(ISSN 0813-6327)

Print Publication No.: 349069/00070

December, 1998 Issue No. 177 (Vol. 15 No. 12)

Shown above is one of the pages from the Central Australia Line Working Time-Table dated 15/12/54. This is the first real diesel timetable for the narrow gauge Central Australia Railway. A review of this timetable begins on page 3 of this issue.

From the Editor - Worth reading if you want to be in the know (just like a good timetable!)

>Dear members and friends,

1. About this issue of The Times: Usually several articles are included in each monthly issue of The Times however this month I have opted for something different and devoted eleven and a half pages to one article covering the Central Australia Line Working Time-Table dated 15th December, 1954. I had the option of cutting this article up into several parts and spreading it over a number of issues of The Times however I felt it would be better to keep it all together because of the number of illustrations required to explain the timetable. Of course, please be assured, that I will never sacrifice our regular features such as Letters to the Editor and Graphic Insight as I know many readers have a high interest in them and turn to those pages first before reading anything else.

2. Ever received a letter like this?: Like many timetable collectors I regularly write to operators to obtain the latest issues of their timetables. I recently wrote a letter to a rail operator requesting their latest timetable and received the following reply:

"Dear Graham,

It’s good to see some things never change. Where would the world be if Mr Duffin was not scrounging timetables. I’m quite sure that for you to stop would be more cataclysmic than all the global warming we always hear about. So in order to avoid a world calamity I have enclosed a copy of our latest timetable as well as a few other bits and pieces in which you might be interested.

Yours sincerely,"

The person who wrote the letter has previously supplied me with many timetables over the years so knows of my interest. Has any other reader had an interesting reply when writing away for timetables? If so I’d be happy to publish extracts from it.

Yours in the cause of happy timetable collecting,

Graham Duffin.

Editor, The Times.

THE CENTRAL AUSTRALIA LINE TIMETABLE 15/12/54

(or a look at the first narrow gauge diesel timetable for the Central Australia Railway)

by David Hennell
 

Effective until further notice, for all trains of the following descriptions starting their journeys at or after 12.01 a.m. on Wednesday, 15 December, 1954:-

Port Augusta - Quorn: All trains.

Quorn - Marree: All trains, except Quorn – Telford
coal trains and any steam - hauled trains
working north of Marree.
Marree - Alice Springs: All diesel-hauled trains."

So begins an historically fascinating timetable which consists of 25 duplicated white foolscap pages stapled in the top left hand corner. A few very minor amendments have been made in the manuscript.

The preamble also advises that "the existing Working Time-Tables are to be retained for reference regarding the tables for Quorn - Telford coal trains and for any steam-hauled trains working north of Marree; also regarding certain items of information mentioned elsewhere in this book [sic]." The Working Time-Table book amended by this circular was dated August 29, 1949 (note that the date of this circular [shown above] is written in a different format from the way that the date of the Working Time-Table book is given in the text).

All this information tells us this is almost certainly the first real diesel timetable for the narrow gauge Central Australia Railway as it coincides with the entry into traffic of the fourth NSU diesel electric locomotive. The first NSU entered traffic on 03/11/54 and it would not have been appropriate to alter the existing timetable until sufficient of them were available for working the majority of long distance trains. (A fifth and sixth NSU entered traffic in November and December 1954, with the remainder during 1955.) Also, the NDH air-conditioned railcars entered traffic in November and December 1954, so this is almost certainly the commencement of their operation between Port Augusta and Marree. At this time, coal trains were operating from Telford to both Curlew Point (a branch line from Stirling North) and Terowie (for Osborne).

Chunks of the instructions were lifted word for word from the ordinary Working Time-Table book. This explains the sometimes strange wording for a document that consists of stapled sheets.

The general notes are in the standard format of the Commonwealth Railways and make interesting reading:

The Quorn - Marree section requires four pages in each direction and the sections Marree - Oodnadatta and Oodnadatta - Alice Springs only require two pages for each direction. To illustrate the appearance of these timetables, those pages with the schedules for the Ghan (Alice Springs mixeds numbers 557 and 150) effective January 1955 are shown (see the front page and pages 8 to 12). (The Port Augusta - Quorn pages indicate that the southbound service changes days of operation at this time.) Connections from and to Adelaide are shown for all passenger services in the Working Time-Table pages.

The services operated by the new NDH railcars are:
 

Bearing in mind this may not be the full non-coal service, regular trains each way each week are;-

The weekend was the busiest time at Alice Springs with trains due at 8.57 pm Friday (goods), 9.00 am Saturday (mixed) and 4.15 pm Saturday (goods). Departures were 1.00pm Sunday (mixed), 3.15 pm Sunday (goods) and 7.00 pm (Monday) (goods). Note the precision of 8.57 pm (for 465 Goods arriving Alice Springs) (shown on page 9) on one of the very few Australian railways where trains ran by the calendar (and even the calendar was dependent on the weather) rather than by the minute!

In the timetable longer station names are abbreviated and those attended are underlined. Finke did not become attended until 1961 despite it being the only town between Oodnadatta and Alice Springs. Macdonnell did not open until 1959.

The remaining pages of this temporary Working Time-Table deal with other operational matters such as timekeeping (shown on page 13) train orders and reporting, passenger traffic and shunting, mail and perishables, pay and provisions and telephones. The construction camps mentioned in the telephone calling codes (shown below) refer to the new standard gauge line from Stirling North which joined the narrow gauge at Brachina.

Please refer to the last paragraph of the above article for details about the Telephone call codes.

1) Bob Green – Graphic Insight train graph for SteamRanger

I was interested to read your September 1998 issue (The Times No. 174, September 1998 p12) on the WWW, particularly the train graph for SteamRanger.

The graph becomes significantly more complex when you take into account that Goolwa Depot is located between Goolwa and Strathalbyn and that there are light engine and empty car movements between Goolwa and Goolwa Depot to allow extra cars to be attached or dropped off the initial Cockle Train consist in busy holiday periods. All of these require train orders from TransAdelaide train control, which is the main reason we staff Goolwa with an SM in holiday periods.

If you are interested we could let you have a copy of the complete timetable which shows these extra movements.

Bob Green, SteamRanger WWW Manager, Mount Barker, South Australia.

(Ed: Yes, we are interested. Please send it in as we may be able to use it for a future article.)

2) Len Regan – The Newcastle Express saves two minutes in 61 years!

Below is a letter written by William Sutton of Singleton which appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald of 13th June 1998. It provides an interesting commentary in support of Bob Ritchie’s article in the November 1998 issue of The Times (pp 1,3 to 7).

"With all the publicity surrounding fast trains, it is timely to review intercity railroading. Today the Newcastle Flyer takes 2 hours 24 minutes – 6.23 am to 8.47am – to go from Newcastle to Sydney’s Central Station. My copy of the 1937 NSW Railways timetable outlines a trip of 2 hours 26 minutes – 7.40 am to 10.06 am – for the same journey 61 years ago.

"It is amazing that after spending millions of dollars on track upgrades, electrification, new rolling stock and with very few freight trains that the time taken for the journey has been reduced by only two minutes. Not much progress in 61 years.

"Why talk about a fast train to Canberra? The Newcastle/Hunter population exceeds that of Canberra and the daily commuter traffic is far greater. Newcastle should have priority for a world-class intercity service. Two minutes saved in 61 years – it’s a joke!"

Len Regan, Kotara, N.S.W.

3) Tom Greco – What modes of transportation issue timetables strictly for employees?

Recently I received a copy of the only ferry employees’ timetable I’ve ever seen. It is for the Erie Railroad Company’s Marine Department effective 12.01am Saturday, May 29, 1915. The fact that it is an employees working timetable for a ferry is unique. I don’t know whether any ferry operators in Australia issue working timetables for their services however this is the first one I’ve heard about for a ferry service.

I’ve often wondered what mode of transportation issue or have issued timetables strictly for employees. Besides railroads, I also have samples of city bus, truck line and now ferry employees’ timetables. I’ve asked airline people, who seem to use the public timetable and/or printout based on what cycle of runs they bid onto. I once asked a ferry crew in Seattle who got a good laugh out of how little they feel their company tells them!

So what examples of non-railroad working timetables have other collectors seen or gotten their hands on?

Tom Greco, Duncanville, Texas, U.S.A.

(Ed: Readers are invited to respond to Tom’s question as I would be pleased to publish your responses in The Times. I am aware that Garuda Indonesian Airlines have published Working Timetables for their staff.)

4) Brian Sherry – Behind the scenes of AATTC.

Having just attended the Annual General Meeting of the Association at Tallarook last Saturday 17th October 1998, I couldn’t but be impressed by the amount of work carried on by the various office-bearers to make us ordinary members’ timetable collecting hobby more interesting. Most of what I’m referring to is behind the scenes organising, editing, selling, producing, copying, etc – often involving interstate hookups.

A good Association does not just happen – it needs a number of members who are committed to keep it going – and we are privileged to have some very dedicated office-bearers, who always need our support.

On behalf of all our ordinary members, I would like to thank those who spend so much time in making our hobby more enjoyable. Thanks once again!

Brian Sherry, Ivanhoe, Victoria.

(Ed: I would like to thank Brian for his kind and unsolicited remarks. He sure is correct in saying "those who spend so much time" as I spend on average about 30 hours a month getting each issue of The Times ready for publication. To put it another way it takes 45 x 8 hour days of my time each year. It’s easy to stick an issue together in say 10 or 15 hours but there is all the other work that goes along with it such as sending reports to the committee meetings (or attending them), corresponding with contributors, planning future issues, having the finished copy proofread and so forth. I once used to think it would be more fun being Editor of our current news journal Table Talk since current timetables are my major interest. However I recently became aware that preparing Table Talk is about a 60 hours a month job as the Table Talk Editor has to research and write up most of the current news that appears. That is a big ask of anyone and myself being a family man, just couldn’t afford that amount of time. So a lot of time is being put in behind the scenes and Brian’s letter is a much appreciated encouragement for those of us who spend many hours each month keeping our Association rolling along for the benefit of all of us who enjoy timetables.)

5) Lourens Smit – Number of private bus operators in Sydney.

Thankyou for forwarding me an advance copy of the November 1998 issue of The Times. I will bow to the wisdom of those who have commented on my letter (The Times No. 176, November 1998 pp. 10 & 11) and as far as I am concerned the mater is now closed. In particular I would agree with comments that Buslink should be regarded as two separate operators. Could I suggest that the list of up to 35 operators be published in The Times.

Lourens (Lourie) Smit, Punchbowl, N.S.W.

6) Lourens Smit – Number of private bus operators in Sydney.

Further to my previous letter (Ed. see above letter) I have myself prepared a list of the 35 Sydney Metropolitan operators. This list follows:

1. Blue Mountain Bus Co. 19. Marrickville Bus Lines

2. Busabout (formerly Neville’s Bus Service) 20. Metro Link

3. Bustrans (formerly Katen & Heath) 21. Moore’s Tours

4. Busways 22. North & Western Bus Lines

5. Caringbah Bus Service 23. Oatley Bus Service also known as Premier Coaches

6. Crossley Bus Lines 24. Parramatta Ryde Bus Service

7. Crowthers (Part of Buslink) 25. Pearce Omnibus Pty Ltd

8. Forest Coach Lines 26. Picton Coaches

9. Glenorie Bus Company 27. Peakhurst Coaches/Saints

10. Harris Park Transport 28. Pioneer Bus Service

11. Hawkesbury Valley Coaches 29. Pleasure Tours

12. Holroyd Bus Lines 30. Punchbowl Bus Co.

13. Hopkinsons Coaches 31. Shorelink

14. Interline Bus and Coach Service 32. Southtrans

15. Katoomba – Leura (Mountainlink) 33. West Bankstown Bus Service/Bankstown Strathfield

16. Kurnell Passenger and Transport Services Bus Service.

(Nicholsons) (Part of Buslink) 34. Westbus

17. Liverpool Transport Co. 35. Westway Bus and Coach Service.

18. Maianbar and Bundeena Bus Service

What is a timetable worth? It has a value to the transport operator by attracting patronage by publicising the existence of his services. A timetable can similarly attract patrons to shops or attractions conveniently served by public transport. A timetable also has value to the potential passenger because it enables him to determine where he can travel, and enables him to plan travel so as to minimise journey and waiting times.

Graphic Insight this month looks at the last of these aspects by comparing the end-to-end journey time of a person armed with a timetable with that of a person without a timetable. This analysis assumes that the person with a timetable will be able to eliminate waiting time by arriving at the departure point at the time of the scheduled departure so that his end-to-end journey time is exactly the scheduled transit time of the service. A person without a timetable however will arrive at the departure point at a random time and must wait until the next scheduled service, so his journey time is therefore the scheduled transit time PLUS half the interval between scheduled services (the average waiting time).

Timetables used this month are: BCC Cannon Hill bus route 145,155, 255 of March 1998, Greyhound Pioneer system timetable 29/3/98, QANTAS domestic air timetable 29/3/98, Countrylink system timetable 1/7/98, Sydney Ferries Neutral Bay timetable 9/9/96 and Transperth Joondalup train timetable of 11/10/98.

The graph plots the percentage of the end-to-end journey time for someone without a timetable compared to that of someone with a timetable. A result of 100% would indicate a timetable would have no value. The higher the percentage the greater value the timetable.

The short transit time ferry trip from Circular Quay to Neutral Bay seems to be where the timetable is of most value, and the high frequency long journey time Cannon Hill to Brisbane bus route in peak hours seems to be where the timetable gives least benefit. It is apparent that a timetable has more value in off-peak hours than it does in peak hours.

Services where there are short journey times and long intervals between services will indicate timetables of high value in this analysis.