Okay I admit it. I'm hooked on finding historic documents relating to our favorite railroads. For example, I just acquired SCL Jacksonville Division Timetable #4 dated December 17, 1971. It supersedes #3 dated just a month earlier. So here is my question. Or questions. If I wanted to collect, say, all the SCL Timetables for every division in just Florida, how would I know how many to get? Was #4 superceded by #'s 5,6,7,8,9 etc etc..How many versions were there? Finding the actual divisions within Florida probably is easy. But finding every timetable for every division for as long as those timetables were made...hmmmm. Me thinks I've taken on a monster. Any and all thoughts on where to begin from those more knowledgable then me (which is just about everyone) would be most appreciated.

Thanks

-- John Buckley (dragondog@juno.com), June 18, 2003

Answers

As a suggestion, the same question arises as to rule books. It would be nice to have all the issue dates of the various rule books, revisions, and supplements. This could be included with the timetable list.

-- Jim Coviello (jcovi60516@aol.com), June 19, 2003.

Larry Count me in to helping compile a list. I can offer two actually. One for Jax and one large tt that covers the Rocky Mount, Raleigh and Atlanta Divisions and the D&S Railway, dated April 29, 1979. Its number 9. This could be very educational. John

-- John Buckley (dragondog@juno.com), June 18, 2003.

Thanks Ron - we can discuss the fine details off list, but my stab at the headings we'd want is below. The list should include both public and employee timetables, from ACL/SAL through CSX, to be of maximum value although we could start small with just the SCL employee TTs if you wish. I think it should work like the survivor's list, with members being able to add to it over time and so on. The value of the list, for starters, would be for collectors, who can see if they have all dates of a given road's timetables, and for researchers, who can learn if there is a timetable of a certain date that may have information they need.

As for PDFs of sample TTs, we have discussed doing that before and it would be a nice addition to the site.

Suggested categories:

Railroad company

Public or employee

System, condensed, or other special train listings [for publics]

Division [for ETTs]

Timetable number [for ETTs]

Date

Other identifying information or remarks - for example, some SAL Carolina Div. ETTs covered lines west of Savannah (the old Alabama Div.) and others covered lines north, south, and east of Savannah. Some Georgia Div. ETTs covered all subdivisions except Monroe and Caroleen - etc. Also, ACL ETTs in the 1940s and before frequently had updated supplemental pages issued rather than a completely new issue.

-- Larry Goolsby (lgoolsby@aphsa.org), June 18, 2003.

I would be willing to work on this project (and I am sorry that it is taking a while to convert the Survivors list over after the Web site move.)

The first thing we should do is get a list requirements from Customers (or the Voice of The Customer since we don't know all Customers yet.)

Do we expect to fill this list and publish it or are users going to key in TT data over time?

What is this list supposed to do? Should it show time table numbers and issue date; let users add TT data to list; let users comment on TT's in list; let users search for TT number by date?

Once there is a list of TT's and date how can people benefit from it?

Should the list show actual TT's in say pdf format? Getting TT's in pdf would be a huge job, of course. Is it needful?

What administrator tasks are there? For example, should only Admin get to delete stuff?

Once we have requirements we can turn them into a design, code it and people will be happy. :^)

Ron. Wright

-- Ron. Wright (rondywright@hotmail.com), June 18, 2003.

Yes John this is a huge and very hungry monster, it has already consumed my basement and is still growing out of control, so be warned. The number of SCL employee timetables issued per year was usually 3 or 4, but that varied considerably by year and by division. Florida was covered by the Jacksonville Division and Tampa Divsision. At first each division had its own TT, then later they were combined. I have many of the issues and will try to compile a list - maybe we could start a list on the web site, like the survivors list, that others could add to so we could come up with an all-time complete list. Several years ago the National Association of Timetable Collectors (I think) published a special issue of their magazine on ACL-SAL-SCL timetables - this publication may have had a list itself, I can't remember without digging mine out and looking. Perhaps someone with that issue handy can check and chime in.

-- Larry Goolsby (lgoolsby@aphsa.org), June 18, 2003.