Hi, I am after UK train timetables from 1998 at Liverpool Lime Street and London Euston. Are these possible to obtain or have these been long lost now? Thanks
Working Timetables for the whole UK are publicly available from Network Rail's archive. Use this link to find timetables from Network Rail's predecessor, Railtrack, which covers 1994-2002: https://history.networkrail.co.uk/uncategorized/SO_506bb63b-dadf-497e-901d-1673556bcffd/. Each timetable covers roughly six months. They are each split into many sections, each of which has a two letter code. Section CB covers passenger and postal services from Euston to just past Crewe, and Section CE covers Crewe to Liverpool and Manchester, plus all the local lines. CY and CZ cover the corresponding freight services. A few of the timetables are missing freight sections. For scenario creation, I just tend to use the corresponding section from the next or previous year, unless there was a major change at the time - it may not be 100% correct, but it will be close. Sections have a map of what they cover, and it tells you which section to refer to next when you reach the edge of the map. There's enough detail to reconstruct each service, and it gives you a clue as to the right stock to use. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you figure it out, it's easy. For example, "E385" means an electric loco trailing 385 tonnes. This would be a Virgin service with a Class 87 or 90 (sometimes an 86 would sub in) with 9 Mk3 coaches and a Mk3 DVT at the London end. D245 would be a Virgin XC service with (usually) a class 47 and 7 Mk2s. Units are usually easier to identify. Use advanced search on Flickr with the right date range and you can get an idea of what locos, units and coaches had what livery, and what freight consists might have looked like. Timetables from 2002 onwards are here: https://history.networkrail.co.uk/uncategorized/SO_4b13306b-816a-4d77-89ec-630d6beb2680/. If it's public timetables you're after, DP Simulation has a large collection freely available:https://www.dpsimulation.org.uk/timetables.html. I've bought a couple from here that I was interested in (around £10 a go): https://timetableworld.com/.
Ah thank you very much for sharing your information. This is very much appreciated, I will check out the links provided and have a good look at what is available. Again thank you very much for your time and information! Cheers
