Eastern Railroad Discussion > Last PRR Timetable??

Hey!

I recently stumbled across a Pennsylvania Railroad Employee Timetable dated 10/1967 for the PRR Central Region.

Now, with a date of Feb. 1968 for the Penn Central creation and a new timetable for the PC in Apr. 1968, would that make that PRR Central Region 4 the LAST PRR issue before the merger for the Central Region? (Also, is the Apr. 1968 the first PC one for the Central Region?)

Sure, only 4 months seems dumb, but I've seen the railroads doing weirder things with publications of this nature.

Thanks in advance!
Tony

Yes, Central #4 is last PRR version. General Order 410 was used to changed name from PRR to PC. PC Go's run through 420 of 4/25/68. Then PC first Central Timetable is #1 of 4/28/68. The PRR had a practice of changing a timetable with every time change was common.Remember most PRR timetables has some sort of passenger train in them until Amtrak started. The use of loose leaf pages that started in the mid 70's really put the end of printing a new tt. When GO's became expensive to print,then RR's just did the time change via Bulletin Orders. PC continued PRR practice and issued timetables every six months through #3 4/27/69. Then #4 of 5/01/70, and then came the two loose leaf #5 12/15/72 and 3/07/76 that last up until CR takeover. Collecting timetables was fun years ago, around the time change account all th RR's that would issue timetables.

I have a looseleaf Conrail timetable in a green Penn Central binder with a blue Conrail sticker on the cover. I'll have to look and see what the date is.

Memorable Quotes: "The Pennsylvania Railroad spends more for paper than it does for rail".

I just found a Conrail Central Region Timetable that is March 7, 1976...TT No. 6...and it is contained in a PC Binder. What is that??

I thought CR didn't start until April 1, 1976.

The page also says "revised 7/1/76".


Is this the first CR Central Region TT?? Can anyone explain this?

Thanks!
Tony

Tony:

I'm not sure about the Central Region, but be forwarned ... there were ETTs out there with "Consolidated Rail Corporation" on the front page from as far back as 1975. I have one such timecard for the Northern Region. The CR blue binders didn't come out until the second half of '76, so these earlier ETTs were in the PC green binders.

I'm at work right now (hey, it's a slow day!), so that's all I can give you right now.

Interlocker

Two things to correct. When Conrail begain on April lst 1976 , it used the timetables that were in effect at the time of the transition. Since some timetables had converted to a loose leaf format. It made it easy to issue a general order that replaced the title page from Penn Central to Conrail since that PC tt was loose leaf. While there were many timetables that were in effect prior to C-Day. Such as your Northern Region #7. It had gone into effect on 01/01/75. There were no CR timetables issued prior to April 1st, 1976. Several days prior to the change, employees got either GO's or Bulletin Orders that place CR into effect and what trackage was being transfered to the new company. Your Central Region #6 was issused March 7th,1976. GO 606 was the last for that tt. GO 602 of 4/01/76 changed the title page to CR. You are holding a timetable with a revised page from GO 405 of July lst of 1976 that revised the title page. That is not the date of the timetable. On the title page the date of the timetable is still its orginal date of 03/07/76. One problem in collecting a loose leaf timetable is when you dont have all the pieces. Remember an employee is throwing out the original pages for for new one from each GO issued. Another thing you might find interesting if you are trying to collect CR employee timetables. The orginal #7 had a green post bind ( screws or clips) PC binder. This was because it had two post holes. During the summer of 1976 CR issued a blue paper cover to replace the green one.This was really done account they did not anymore PC binders to pass out to new hires and to the many former EL employees that were now part of the Central, whose own tt had was not a three ring binder fromat. On October 26th 1976 CR issued tt #1, this timetable had five holes punched into it. In this way employees could still use the paper binder until enough CR three ring binders were produced and distributed. I would have to check, but I think only #1 had the five holes. There were many General Orders issued for tt #, a total of 59 in fact. If you pick up a timetable at a sale with only some of the General Orders you don't see the whole story. Remember when CR started there was a huge physical plant the had to be organized. Those early timetables have good information about line and tower closings. Timetables for the CNJ, LV, EL and RDG that were loose leaf tended to get new title pages, but most changes were done on Bulletin Orders until a new CR timetable took effect. Some lines like the PRSL used there former timetable #5 until 1980 when a new Easten Region was printed. The took 4 years to do, so not every division issued a timetable in 1976 let alone April lst 1976. Hope that helps you in your search. Oh one more thing, did you know that CR issued a timetable for the PRSL in original PC/PRSL style. Yes, the PRSL had a timetable #5 that had gone into effect 6/18/75.The general orders were pasted into the back of the timetable. When the PRSL Division Office building burned down, there were no copies of the current timeble available. So CR took the PRSL master sheets and reprinted the entire tt with its PC green cover and also this time with all the GO that were current at that time. So a collector would be looking for both copies the 1975 and 1977 editions.

You are absolutely correct, Crewcaller, and my apologies -- to you and Tony -- for the misinformation I posted above.

As soon as I typed the previous messsage, I remembered the cover page of Northern Region #7 was a GO update. I just got home, dug up the timetable and confirmed it.

The loose leafs are indeed tricky. In some cases, I've managed to get an ETT with all the original pages and previous GOs in the back; in most other cases, the pages are a hodge-podge covering two, maybe three, years.

As an aside, that Northern Region timecard I have is in a binder that has a CR logo sticker affixed over the gold PC worms. Most of my other PC binders never got that treatment.

Thanks all you guys!! That's great information there.

One last question, when was the first OFFICIAL Conrail TT publication for the Central Division? Not GO's or Bulletins, but the actual CR TT??

Thanks again for everything!
Tony

Tony:

My oldest one is #1, 10/1/76; given the number, I'd say that's your answer, but I can't positively say that's it.

Those are great timetables for anyone interested in the old E-L through Eastern Ohio during the early days of Conrail.

Jon

Yes, The first CR Central Region is October lst, 1976. I had to pull mine out. If you ever find this timetable, with no General Orders that would be ideal. When I started I was quick to put the GO's in and throw out the original pages. That was dumb and I spent years collecting the orignal tt's. As Jon mentioned that first Central had former EL territory that did not stay around long. The EL's River line was taken out in 2nd or 3rd GO. Speaking of former EL, CR's Susquehanna Divison was one of the only CR tt's to have the first 21 General Orders issued in bulletin form, making them very hard to find indeed. I know I have only spent 28 years looking! Good Hunting.

Sounds great...if you all want to dump those TT's someday, or have extras, just email me :)

Tony

I'm looking for PC Central Region 1 and CR Central Region 1, and any NS Timetables of the Pittsburgh Division after June 1, 1999 :)