6 Responses

  1. Steve Barry says:

    I always wondered why railroads put “official” on their small timetables. It never occurred to me that there were non-railroad issued unofficial ones floating around. Great story!

  2. James says:

    Thanks for this information! I didn’t know their were “unofficial” timetables either.

  3. William Hays says:

    You are a member of the “Club”, Steve, along with Otto and me: former Katonah residents. What a great place it was!

  4. Bill Loutrel says:

    Just plain cool stuff! Thanks, Emily.

  5. Lee Winson says:

    For years, on the inside of a local timetable is a notation in fine print, “Authorized and distributed by MetroNorth, published by Titan” (or the particular railroad and advertising agency; in the old days it was Penn Central and TDI).

    I believe the local timetables are and have been published by an advertising company under an arrangement with the railroad. The advertiser sells ad space and prints the schedule, the railroad distributes it. It’s a win-win for everyone–the railroad gets free printing and maybe even a commission, the advertiser sells ads, and commuters get a convenient pocket-sized timetable.

    For some reason, NJ Transit and SEPTA do not use this system, although their predecessor railroads did.

    Note the “Zone D” on the White Plains schedule. In February, 1965, the New York Central announced zoned express trains on the Harlem Line, dividing the line into a groups of stations. At that time, the four zones were: Mount Vernon and Fleetwood; Bronxville, Tuckahoe, and Crestwood; Scarsdale and Hartsdale; and White Plains and White Plains North. [New York Times, 1/20/1965, pg 41.]

    Also, on the older timetables, note the old style of telephone numbers using exchange names instead of numbers, such as KL 5-2368 (or KLondike 5-2368). Telephone users were very reluctant to give up their exchange names for numbers. One could make a hit song out of PEnnsylvania 6, not so much with 736.

  6. Lee Winson says:

    Speaking of calendar advertising, for many years the Pennsylvania Railroad published a promotional calendar with a distinctive painting. An excellent book describes the history: “Crossroads of Commerce The Pennsylvania Calendar Art of Grif Teller” by Dan Cupper; Great Eastern Publishing, 1992. The book also has a chapter on the Osborne Company, an advertising and printing house that published the PRR calendars for the railroad.

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