Some questions about DB timetables after reunification

[S&CLER]

I still possess DB and DR timetables for 1991-92, and was wondering if one of your German posters could answer my questions.
Was this the last DR timetable?
If so, how was the national timetable book, the Kursbuch, modified to take account of the unified systems? For example, some timetable numbers were common to both books, so was there a wholesale renumbering exercise?
Is the Kursbuch still available in hard copy or has it gone on-line only, and if so, when?

Thank you for your help.

 

[The exile]

I still possess DB and DR timetables for 1991-92, and was wondering if one of your German posters could answer my questions.
Was this the last DR timetable?
If so, how was the national timetable book, the Kursbuch, modified to take account of the unified systems? For example, some timetable numbers were common to both books, so was there a wholesale renumbering exercise?
Is the Kursbuch still available in hard copy or has it gone on-line only, and if so, when?

Thank you for your help.

Do you mean you have separate volumes for DR and DB for 1991-1992? Because 1991- 1992 was also (if you do!) the first combined volume.


The renumbering of tables took place for the next timetable year.
The last hard-copy full timetable was (I think) Dec 2007 - Dec 2008, though a "collectors' edition" of the next one was done on a "pre-order" basis.

 

[S&CLER]

Do you mean you have separate volumes for DR and DB for 1991-1992? Because 1991- 1992 was also (if you do!) the first combined volume.
View attachment 99760

The renumbering of tables took place for the next timetable year.
The last hard-copy full timetable was (I think) Dec 2007 - Dec 2008, though a "collectors' edition" of the next one was done on a "pre-order" basis.

Thanks for the info, I knew someone on the forum would have it.

Yes, that's the one I have, and also a separate volume for DR in a green cover, for the same dates, containing tables for Laender Mecklenburg, Berlin/Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen. I suppose I bought this as well as the red book, to have the information for the DR in a handier format than the combined volume. Or perhaps I just didn't realise at the time that the red book also contained DR? I can't remember now. What puzzled me was that in the interim combined publication (the red book), there were for example two tables 500 (Fulda-Göttingen and Halle-Leipzig-Berlin). How was that duplication eventually resolved?

 

[The exile]

Thanks for the info, I knew someone on the forum would have it.

Yes, that's the one I have, and also a separate volume for DR in a green cover, for the same dates, containing tables for Laender Mecklenburg, Berlin/Brandenburg, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen. I suppose I bought this as well as the red book, to have the information for the DR in a handier format than the combined volume. Or perhaps I just didn't realise at the time that the red book also contained DR? I can't remember now. What puzzled me was that in the interim combined publication (the red book), there were for example two tables 500 (Fulda-Göttingen and Halle-Leipzig-Berlin). How was that duplication eventually resolved?

There was a general reshuffling of table numbers whilst maintaining the general principles. Line closures had left plenty of gaps to be filled - the ex DR tables generally fit in the 100, 200 and 500 series.
What it does mean is that none of the “ principal axis” timetables (100, 200, 300 etc) served the country’s capital city

 

[Beebman]

I've just checked my own collection. I have separate whole-network DB and DR books for Winter 1990/91 (the DR one has a cover picture of a 243 (143) on 'Städteexpress' orange/grey-liveried stock) and then a combined DB/DR one for 12 months dated 1991/92 as shown in the post by @The exile.

 

[Ken H]

Check out timetableworld.com. loads of German timetables on there. I am indexing the 1942 DR one which covers occupied Europe, so Poland, Czechosolvakia, Austria, Rhineland and the Saar. but not the rest of France, Belgium or Netherlands. Or Scandinavia.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I've still got the 1977-78 DR Taschenfahrplan der Reichsbahdirektion Erfurt - essentially the Thuringian section of the DR Kursbuch.
This was on a trip to Gotha/Erfurt/Eisenach/Weimar/Jena, still mostly diesel then with big trains in the hands of DR 132s (now DB 232, and still in use for freight).
Table 600 is the Thuringian main line Halle-Erfurt-Eisenach.
The few through trains to/from West Germany were only identified by side-notes (mine was Leipzig-Mönchengladbach).
Although the pages on poor-quality paper have yellowed, the cover is still in good condition and has an attractive drawing of the 1857 single "Schnellzug-Lokomotive" named "Blitz", which presumably has some relevance to the area.

 

[30907]

There was a general reshuffling of table numbers whilst maintaining the general principles. Line closures had left plenty of gaps to be filled - the ex DR tables generally fit in the 100, 200 and 500 series.
What it does mean is that none of the “ principal axis” timetables (100, 200, 300 etc) served the country’s capital city

The new and old systems both followed the North to South principle, though it involved a lot of sub-tables (200.× is the Berlin S-bahn, 209.xx various routes in the outskirts....).
The 1991 one is also on timetableworld.com. and it took a long time (Ken H, I chickened out of 1942...).

 

[Ken H]

The new and old systems both followed the North to South principle, though it involved a lot of sub-tables (200.× is the Berlin S-bahn, 209.xx various routes in the outskirts....).
The 1991 one is also on timetableworld.com. and it took a long time (Ken H, I chickened out of 1942...).

I have added 2312 points so far
Nearly done the trains. just 3 rows of buses to do.
Been 3 months....
But I have not given it my 100% attention.

 

[S&CLER]

There was a general reshuffling of table numbers whilst maintaining the general principles. Line closures had left plenty of gaps to be filled - the ex DR tables generally fit in the 100, 200 and 500 series.
What it does mean is that none of the “ principal axis” timetables (100, 200, 300 etc) served the country’s capital city

That's fascinating, thank you. As I mentioned in another thread about the new GBRT timetable, I was so impressed by the virtues of the German-style table numbering i n navigating through the book that I worked it out for the UK, for my own amusement. It ls a lot easier here than in Germany because we have a radial system which falls naturally into 8 sets of 100 for England and Wales and a further set at 900-999 for Scotland. Tables 1- 99 are available for international and long-distance summaries, like the Fernverbindungen tables in the Kursbuch. Happy to send this as a Word file to anyone who is interested.