Mutant Lemming
Established Member
Before the advent of standardised time, were railway timetables compiled along the lines of modern international airline timetables giving the trains arrival and departure times in 'local' time ?
Before the advent of standardised time, were railway timetables compiled along the lines of modern international airline timetables giving the trains arrival and departure times in 'local' time ?
Wasn't railway expansion part of the reasoning behind a standard time zone being set for the UK?
I recall reading in Harold Gasson's book of memories of a GWR signalman, how, every morning at approaching 11am, all the signalmen on the line would be on the 'bus phone, awaiting the lady's announcement from Paddington - "It's 11 o'clock"
They would then record in the train register that their signalbox clock had been set to correct [Paddington] time.
Going slightly further, how did people in, say, Preston, actually know what the time was to be able to set clocks anyway? How did they manage in the period between the coming of the railways and electric communication (assuming there was such a period)? I can't believe there was an army of sky watchers measuring the exact angle of the sun so as to be able to adjust the time!