MISCELLANY by Autolycus, the snapper-up
of unconsidered trifles
No 4
RAILWAYS AND RAILROADS GOING WEST
The London and Birmingham Railway’s
first Timetable, 1839
London 0600 0845 0930 1100 1300 1700 1800 2030
Harrow | | | | | | 1830 |
Watford 0645 | | 1145 1345 1745 1850 |
Boxmoor
| | | | | | 1910 |
H.Hampstead | 1005 | | | | 1920 |
Tring 0725 1040 | 1225 1425 1825 1935 2156
Leighton 0750 | | | | 1850 2000 |
Bletchley
| | | | | | 2015 |
Wolverton 0815 1100 1141 1315 1515 1915 2030 2254
Blisworth 0850 | | 1350 1550 1950 | |
Weedon 0905 11501233 1405 1605 2005 | 2350
Rugby 0940 | | 1440 1640 2040 |
Coventry 1010 1250 1336 1510 1710 2110 | 0100
Hampton 1035 1315 | | | | | |
Birmingham 1130 1415 1430 1630 1830 2230 | 0200
***
Birmingham 0830 1000 1315 1600 1800 0000
Hampton
| | 1340 1625 1825 |
Coventry 0917 1045 1400 1645 1845 0053
Rugby | 1115 1430 1715 | |
Weedon 1025 1155 1510 1755 1955 0209
Blisworth
| 1215 1530 1815 | |
Wolverton 1111 1240 1555 1840 2040 0258
Leighton | 1315 | 1915 | |
Tring 1211 1340 1655 1940 2140 0403
Watford
| 1410 1725 2010 | |
London 1330 1530 1845 2130 2330 0530
[Note:
the 24-hour clock has been used for all timetables here. At the time, a.m. and p.m. were used.]
London-Birmingham
Fares: First class £1 10s. 0d. (£1.50)
Second class £1 5s. 0d. (night) (£1.25)
Second class £1 (day) (£1.00)
£1
in 1840 is the equivalent of £93.60 approximately in 2016, so the second class
return fare was the equivalent of £187 in present-day terms.
Note:
there were also two ‘Parly’ trains in each direction, so called because the Acts
of Parliament permitting the construction and running of all railways had a
legally binding clause demanding the provision of at least one train a day each
way stopping at all stations and travelling at a speed of not less than 12
miles an hour including stops, composed of carriages protected from the weather
and provided with seats; for which not more than a penny a mile might be
charged. Hence these trains were called ‘parliamentaries’, or ‘parlys’ for
short. On the London and Birmingham, these
trains took six hours from Birmingham to London and vice versa, which actually
was not a bad deal, considering that some of the ‘expresses’ took
five-and-a-half. It should, however, be
added that all the expresses stopped at Wolverton for 10 minutes providing the only
opportunity for refreshment etc, until corridor trains and refreshment
carriages were invented. The line had been intended to open in 1836, but difficulties in the construction of the tunnel
being built at Kilsby, just south of Rugby, delayed the opening of the complete
route. However, the Directors of the railway
were keen for the patriotic citizens of Birmingham to visit London for the coronation
of Queen Victoria on 28 June 1838, paying their fares as they went, of course,
and so they ran trains at the northern end of the line and at the southern end,
and passengers were carried by a fleet of stage coaches in the middle (from
Rugby to Bletchley). The line was fully opened on 17 September 1838 and by 1839
this timetable was in operation. The London
terminus was (and still is) Euston station, fronted
by what we would today call a large piece of statement-architecture, an extremely
impressive Doric arch, which was reflected or echoed by a slightly less imposing
Doric arch at the Birmingham end of the railway, Curzon Street station, Birmingham.
Curzon Street is claimed to be the oldest railway terminus in the world, having
been opened in June 1838 when some trains started to run on the northern
portion of the London to Birmingham line; it was closed to regular traffic in 1854 when the station now
known as New Street was built in a more central position and able to
accommodate more companies’ trains (particularly those of the Midland Railway),
but the main building survived, and survives to
this day (and is proposed for use as the terminus for a new high-speed
railway line from London to Birmingham). In the 1960s Euston was rebuilt with a
new, more ‘convenient’ and ‘appropriate’ station for modern travellers (without
anywhere to sit and wait for your train), and the Euston arch was dismantled. However, 60% of the stones of the Euston arch
were found in 1994 in the bed of a river in East London, where they had been
used to support an anti-flooding scheme and they may be usable in building
works associated with this new high-speed line.
The
timetable and list of fares are taken from the first edition of Bradshaw’s Railway Time Tables, which quickly became
the sine qua non vade mecum of the
traveller. The Great Western Railway in 1839 had rather less to offer in this
publication: either London Paddington to Maidenhead or London Paddington to
West Drayton (because that was, at the time, as far as their line went), and in
both cases a list of departure times is provided, but no arrival times at the
destinations.
Omaha to San Francisco timetables,
1869-80: the Central Pacific, Western Pacific, and California & Oregon
Railroads
To
Take Effect From Monday 18th October 1869
CONDENSED
TIME TABLES
Eastwards
Hotel
Express Through Express
San
Francisco 0700 0700
Sacramento 1245 1350
Colfax 1542 1710
Truckee 1940 2155
Reno 2112 0001*
Wadsworth 2255 0200
Winnemucca 0408* 0935
Carlin 0845 1600
Elko 0933 1720
Toana 1300 2220
Promontory
arr 1800 0545*
Promontory
dep 1930 0800
Ogden | 1055
Rawlings
| 0325*
Laramie 1910* 1050
Cheyenne
| 1400
Omaha 1730* 1320*
Westwards
Through Express Hotel Express
Omaha 1020 0915
Cheyenne 0920*
|
Laramie 1255 0910*
Rawlings 2010
|
Ogden 1515* |
Promontory
arr 1800 1000*
Promontory
dep 1800 1000
Toano 0235* 1450
Elko 0730 1810
Carlin 0850 1910
Winnemucca
1540 0001*
Wadsworth
2255 0525
Reno 0055* 0646
Truckee 0305 0815
Colfax 0752 1145
Sacramento 1140 1440
San
Francisco 1830 2100
[Advertisement]
UNION
PACIFIC RAILROAD
Pacific
Valley Route now complete and running daily passenger trains, forming in
connection with the Central Pacific Railroad an ALL RAIL ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA
and the PACIFIC COAST! Through to San
Francisco in LESS than four days! Avoiding the dangers of the sea.
Note:
the timetable was provided by the Central Pacific Rail Road, which operated the
trains from San Francisco to Promontory.
The reason why some timings are missing from the eastern end of he
route (from Promontory to Omaha) is that this was run by the Union Pacific,
which seems to have been unprepred to share some of the timings with the Central
Pacific. The 24-hour clock has been used
in these tables in order to make the timings clearer to the modern reader.
[Advertisement
for T.H. Goodman Gen. Freight and Passenger Ag’t, Sacramento, Cal.:]
October
18th 1869
Through Passenger Atlantic Hotel
Exp’s
(Daily) (Evy
Monday)
San
Francisco Leave 0700 0700
Sacramento
Leave 1330 1240
Promontory
Arrive 0545 1840
Leave 0800 1930
Omaha
Arrive 1310 1730
Council
Bl’fs Leave 1500
Chicago
Arrive 1615 1600
Chicago
Leave 1715
New
York Arrive 0630 0700
Council
Bl’fs Leave 2000
St. Louis Arrive 0620
Through Passenger Trains – Run Daily.
San Francisco to Omaha 4 days and 4 hours
To Chicago 5 days and 6 hours
To New York, 7 days
Atlantic Hotel Express Train Leaves San Francisco every Monday:
San Francisco
to Omaha 3 days and 11 hours:
To Chicago 41/2
days:
To New York, 6 days
Note:
The Through Express ran every day (‘through’ being a relative term, for
passengers had to change trains between the Central Pacific and the Union
Pacific at Promontory (which was where the golden and the silver spikes had
been driven into the ground in May 1869, as the two railroad tracks met). The Hotel Express ran once a week, was more
luxurious than the Through Express and comfortably outpaced it.
At the eastern end of the transcontinental railroad,
Omaha is on the western side of the Missouri River, while Council Bluffs is on
the eastern side, and until the river was bridged by the Union Pacific in 1872
passengers had to be ferried across the river to make their connection. Council
Bluffs was the terminus for railroad companies going to and from the east, and
had already been for some years the starting-point of the westbound Emigrant
Trail, a status confirmed by President Lincoln, which meant that the first task
for those heading west from Council Bluffs to seek their fortune was to get
across the Missouri.
Transcontinental
service September 1880
[principal
stations only]
San
Francisco - Omaha Omaha - San
Francisco
read down read up
San
Francisco 0930 1135
Sacramento 1430 0720
Colfax 1700 0355 5th day
Truckee 2315 2315
Reno 0206 2nd day 1750
Winnemucca 1020 1255
Carlin 1606 0825
Toano 2235 0200 4th day
Promontory 0620 3rd day 2020
Coriane 0655 1900
Ogden
arr 0800
dep 1800
Ogden
dep 1020 arr 1800
Green
River 2100 0745
Rawlins 0440 4th day 0020 3rd day
Laramie 1200 1720
Cheyenne 1535 1340
Sidney 2025 0810
North
Platte 0200 5th day 0200 2nd day
Grand
Island 0830 1900
Omaha arr 1525 dep 1215
read
Up
The
fare in 1869 from Omaha to San Francisco was $130 (one class only). It was
$178.50 from Sacramento to New York. By
1882 a more luxurious First Class (called Atlantic Hotel Class) was available,
with Pullman sleeping cars, while at the other end of the scale Emigrant fares
had been added (which included a four-bed sleeper compartment). Fares from
Omaha to San Francisco were $106.40 for First Class, $75 for Second Class, and
$45 for Emigrant Class. (Inflation calculations
for the US dollar are surprisingly few and far between, but $1 in 1880 is the
equivalent of about $25 today, so the first class fare mentioned above is roughly
the equivalent of $2300 today. The Emigrant’s Fare ($45) is approximately the
equivalent of $1100 in today’s values. Emigrants had their own train in the
1882 timetable, which tended to be rather slow and was actually overtaken twice
by the daily express on the Ogden to San Francisco stretch alone (at Matlin and
Reno), that is to say, it took two days longer than the Express, or, to put it
another way, the Express arrived at San Francisco earlier than the Emigrant train
that had left Ogden 2 days and 4 hours ahead of it. However, when comparison
was made with travel by horse-drawn stage coach or wagon train, the railroad
won.
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