The Red Book (2)

Timetables, What Timetables?

Back in 1958, route 22 ran from Putney Common to Homerton. Today, the route still starts at Putney Common but goes no further than Oxford Circus.

Here is detail of today's central London terminus.

And here is today's version at the Putney Common stand.

The stop is on a bit of a side road at the eastern end of The Common ...

... and just below the "black hand" of destiny (?) you can see a turning circle which, presumably, the 22 uses.

fbb did not know, at first, how much of this infrastructure is historic! 

However, the terminus in 1958 is given as "The Spencer Arms" and that hostelry (renamed "The Spencer") still stands across the road from the 22 shelter.

So here is how these "timetables" (for want of a better word) worked. For each day set we have the first and last bus over the whole route plus any extra oddments before the whole service springs into action.

Here is Monday to Friday 1958 ...

... Saturday ...

... and Sunday.

Between the "first and last" no details are given except a very broad brush guide to frequency.

You could argue that a 5-8 min headway is simply not worth showing on a full timetable - but it is not quite as simple as that. If you are making a connection with, say, a train, you really do need some idea of running time. Perhaps in 1958 the huge extensions of running times that apply today were less horrendous?

fbb wouldn't fancy his chances of making a train connection on a Sunday morning between 0832 and 1000 based on the timetable's uncertainty.

The problem is worse with today's lower frequencies.

And the current TfL web site offers a geographical map, of sorts ...

... which gets more confusing the more you enlarge it.

But in 1958 there were printed route maps ...

... a repro 1958 version being from the oeuvre of the wonderful Mike Harris.

So which offers a better service from Putney Heath to central London? 

Without proper timetables we cannot really tell, but from the very limited information available from 1958 we can measure a journey from The Heath as follows:-

Hmmm?

Confused .Com?

But what would a bus user in 1958 make of this?

What does fbb make if it? It will enlarge, but probably best not bother - it will still be baffling but just bigger!

Real Timetables

Occasionally you did get timetables showing al journeys. Some of these were simply occasional varieties or extensions of "first and last" routes. But where frequencies were low (by 1958 standards) you could get something like this.

Or even more frequent as here.

Withdrawn On Sundays

Scrolling hurriedly through the tables it was obvious that there had been a cull of Sunday only services or Sunday  frequencies on 7 day a week routes. The original owner of this book had dutifully crossed out about 15 to 20 such, Here the 4A, a Sunday variant ...

... and below Sundays are gone from a full timetable.

Out For The Night

fbb mentioned the 1958 version of night services in yesterday's blog. But these are not all-night services as we know them today, 

Here is the 292.

All of these services did NOT run on Saturday nights and early Sunday mornings ...

... so very much transport for shift or night workers and not aimed at Saturday night party goers, like fbb.

It was a very different night service from today and much less frequent.

What next from the "Red Book"?

When fbb's 1977 edition arrives, he plans to attempt a three stage comparison without safety harness or safety net.

And it will be for a route which has not changed between 1935 and 2024.

The analysis may or may not appear tomorrow - but something will!

 Next Something blog : Thursday 25th July