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A number of major railroads, particularly those in the East issued multiple forms of public timetables to present their
wide variety of passenger and suburban services to the traveling public. Railroads issuing a fair variety of timetable forms
included the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (First common carrier railroad in America),Boston and Maine, Central Railroad of
New Jersey, New York Central, Erie, Reading, and the biggest of them all, the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad, which clearly
outdid them all in the variety and colorfulness of timetable forms produced. Of these railroads, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
is unique in that the railroad produced all its public and employee timetables in house, while most of the others farmed this
work out to Allan, Lane, and Scott of Philadelphia, which was long known for its timetable association with the Pennsylvania
Railroad.
Since the Baltimore and Ohio was America's first common carrier railroad, it is the B&O where
we will begin.
Form A. Covered all the passenger carrying main and branch lines of the B&O,which, at one time,
included just about the entire railroad. Last individual B&O issue was September 1965 before going to joint C&O-B&O
issues, which are a separate beast unto themselves. Form B. This was a condensed through line schedule of the principal trains
on B&O's east-west routes.
Form B-R covered the former Buffalo,Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway. Last issue was
April 24,1955 after which the BR&P went freight only after October 3 of that year. Form C. Covered the train and motor
coach services of the West Virginia Transportation Company (a B&O subsidiary) and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
First
Form W. Covered connecting train schedules at Wayne Junction,PA with B&O trains in and out of Philadelphia.
Form
L. Covered local services between Baltimore,Washington,and Harpers Ferry and some covered services to Hagerstown,Frederick,
and Lexington as well. This service later became known as the Potomac Valley Service, whose timetable did not use a form designation.
Form F was a card showing local service between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which was not a through service.One pair
of trains ran between Aikin,MD and Philadelphia and the other between Aiken and Baltimore.
Form WC was a card for
service beween Wheeling,WV and Chicago, last of which was issued April 30,1961.Form W covered mixed train services between
Parkersburg and Huntington,WV and also included the Ravenswood branch as well. Form W-S was a cardlike timetable for a train
the B&O called the TriStater in an attempt to improve passenger service on the route between Washington and Cincinnati.
One other lettered form was the VP vest pocket timetable folder for the New York-Baltimore-Washington service.
TT-2. Was
a Laurel to Baltimore quick reference schedule card showing all B&O passenger trains serving both stations in each direction.
TT-3 was a small folder showing complete Baltimore-Washington local service serving all intermediate stations in between.
TT4.Covered service on B&O's Old Main Line between Baltimore,Mt. Airy,Fredericksburg,Hagerstown, and Harpers Ferry. TT5
was first, a small folder for service between Washington,Brunswick,Harpers Ferry, Winchester, and Lexington, then later became
the form number for the Pittsburgh suburban timetable. TT7 first covered Pittsburgh-Connellsville service and in later years,Detroit-Cincinnati
service. TT8 was the folder for New York-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington Royal Blue Service. Last such timetable was issued
October 27,1957, with service on the B&O north of Baltimore discontinued April 26,1958. TT9 was a folder showing connecting
train schedules between New England and the South issued for the New Haven, B&O, and Richmond,Fredericksburg and Potomac
railroads. TT10 was a schedule of through trains between New York,Philadelphia,Baltimore,Washington and Chicago,Cleveland,
and St. Louis while Form 10 was for passenger service between Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, and St. Louis. A second Form
C issued in the early 1960s was a pocket sized condensed schedule for trains between Baltimore,Washington,Pittsburgh,Chicago,Cincinnati,
and St. Louis.Form WV4 was a card timetable showing train and bus service between Wheeling and Parkersburg,West Virginia.
While this listing does not necessarily comprise all of the public timetable forms issued by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
through the years, it should give the collector an idea of what to look for when collecting as many different timetable forms
issued by America's oldest common carrier railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio. The B&O, like the other railroads to be covered
here, is gone now, but has left behind a paper trail of timetables and related items and what a paper trail it is! Next we
will take a look at the Erie Railroad and its timetable forms.
PUBLIC TIMETABLES OF THE ERIE RAILROAD
More of a freight oriented railroad than passenger, the Erie Railroad, nevertheless provided a respectable passenger
service that covered the main line between Jersey City (Later Hoboken), and Chicago, plus main lines to Buffalo, Cleveland,
and a number of branch lines. To portray these passenger services, the Erie Railroad issued a fair number of timetable folders
for its several operating divisions. Form 1 was the general system timetable that covered most, if not all of the Erie Railroad
System. Last issue before merger with the Lackawanna was April 24,1960. Form 2. Was a local service timetable that covered
the territory between Jersey City (Hoboken),Port Jervis,and Binghamton (later extended to Hornell)plus the Hornell to Buffalo
main line and the line from Corning to Rochester (until late 1947_) as well. This amounted to something close to an Eastern
District public timetable form.Form 3. Was a timetable form that covered the passenger services on the Allegany,Meadville,
Mahoning,Kent, and Marion Divisions of the railroad, including many still operating branch line mixed train services, which
carried both freight and passengers. Form 7. was a suburban timetable that covered the main line between Jersey City(Hoboken
and Suffern, plus the Bergen County Line and the Newark Branch (until 1966). Final Erie Lackawanna editions covered the main
line as far as Port Jervis,NY and the Bergen County Line. Form 8 was a pink folder covering the Greenwood Lake Line ,Caldwell
and (until the 1950s)Orange Branch. It continued with the Greenwood Lake and Caldwell branches only until 1963 when the ex
Lackawanna Boonton Line was combined with the Greenwood Lake line, forming the Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line. Form 9 was a blue
folder that covered what had been known as the Northern Railroad of New Jersey (later Northern Branch) from Jersey City(Hoboken),NJ
to Nyack, NY (later cutback to Sparkill. Service on the line was discontinued in 1966. Form 10 covered the New Jersey and
New York Railroad and was a yellow folder which also included the Piermont Branch as well.Now known as the Pascack Valley
Line, service has since more than doubled under NJ Transit. Form 11 was a suburban folder that covered just the main line
between Jersey City,NJ and Suffern, NY, while the Newark Branch was contained in a separate timetable folder all its own (no
form number, but believed to be Form 12). Form 14 was a Buffalo Division folder showing service on the Buffalo-Hornell and
Buffalo-Jamestown lines. Form 15 was a Rochester Division folder showing the electrified (until 1934) Rochester-Mount Morris
Line, which was the only such electrified passenger carrying rail line operated by a trunk line railroad in Western New York.
These two timetable forms were first combined into a Buffalo-Rochester Division form, and then with Form 2 to create what
essentially amounted to an Eastern District local timetable. Still another timetable form was Form 24, which was an orange
folder and showed condensed schedules for the Erie's Delaware Division. One other timetable covered the Cleveland-Warren-Youngstown
main line with continuing service to and from Pittsburgh,Washington, and Baltimore via Pittsburgh and Lake Erie and Baltimore
and Ohio railroads. It was designated form CPW for Cleveland-Pittsburgh-Washington and continued into the Erie Lackawanna
years until the mid 1960s, when it became form CWY for Cleveland WarrenYoungstown. This piece does not necessarily touch upon
all of the public timetable folders issued by the Erie Railroad during its final decades of independent operation, but those
in the writer's collection. There may be others and attention to them would be most appreciated.
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