Timetable

My Virginian Railway operates under the Timetable and Train Order (TT & TO) system. There are eight scheduled trains on the timetable - four First Class freights and four Second Class freights. Not shown on the timetable are eight extras, such as coal trains and local freights, that the dispatcher may call as needed.

I patterned the timetable after an actual Virginian employee timetable, using Adobe Illustrator on my computer to create the artwork. It consists of four 9" x 3¾" panels, for an unfolded size of 9" x 15". I print the timetables on a color inkjet printer capable of handling 11" x 17" paper.

The front and back covers are printed on half of one side of the paper, and the train schedule is on the other half. When folded into four panels, the timetable can be opened like a book to expose just the two panels with the schedule.

The second side of the paper is sort of a crib sheet containing general information about the model railroad. It's completely hidden unless an operator unfolds the timetable a second time, to expose all four panels. I feel this is a good way to keep the "model railroad thoughts" as unobtrusive as possible.

Sample Copy

Here is a sample copy of the timetable in Adobe Acrobat format, reduced to fit on legal-size paper, 8½" x 14". Right-click on the link, then save the file to your hard drive, where you can open and print it at your leisure. Print the second page on the back of the first sheet, then fold according to the folding instructions on the third page.

Here are the back and front covers.

The schedule is simplified from the actual Virginian version, and shows the fictitious Fifth and Sixth subdivisions as well as the real Third subdivision.

These are the key parts of the schedule:

Read down for westward trains, and read up for eastward trains.
Train register station names are listed in bold face type. Crews must must record their train's passage in a register book.

An operator is on duty at stations with a time or "Con" (continuous) entry in the Hours T. O. Offices are Open column. One person plays the role of operator for all stations.

To simplify the timetable, all three subdivisions appear on the same schedule. Junction stations are listed in italic type. No time or ellipsis (. . . . . . . .) appears for any station a train does not pass through because the station is on a different subdivision. Read up or down the train's column until you reach a station with a time listed.

As is common prototypical convention, an ellipsis means the train does pass through the town, but without a schedule time.

Meets between trains are indicated with a bold face time, with the meeting train number to the right. Note that the timetable shows meets only for regular trains; meets with extras are handled with train orders. Only one meet is scheduled, and that is between No. 77 and No. 78 at Klotz.

li>Small letters at the top and bottom of each train's column indicate if the times are morning (AM) or afternoon (PM), and whether the train is (L)eaving or (A)rriving at the first or last station in the column(depending on reading direction) (e.g., AM - L or PM - A).

Trains may not leave stations until the schedule time; trains do not stop at stations where an ellipsis (. . . . . . . .) is shown.

This is the timetable interior (crib sheet).

The top half is a schematic diagram of the railroad, with brief descriptions of each station, and what to expect when you get there.
The lower left has a reduced copy of the string diagram, which helps operators to see the "big picture" during a session. Individual trains are described on the crew welcome card.
In the lower right are operating instructions for the layout-specific equipment, such as throttles, telephones, staging yard controllers, etc.