1. Employee timetables European and American employee timetables contain a lot of useful information for train drivers and are, in fact, like a map, only more descriptive than illustrated. But I’ve actually never seen a timetable used by British train drivers. Does anyone have access to one and could they share a photo of such a timetable? Preferably one used by Southeastern
2. Route knowledge For how many routes must a train driver at a passenger operator such as Southeastern have route knowledge? Do drivers know the entire network operated by Southeastern (served by their depot), or are they permanently assigned to just one or a two lines? Are drivers divided into groups in any way, for example: metropolitan, mainline or branch line drivers?
I can't speak for your second post - you'd want a real driver to answer that one I suspect. But on your first question, in the UK there are two types of document you might be interested in. Working Timetables are used by railway staff and contain details of all passenger and freight services including timings, routings and type/weight of train. They are publicly available free, with archives back to 1994. Newer ones are at https://history.networkrail.co.uk/uncategorized/SO_4b13306b-816a-4d77-89ec-630d6beb2680/ and older ones at https://history.networkrail.co.uk/uncategorized/SO_506bb63b-dadf-497e-901d-1673556bcffd/. They're a goldmine of info for scenario creation in both TSW and TSC. The other type is a Sectional Appendix which describes track infrastructure, signalling, speed limits, special instructions for different trains and operators etc. Unfortunately these are not easy to find online, probably for safety and security reasons. Old editions do turn up occasionally. Here's a 2013 one for HS1: https://stpancras-highspeed.com/wp-...-to-the-hs1-rule-book-ref-c-02-os-05-2002.pdf. Historical versions can be found for sale on Ebay or online booksellers, and https://timetableworld.com/ sells scanned copies of many kinds of timetable, including WTTs, for a small charge if your interest is pre-1994 when rail privatisation had just begun in the UK.
You might find the first posts on this thread useful for answering that - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/different-driver-depot-route-and-traction-cards.205085/
Thanks, guys! That was really helpful! It turns out that a British train driver has a timetable in the cab, but it only lists the stops and scheduled departure times, just like on a tram or bus. They have to keep all the information about the route in their head as part of their route knowledge. Pretty hardcore! It makes it all the more surprising that they drive such long sections. You’d expect them to be assigned to one or two permanent routes, depending on their length. This is quite different from European train drivers, whose timetables not only list departure times but also indicate the location of stops and key points along the route in kilometres, as well as the maximum permitted speed and a few other details. I’m asking about this because the community website with mods for TSW contains timetables for German routes, and timetables are also available by default in the SimRail cabs. However, there is nothing of the sort for British routes. And if there is, it’s just a list of stops and departure times.
