The story of Richard Price-Williams and his fascinating map of England & Wales. It shows lines completed and authorised - many of which would never be built - and the territorial nature of railway companies.
Published 12th November 2020
Unfamiliar with North America’s Official Guide of the Railways? Read this introduction to “The Guide” to welcome you to an excellent – and complex – resource
Published 1st October 2020
Our overview to the RCH describes its role and history, and uses the colourful maps to share some railway snippets.
[Article under development]
“Are you married or do you live in Maidenhead?“. How Brunel’s Great Western Railway helped to create a fashionable – and somewhat louche – river resort.
[Article under development]
First published in 1873, read this illustrated story of these wonderful timetables. The article is based on pages of the 1973 Centenary Edition. Our copy was signed by J H Price, the editor since 1952.
Published 11th December 2020
Fifty regional operators dominated the British bus industry after the Second World War. As an introduction to the bus timetable collection, our map and historical overview explain how the industry was structured.
Published 8th October 2020
Updated 20th November 2020 (more timetable links added)
East Prussia, Memel and Pomerania are no longer German. Follow the former main lines to Königsberg and Insterburg in timetables and maps.
[Article under development]
The Colorado Midland Railway appears in our 1916 Official Guide but is gone by 1918. It was just too difficult to operate – and the US Government shut it down. We tell its story in timetables and maps.
[Article under development]
The latest release has added nearly 200 items, taking the total over 1,000 items.
The website was relaunched just over one year ago and has achieved so much so quickly thanks to the help given by dozens of supporters. 332,125 pages of scans have been published, some from existing sources but the majority were captured by our volunteers. 146 new indexing jobs have been added.
The release was later than expected, but at least it arrived within October. The main reason was a desire to get through the scanning of two large collections that had been waiting since May and June.
The visual revamp also hasn't happened yet, but it will!
There is now an Excel catalogue available to download. It contains links to every published page.
The website is approaching the 1st Anniversary of being relaunched - 1st October.
The next release will be about two weeks' later. There are some exciting additions, and we'll take the opportunity to refresh the website layout.
The gap since the previous release is wider than the usual 5-6 week interval but the team of scanning volunteers has been busy and it should be a big release. We're looking forward to publishing it all.
The latest release adds nearly 80 new items. In Great Britain, as modern traction rapidly takes over from steam a near-complete set of railway timetables for 1961, 1962 and 1963 is now available. We have come across three more early Bradshaw's timetables (1840s) too. They overlap with existing coverage but we choose to publish them anyway because the markings and conditions are of great interest.
There has been good progress on scanning rare German timetables from the 1933-45 era. Dates may appear to overlap with existing coverage in 1939 but the editions are all very different. A Timetable World volunteer has scanned these artefacts with great care and they match the quality of expensive reprints, but are made available here free-of-charge.
A book of West German railway distances 1951 has been added. Agreed, it is not a timetable but is an interesting companion to the timetables.
The collection of GB bus timetables continues to grow, and has now reached about 150 items. We're excited about the new map-based index for these timetables which is part of the current release. The map shows the geographical proximity of various operators and uses colour to signify ownership. The regular tree-like index is still available, and the Yorkshire and North West area menus have been restructured to deal with growing coverage.
The first dedicated airline timetables are released this time. Look under the North America menu to find the first four Official Guides (1929) covering the pioneer airlines as they establish early routes. A 1933 German timetable has a section for early aeroplane and Zepellin airship routes in Europe and to South America. Several other timetables have air sections, and we may bring these together in a dedicated menu in a subsequent release.
There are many more timetables in the pipeline for scanning and publication. Please get in touch if you can offer timetables or help in any other way. Next release likely to be September.
The server disruption of a month ago is now largely resolved. We are back to having two live servers and an offline backup system, but the legacy website has not been restored as yet. The two servers have plenty of spare capacity for future growth and resilience.
We have just completed moving Timetable World onto a new web server. It is a stop-gap arrangement because the original web server has broken down.
We spent quite a while trying to work out why the original box was dead, and to fix it. We apologise to users for the time this took.
The conclusion is that replacing the box is the better option than a repair in this case. The temporary web server is unfortunately not as fast as before. Please be patient.
Access to the legacy version of Timetable World has not been restored. We'll do that when the new box is ready. It's a matter of priorities.
We received two major loans/donations during April comprising almost 200 European railway timetables and historical UK bus timetables. Releases continue to happen every month and we've been able to release almost half of these items already.
Timetable and map donations and loans are always sought. Please get in touch with what you can offer and we'll find a solution to gaining access.
Coverage for several countries is now reaching critcal mass. Some introductory articles for each country will start appearing over the summer. If you have not already done so, please sign up to the website. We promise to only send interesting emails! Typically when the monthly release is complete.
Sorry about the lack of News since January. Website development has nevertheless been very active - we just didn't update this section!
We are proud to announce two major releases. Our release of US and Canadian material took place a week ago, and immediately makes Timetable World the premier online archive for historical Official Guides, Amtrak, and VIA timetables. That was followed a few days later with over 50 European timetables, and a further 20 rare railway maps.
Volunteers tackling the indexing of timetables is also a success story. 18 people have been helping out; four have done more than ten books each - and one keen individual has completed a remarkable 43 books, including some of the most challenging.
A new article has been published about R.Price-Williams 1872 Railway Map of England and Wales. It is a fascinating map for showing numerous lines that had been authorised but many of which failed to be built.
The timetable viewer now has an additional tool. A camera button is available to take snapshots of the area you are centred on at the resolution you have selected. The tool requires users to be registered with Timetable World and logged in. We encourage you to share the pictures; just give us a credit please.
The first five weeks of Timetable World have gone well. No technical faults, only a few errors in the published timetables and lots of new contacts made. Some of the highlights are:
The new-style website is released today. People's expectations have changed in the 11 years that Timetable World has been running and we've taken the opportunity to completely rewrite it to use the latest technologies. It is designed to work on handheld devices that didn't exist when the site first started, whilst making full use of ever-larger desktop screens. There are many more timetables and maps now available and, importantly, a new team of volunteers helping to scan and index the material coming in from collectors and our archive partners.
The articles promised on the front page will follow soon, and we'll add more timetables during October.
This is an archive, not a fully curated online exhibition. Expect to do some work to find the nuggets that interest you. The timetable viewer has many controls to help you navigate including preset bookmarks and we encourage users to take the time to learn the toolkit provided.
Please tell us about any faults you find. It is difficult to test every combination of device, browser brand and version, language etc. The site relies on reasonably up-to-date browsers and we are not attempting to support ancient systems.
Please share your ideas for improvements too. The Timetable World project is very much alive and seeking new people to get involved.
The new website is taking shape with about three weeks to go before it is cut over to live. Timetable World‘s core group of volunteers and contributors are today being invited to review the site.
We’ve over-achieved on the scanning front and look like having around 150 books available when the website is relaunched.
Effort is now focussed on website development. Much of the work is writing text, which I enjoy doing, but I cannot deliver at the pace of a professional journalist.
The project is on schedule. You’d expect nothing less from a timetables website, would you?
The last three weeks have been busy, with around 80 timetables arriving here for scanning.
Two collectors have opened their archives of European rail timetables, for which Timetable World is very grateful. There should be a representative national timetable for almost every European country at the relaunch.
32 bus timetables - 8,542 pages - from the late 1960s, covering most non-municipal services in England & Wales, have been digitised over three long days.
Volunteers to spread the work are still wanted. Please make yourself known if you have some free time to help. Thank you!
There’s a lot happening. Users waiting for timetableworld.com to be relaunched will have to be patient; it will be a big expansion and improvement – and there’s much more to do. Expect the relaunch October 2020.
A few highlights:
Things we need:
Plans for refreshing the website are developing quickly.
The former (inactive) email address has now been replaced by
A second forum thread is demo-ing a possible new way of displaying timetable books and is available at railforums.co.uk. Add your thoughts to the thread or by emailing me.
After a long period with no development taking place on the site, I’ve opened up a debate on whether to do a major revamp. You can read the forum debate at railforums.co.uk
The site has been receiving 40,000 visitors per month but, to take it forward, I need to assemble a small team to help with the work. My post on the forum says more about what’s involved. Please share your thoughts.
Please visit the About menu pages to learn about the project and its technologies, then make contact with Timetable World via our email address
Timetable World has expanded to cover 25 countries, including most in Europe. There are 186 complete timetables and maps on the site already, representing over 51,000 pages of scans. Lots to explore.
Not all books are fully indexed – around 40%. We rely on volunteers to complete the work.