FIRST TRAIN TIME-TABLE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 45, 22 February 1930, Page 20

FIRST TRAIN TIME-TABLE

"BRAPSHAW^.IN 7 THE 1 DAYS

On 23th October, 1809, there was published a slender booklet, entitled "Time-tables and Assistant to Travelling." It was a guido to the railway line between London and Birmingham, and it boro tho name of George Bradshaw, who • was tho son of a Salford engraver, writes "L.M." in tno "Evening News" (London). It was not quito the first time-table. One for tho Manchester to Liverpool line, also by Mr. Bradshaw, had appeared iv the North -sis days previously,,.but the London to Birmingham timc-tablowas the first that Londoners saw. . Bradshaw had approached tho vailway companies several years before this date to ascertain from them at what times the trains would run, but. the companies said, "If .we announce times to the minute all along tho line we.shall bind ourselves to a standard of punctuality we can never maintain." Unable to penetrate tho official mind from the outside, Bradshaw had become a shareholder, and, after years of advocacy, had at last made two of the companies sec tho advantages of a time-table. .'■■' ; ■'.", . In 1840 Bradshaw called his work, which by then embraced several more lines, the "Baihvay Companion," but in.tho following year he reverted to «fGuide,"- a title retained by ; the monthly publication us it grew fatter and fatter. \ "The' editions of 1844—they are preserved in the British.; Museum and

othor places—contain some interesting "Genoral Instructions, for Kailway Travellers." Ono notosthe following: Preserve your ticket until it is called for by tho company's servant. Infants in arms (not able to walk) not chargod for. ( . Dogs, at a small ehargu for each, are conveyed in a proper vehicle. Smoking not allowed at tho station nor in any of the carriages. Thero is tho familiar, "Don't loan against tho door or attempt to get out while tho train, is in motion," but another rulo appears uot to havo survived in its entirety to the present day, "No fees or gratuities are allowed to bo received by any of the company's servants, but they aro enjoined to pay every attention to tho convenience of passengers.," . . . Many different classes of fare were specified in the early Bradshaws—first class, second class, mail. London mail, mixed trains; and there was one fare for fast and another for slow trains. For three times first-class fare you might travel in the "gentlemen's carriage," or for second'class fare you might sit in'your own carriage which was roped securely to a truck. Bradshaw lived not only, to extend his time-tables to the wholo British railway system but to prepare a MContinental Guide" as well. While engaged on this he was stricken with cholera at Christiania and died. He lies in tho church-yard of Christiania ■Cathedral. "