period. Appearing below is the timetable for the Kalgoorlie to Coolgardie services. This was the period when there was more suburban train traffic in Kalgoorlie than in Perth. (Ed: Space prevents me from showing all the Kalgoorlie suburban train timetables).

I found these extracts when I was researching W.A. Goldfields newspapers for a subject completely unconnected with transport. They prove that timetables can be found in all sorts of places!

 

Timetables from a Coal Hole!

I think it must have been when I was transferred from Wigtown in Scotland to Moreton in the Marsh in Gloucestershire after I had been in UK for about three months in 1944. I was waiting on Victoria Station in Manchester for a train to Crewe and thence to Birmingham and had time to fill in. I asked a porter where the railway headquarters was and he directed me up a street called Hunts Bank to a building which had once been the HQ of part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. I asked the liftman where I could get some timetables. He took me down to the basement and introduced me to a Traffic Inspector called Joe Kelly. Joe was responsible for the issuing of all working timetables and special train notices for the Lancashire section of the Central Division of the LMS. I think he gave me a current Central Division passenger working timetable which had maybe 200 pages. I still have it.

He then said it was the only current one he had, but "Come along here" and he took me to the coal hole under the footpath where the coal in peacetime (there was a shortage of coal during the war!) would have been tipped through a hole in the footpath. There I found a mountain of working timetables! As I found out Joe Kelly was also the Collector of Salvage and all used timetables were sent to his office, except those which were needed for toilet purposes! "Take what you want" he said. I think I went away with a load of out of date LMS working timetables about a foot high. Perhaps that is where I got the out of date Scottish ones for the trains to Wigtownshire, which I would have liked when I was in Wigtown. I bundled the timetables up as best I could, then carted them back to the train and on to Moreton in the Marsh. Blokes in uniform, particularly from "the Colonies", were treated as welcome visitors. I have several stories about this.

After that Joe Kelly’s office was a regular port of call when I was in that area. One Saturday afternoon I joined a party from the Manchester Model Railway Club on a visit to Lostock Junction to watch the holiday trains off to Blackpool for the first peacetime holiday in six years. I was the only enthusiast there with a COMPLETE set of regular working timetables and special train notices. I think I still have most of them.

North American Timetable Collectors and the NAOTC

I think I first gained contact with the NAOTC (National Association Of Timetable Collectors) shortly after 1976, when I saw an ad in Trains magazine saying "Send 25 dollars and we will tell you all about timetable collecting." I did so and at first couldn’t understand that First Edition was the name of a magazine. It was some months before I got all the things they said they were going to send. When I got their magazines, I decided I would give away some of my USA public timetables which had accumulated at Box Hill (where I live), but not the ones I sent home from USA. So I put an ad in First Edition, a sort of social magazine, listing the items for sale. In exchange, I said I would really like some employees timetables from the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern railways, both of which went out of business before 1920 and formed part of Canadian National. I was in effect asking for timetables which were at the very least 50 years old. I had several replies. One obviously old man (by his writing) offered me something like 15 US dollars for a Milwaukee Public book. I wrote back and said that instead of money would he send me an OO gauge passenger car listed in the then current Walthers catalogue. He did so but also sent the sum he originally offered - in single US dollar bills.

I also got a reply from a senior USAF officer who said he had some of the items I asked for, but wouldn’t sell them. I asked if he would photocopy them for me and I would pay him for them. In reply he sent the photocopies of all the items he mentioned, but refused to accept any money. I sent him some Australian items. Perhaps that was the start of my ultra old Canadian collection which has grown a bit since then.

From this transaction, in about 1980, I got the impression that artefacts were the things North Americans collected - tangible actual timetables - and passed them on only for a lot of money. Photocopies were different - they were no trouble at all provided I knew what I wanted and knew that the American collector had them. The idea seemed to be that Americans and Canadians collected timetables but would share the information in them by photocopy, whereas in Australia we seemed quite happy to collect photocopies. In other words, here in Australia we tend to collect the information in them.

by Graeme Cleak

Last month (The Times No. 178, January 1999 p7) a checklist was published of all known issues of system wide public timetables since the 1950’s of the Victorian Railways and their successors Vic Rail and V/Line. This has prompted me to compile a list from my records of known issues of Victorian Public Timetables. I extracted this information from the official office copies held in the Timetables Office of Victorian Railways around 1980. There were bound copies from the 1870’s up to the early 1930’s, after which they were loose copies.

With the various administrative changes within the Timetables Section since that time, the collection was last heard of in storage at Spotswood. I would hope that eventually it may finish up in the Government Archives office at Laverton.

VICTORIAN PUBLIC RAIL TIMETABLES: (Please read down)

System Wide

1-5-1875     1-9-1881      8-5-1888     1-1902     4-5-1914     27-9-1937
1-6-1875     1-10-1881     1-10-1888    3-1902     7-12-1914    5-12-1938
1-7-1875     1-11-1881     1-3-1889     5-1902     3-5-1915     11-12-1939
2-8-1875     1-12-1881     12-8-1889    9-1902     13-12-1915   17-3-1941
1-9-1875     11-1-1882     17-3-1890    8-12-1902   1-5-1916    15-12-1941
1-10-1875    1-2-1882      11-8-1890    9-3-1903    *8-1-1917    ?Gap for war?
1-11-1875    1-3-1882      24-3-1891    1-9-1903 (*Deferred from  Country Fold
1-12-1875    3-4-1882      21-9-1891    18-12-1903 4-12-1916)    over style
3-1-1876     1-5-1882      10-12-1891   3-1904     10-5-1917     11-1954
1-2-1876     1-6-1882      9-5-1892     5-1904     3-12-1917     10-1956
1-3-1876     1-7-1882      19-12-1892   8-1904     6-5-1918      11-1957
1-4-1876     1-8-1882      15-5-1893    9-1904     2-12-1918    Country Small
1-5-1876     1-9-1882      18-12-1893   5-12-1904  5-5-1919     Book Style
1-6-1876     2-10-1882     21-5-1894    1-3-1905   1-12-1919 (W) 1-6-1959
1-7-1876     1-11-1882     1-10-1894    9-1905     17-5-1920 (S) 2-11-1959
1-8-1876     1-12-1882     14-11-1894   12-1905    4-10-1920 (W) 2-5-1960
1-9-1876   ?1883 Missing?  17-12-1894   3-1906     30-5-1921 (S) 7-11-1960
1-10-1876    7-1-1884      5-4-1895    7-5-1906   22-12-1921 (W) 1-5-1961
1-11-1876    4-2-1884      29-7-1895    9-1906      6-6-1922 (W) 17-7-1961
1-12-1876    3-3-1884      9-12-1895  10-12-1906  11-12-1922 (S) 6-11-1961
?? Next batch 2-4-1884     11-5-1896    3-1907    10-12-1923 (W) 16-4-1962
missing??    5-5-1884      15-12-1896   1-5-1907    3-3-1924 (W) 16-7-1962
System Book  2-6-1884     Country Book  9-1907      7-7-1924 (S) 5-11-1962
2-2-1880     3-7-1884      1-5-1897    2-12-1907    1-6-1925 (W) 6-5-1963
1-3-1880     1-9-1884     12-8-1897    3-1908      7-12-1925 (W) 4-8-1963
1-4-1880     1-10-1884    1-12-1897    1-5-1908    14-6-1926 (S) 4-11-1963
3-5-1880     1-12-1884    2-5-1898     9-1908      16-5-1927 (W) 4-5-1964
1-6-1880     15-1-1885    1-12-1898    1-12-1908  17-10-1927 (S) 2-11-1964
1-8-1880     2-3-1885     1-5-1899     1-3-1909    18-6-1928 (W) 3-5-1965
1-9-1880     4-5-1885     1-9-1899     1-5-1909 (1)22-10-1928 (S)14-2-1966
1-10-1880    1-7-1885     1-12-1899    1-9-1909     4-3-1929 (W) 2-5-1966
1-11-1880    1-9-1885     1-3-1900     1-12-1909 (1)9-6-1929 (S) 7-11-1966
1-12-1880    3-12-1885    7-5-1900     2-5-1910     5-5-1930 (W) 1-5-1967
1-1-1881     1-4-1886     1-9-1900     1-12-1910   13-7-1931 (S) 6-11-1967
3-2-1881     1-7-1886     1-12-1900    1-5-1911     1-9-1932 (W) 6-5-1968
7-3-1881     3-11-1886    2-1-1901     1-12-1911  23-10-1933 (S) 1-12-1968
9-5-1881     19-1-1887    1-3-1901     1-5-1912    1-10-1934 (W) 5-5-1969
1-6-1881     8-6-1887     3-6-1901    9-12-1912 (1)16-12-1935(S)3-11-1969
1-7-1881     10-10-1887   1-9-1901     1-5-1913    28-9-1936 (W) 4-5-1970
1-8-1881     19-12-1887   9-12-1901    1-12-1913    1-4-1937 (S) 16-11-1970

Country Small Book Style  Regional Country Booklets
(Continued)                (Continued)

(W) 28-6-1971             10-7-1994 North
(S) 1-11-1971             11-7-1994 South West
(W) 24-7-1972             8-1994 North East
(S) 27-11-1972            16-10-1994 West
(W) 1-7-1973              15-1-1995 North, East
(S) 9-12-1973             25-3-1995 East
(W) 6-5-1974              7-5-1995 West
(S) 4-11-1974             6-8-1995 South West, North,
(W) 26-5-1974             5-11-1995 North East
(S) 10-11-1975            12-11-1995 Stony Point fold out card
(W) 24-5-1976             18-2-1996 South East, Stony Point fold out card
(S) 8-11-1976             26-5-1996 East
(W) 9-5-1977              13-10-1996 South West, West, North, North West, North East,
(S) 7-11-1977             16-2-1997 South West, West, North, North West, East,
(W) 5-6-1978                         South East, Stony Point fold out card.
(S) 13-11-1978            7-9-1997 South West, West, North West, North, North East,
(W) 11-6-1979                        East, South East, Hoys R.L. Folded A4 Sheet.
Country A5 Book Style     15-3-1998 East, South East, Stony Point fold out card
(S) 11-1979               6-1998 West Coast Rly Warrnambool fold out card
*30-6-1980                6-12-1998 South West, West, North West, North, North East,
Cover shows July 1980                East, South East.
2-1981
Spring 1981
(S) 31-10-1982            Explanatory Notes
21-8-1983                 (1) 21mm x 22.5mm (folds in half). Designated
20-5-1984                     Country Line Services Passenger Timetables.
14-4-1985                 (S) Indicates Summer Edition or Summer Issue
27-10-1985                (W) Indicates Winter Edition or Winter Issue

Country Small
Narrow Book Style                  (Ed Remarks:

3-8-1986 Interstate only           1) Is anyone able to provide details of:
26-10-1986 10 Separate folders      1.1) the dates of any timetables issued between
2-1987                                  1876 and 1880?
11-10-1987 10 Separate folders      1.2) the dates of any timetables issued in 1883?
10-1988                            1.3) the dates of any timetables issued between
6-8-1989                                 1941 and 1954? Victor Isaacs advises that
3-6-1990                                there may have been t/t’s for individual
Regional Country Booklets               stations but not complete Country Book t/t’s.
12-1990 Interstate, South West, West, 2) Does anyone know if any timetables were
North, North East, East                 issued prior to 1875? In The Times No. 35
8-1991 Interstate, South West, West,     Feb 1987 page 5, Victor Isaacs wrote that
North, North East, East                  Vic t/t’s were not published in Govt Gazettes.
2-1992 South West                    3) If you find any omissions or errors please
5-1992 Interstate, South West, West.     advise me as I would like to list them in The
North, North East,, East Times          so all of us will have access to an as
23-8-1992 South West, West, North,      accurate list as possible.
North East, East.                    4) Graeme Cleak has advised he will work on
22-8-1993 South West, West, North,       compiling a list of Victorian Suburban Rail
North East, East.                       Timetables for publication in a future issue
1-5-1994 East                           of The Times.
29-5-1994 West                        5) Is anyone able to provide information on
                                         dates of public rail timetables in Tasmania,
                                         South Australia and Western Australia?)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - Where we welcome your feedback, views and comments on The Times and timetabling issues.

1) Graeme Reynolds - Timetabling in a competitive market

It is interesting to study the affect of timetabling in a competitive market, especially where government subsidies are involved. As an example lets look at what is happening on the Gold Coast.

National Competition Policy was directed toward removing a range of hidden subsidies which allowed "government" business or "government funded" business to compete to the disadvantage of private business, which did not enjoy a range of benefits flowing from government ownership. The competitive practices employed in the districts of Queensland’s Gold Coast route have led to the first formal inquiries into the application of the Policy to land transport.

In February 1996 Queensland Rail (QR) extended its electric train service from Brisbane to Helensvale. Later the service was extended to Nerang and Robina on the Gold Coast. Four rail stopping places were provided. These heavy rail services were in competition with the Coachtrans operations along the Pacific Highway as well as tour, charter and school bus services. Faced with the competition, Coachtrans reduced the price of multiple trip tickets by between 30 and 52 percent and varied its schedules and routes in an attempt to match the QR’s $11 fare.

By May 1996 Coachtrans’ growth in passenger numbers had fallen abruptly below their initial volume of January 1994. Despite two peaks in volume until November 1997 patronage had entered a steady decline. During this period Coachtrans lost its pick up rights between Beenleigh Transit Centre, Logan Hyperdome Shopping Centre, Garden City and the Brisbane Transit Centre. Coachtrans became concerned that while the Integrated Regional Transport Plan called for increased public transport in the corridor, competition was being stifled. This led to an investigation - one of the first in public transport by the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA).

After an investigation, the QCA determined that the Community Service Obligation (CSO) paid to three major operators varied markedly in 1996-7.

Operator            CSO     Passengers

QR Citytrain         $369m     41m

Brisbane Transport   $95.5m    48m

Private bus operators $15m     45m

QR Citytrain’s CSO had increased by $92m in the year of the opening of the new railway service for a fare revenue of $63m. The report also noted that:

QCA recommended that CSOs be arranged so that bus passengers retain access to those or equivalent public transport services. It suggested a capital grant to Coachtrans or an ongoing fare subsidy, improved rail co-ordination or extension of the Coachtrans catchment area. The Queensland government rejected the decisions because "the information available to us is not sufficiently conclusive." Coachtrans proprietor, Cos Sita, brought the matter to the attention of the National Competition Council and a Senate Inquiry into Competition Policy.

The significance of this saga for transport policy in Australia remains undecided. Already it has brought attention to the funding of community service obligations, government funding of rolling stock and vehicles, competitive timetabling and route variation as well as potential restrictions of route availability. It foreshadows new roles for timetabling in a competitive market.

Graeme Reynolds, Ballarat, Vic.

(Ed: I find the above development to be of great interest because of its affect on Coachtrans timetables. Three years ago Coachtrans was operating services every 15 minutes from Brisbane to the Gold Coast. Today it is between every 30 and 45 minutes. The last bus now departs Surfers Paradise for Brisbane at 6.00pm and the last bus from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise leaves Brisbane at 7.45pm. Due to the reasons outlined in Graeme’s letter above, the reduction in Coachtrans services has been quite significant.)

2) John Lacey - The Newcastle Express

It was a real pleasure to read Bob Ritchie’s article on the Newcastle Express (The Times No. 176, November 1998 pp 3 & 4), partly because I timed a number of fast runs behind 38 class locomotives on this train in the years 1966-1970.

Bob correctly points out that the fastest Sydney-Broadmeadow schedule of 136’ belongs to the 36 class on #21. Incidentally, this train and its Up afternoon return were known as the Northern Commercial Limited until 1936, while the Up Morning and Down Evening trains were known as the Inter-City Express for some years longer. However, honours for the fastest down schedules do go to the 38 class for #31 tabled to run non-stop from Sydney to Newcastle in 138’ in the years 1947 to 1949 and then 139’ from 1957 to 1960. The fastest Up schedule was 139’ non-stop from Newcastle on the Saturdays Only #24 in 1938 and 1939, once again with a 36.

Bob alludes to the speed restrictions applied to the Hawkesbury River Bridge and the effect of this slack on the Express timetables. Some readers may not appreciate the severity of this restriction. Once the pier fault was discovered in 1939, passing movements were banned, then the Up track was gauntletted with the Down, and a 10 mph speed limit was imposed. This was later further reduced to 4 mph, and this restriction extended a bridge crossing to 7 minutes. Nor was this the only significant bridge speed restriction. Seven old 66 feet wrought iron girder bridges between Woy Woy and Cockle Creek had speed restrictions as severe as 10mph imposed at various times from 1944. The last of the bridges, apart from the Parramatta River crossing, to be replaced was that at Ourimbah Creek in 1964.

Bob asks why the Pullman (and similar) cars did not last long on these Express services. Quite simply, it was due to their age and high accumulated mileage, both before and after conversion. These wooden bodied and wooden framed cars were 36 to 48 years old when replaced by sets 77 and 78, both later known as NCR sets. C.C.Singleton wrote in the April 1939 ARHS Bulletin that, "the light wooden bodies have now arrived at the stage where the cost of repairs is too high for the mileage to be run on a seven day a week service."

The replacement cars, which were generally considered to be the most comfortable non air conditioned cars in NSW had, to again quote C.C.Singleton, "double clasp brakes on all wheels of the six wheeled bogies and this will provide better stopping power on a run which demands particularly rapid acceleration and deceleration."

Bob’s article needs to be corrected on one minor point - the "midday" expresses were not inaugurated with the introduction of the HUB sets in 1948 but these two trains (#71/72), which had been introduced in July 1945 were withdrawn on 30/11/47, to be reinstated with the introduction of the second HUB set on 23/11/48.

Bob notes that the running times were not reduced when diesels replaced steam (3820 worked #21 from Gosford to Newcastle and then returned to Sydney on the final steam-hauled Newcastle Express, #32, on 29/12/1970). A good crew on a good 38 could shave some time off most sectional times, as they had higher horsepower potential than the diesels (until the 81 class) with the ability to produce 2,200 hp compared with the 1,500-1,600 of the diesel replacements. Of course, much of this potential horsepower superiority was dissipated by the necessity to carry the heavy tender, but actual locomotive performances as compared with the study of timetables is another story altogether.

Bob will appreciate my final comment - the fastest start to stop run from Newcastle to Gosford I timed was recorded behind 3661.

John Lacey, Rozelle, N.S.W.

(Ed: I was most interested to learn from John Lacey’s letter that a 38 class steam locomotive has more horsepower (2,200 hp) than its first generation diesel replacements. The implication of this is that trains usually worked by 38 class steam locos were replaced by less powerful locos. No wonder the timetable didn’t get any faster with diesel power!)

(Ed: You aren’t seeing double! This is a special Editor’s comment I would like everyone to read. The reason? I’d like to make a special request for all letter writers and authors of articles who wish to use train, bus, ferry or plane service numbers to please indicate the time and place of the service [eg. #19 ex Sydney 5.20pm]. The above letter has prompted me to make this request as it refers to train numbers #21, #24, #31, #32, #71 and #72. I went back to Bob Ritchie’s article in the November 1998 Times and saw that all the timetables illustrating the article didn’t show any of these train numbers so I am still none the wiser! As there are younger and overseas readers who won’t know what these numbers refer to we need to show some details so they can relate to what is being said.)

3) Graeme Cleak – Timetable Checklist No. 2 – Queensland Railways

Further to Timetable Checklist No. 2 (The Times No. 176, November 1998 p8) for Queensland Railways public timetables, I have a Brisbane Suburban timetable book dated 28-6-1959 which should be added to the Checklist.

Graeme Cleak, Nunawading, Vic.

(Ed: I would like to thank Graeme for bringing this information to our attention. If anyone finds any errors or omissions in any of the Timetable Checklists please advise me so I can publish a correction.)

Recently I started a project of writing a history of the passenger services on Prince Edward Island, a Canadian province. It is difficult to write a history of a series of timetables because they are always changing and the changes reflect all sorts of things that you may never find out. Apart from changes to the main line which causes changes on the branch, there are all sorts of outside factors which cause changes to timetables: hours of work, closing or opening of industries, diesels replacing steam, summer service different from winter, loss or gain of a ferry, diversion of train because of accidents, daylight saving in one place but not in another on the same railway. Between two consecutive issues of a timetable there will likely be several minor changes which are incorporated in the new issue. An island railway series of timetables seemed like a possibility for study, particularly an island which connected only with one train ferry. Prince Edward Island seemed to fit these desiderata. I have found I can memorise the 273 miles of track and maybe 80 stations through which there were never more than 8 trains running at any one time.

What could I find out about a railway so far away? Of course it got a mention in the Canadian National public timetables of which I have quite a number, together with a few copies of the Official Guide to American Railways. Someone put a note on the internet enquiring whether it still ran and there were four replies. It closed in 1989. There was even a mention of it in the CNR public which I bought and used when I was in Alberta in 1944.

In 1995 and 1996 I wrote to the Provincial Archives in Charlottetown PEI, just as I had written to the Provincial Archives in Alberta 30 years before. Last year the PEI Archives sent me a list of some of their acquisitions, including 8 employees timetables between 1875 and 1920. I wrote asking them to send photocopies of those timetables, which have now been received, dating back to the year the railway started. Fiftynine pages of photocopies cost me $14.75 Canadian and with the bank draft it set me back only $26 Australian. Where else could I have got so much interest and entertainment for that amount? By now I think I have at least 100 timetables for different dates each of which shows the passenger services for the complete island.
 

GRAPHIC INSIGHT

 This month, Graphic Insight draws a traditional train graph covering V/line's Eastern line passenger train services as described in their 6 December 1998 Network Train Plan timetable.

 This timetable is of interest for a few reasons, not the least of which being that it heralds the introduction of ex-SAR Bluebird railcars into Victorian service. The variety of services offered is more complex than would be expected of a line such as this - there are services terminating at Sale, Traralgon and Warragul, and train-to-train connections made at Warragul, Pakenham and Dandenong. Only the vaguest effort at a memory timetable is attempted.

 This line is also of interest from the scheduling point of view because is it a mixture of double and single track. Double track exists between Melbourne and Moe except for the section between Bunyip and Longwarry which is single. The line beyond Moe is single with crossing loops at stations as well as at Hearne's Oak between Moe and Morwell.

 The graph shows the Monday to Friday schedule for all trains running east of Pakenham. Connecting suburban trains west of Pakenham are also shown, however there are many additional services between Melbourne and Dandenong (to Cranbourne), and Melbourne and Pakenham which are not shown.

 Of particular interest is the 1858 Pakenham to Traralgon Bluebird service which lays over at Warragul for 24 minutes to enable the 1823 Melbourne to Sale train to run through. What a pity the Warragul refreshment room closed in 1981!

Return to THE TIMES contents page