NWR Operation discussion

Here we can discuss in-depth, the rail operations of the North Western Railway. This includes schedules, engine rosters, crew assignments, etc. Anything of that sort.

I'm looking to get my hands on an IOS book because I'm curious if it mentions anything about crew assignments. Today in the United States a crew is assigned a train (not an engine) to perform a certain duty, whether it takes a train over the road, switches (shunts) in the yard, or serves industries along the main line. I want to see how Sudrian operations compare to that. If there isn't any sort of discussion of that in that book, I still want to see the certain industries served by the railway.

If I can get a list of their locations I would love to come up with a "2015" list of crew assignments of the island.

I think the only crew that was ever mentioned was that Edward's crewmen are Charlie Sands and Sidney Heaver

Yes those were the only names mentioned but engines don't go out and do random work each day..they have specific assignments that usually start and end and specific locations and do a certain kind of work.

When I mean crew assignments I want to see what goes out each day from the yard. In the old days engines had assigned crews but I doubt that is still the case.

I do know that there is an 8:00 AM express from Knapford to Vicarstown

Where did you find this information?

SkarloeyRailway wrote:Where did you find this information?

I think it was mentioned in The Adventure Begins on the Wellsworth station speaker.

Wellsworth96 wrote:

SkarloeyRailway wrote:Where did you find this information?

I think it was mentioned in The Adventure Begins on the Wellsworth station speaker.

Yeah, that is where I found it.

I'm fairly certain we are going solely by RWS canon in this thread, but it would make sense, since those are both supposedly stops on the Wild Norwester' (or whatever the express is officially called).

Concerning the engine thing, the engines would most likely remain for the most part on jobs they are familiar with. I doubt Thomas would switch between jobs day after day, especially since the branch line "belongs" to him.

When their is short power, track work, etc, realistically engine assignments change. Thomas is almost always going to be on his branch line but they may need him to shunt at Tidmouth or bring a goods train up the Ffarquhar. Something like that.

So we should stop complaining about Thomas popping up everywhere on the NWR?

But seriously, here are a few things I know, courtesy of http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/ffarquhar.htm

-Edward pulls a train, "The Milk", from Barrow to Knapford, arriving at 7:25
-Once "The Milk" arrives, "The Push-Pull" (Thomas with Annie and Clarabelle) departs for Cronk (can that be right?)
-Percy runs past them, bringing trucks to an unspecified quarry for loading, he arrives at 8:30
-At 9:45, the Barrow-Tidmouth "Semi-Fast" arrives at Tidmouth Docks, pulled by Henry. Percy, who has been waiting in the shunting neck, takes the empty coaches. At a nearby pier, fish wagons for the "Flying Kipper" are being loaded.
-At 10:30, the coaches from the "Semi-Fast" have been shunted into a siding, and Percy waits for his mail train. The "Flying Kipper" has been coupled to Henry, who waits at the mouth of the station for the "all clear"
-Shortly after Henry's departure, James arrives with a passenger train (The Local?)

The above information comes from the Reverend's NWR layout timetable. There is a PDF with the full timetable, but my phone doesn't support PDF's. If anyone could copy down the info and post it here, I'd be much obliged.

Anyone interested in more timetables?

That is one well-constructed time table; Is it official or fan made?

I believe that was Awdry's timetable for his model layout based on Tidmouth. However, that schedule would reflect the NWR in the 50s, not modern times, and I don't think it would be completely accurate has it had to fit the space limitations of the layout.

The site has always been one of my favorites of course. Lots of cool information.

I agree that it's sixty years out of date, however, Awdry tried to get it as accurate as possible, and it's a fair representation of the NWR in the fifties. I also think that a lot of this is still valid today, such as the Flying Kipper and the Push-Pull (although it now runs on Thomas's branch line).

Sadly, the most recent timetable dates from 1967, but it has likely not much changed, since no new engines have joined Thomas's branch since then. It can be found here: http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/ffarquharII.htm

I'd agree with that. I believe at last check the only engines working on Thomas' Line are Thomas, Percy, Toby and Daisy. (Mavis doesn't count since she works for Ffarquhar Quarry Co, not the NWR)

While no new engines have been added new goods customers may sprouted up along the line or closed down, or maybe their was a population increase/decrease in one of the towns along the line. All of these realistically would have happened since 1967 which is why I say the timetable would be out of date. New engines wouldn't cause much change, just accommodate it.

Very true, but we can use it as a "base" of sorts for the 2015 timetable you wanted to construct. We just need to figure out what has changed.

I believe Sodor: between the lines by Christopher is the most up to date book we have on Sodor

Reading Between the Lines does not really provide a whole lot of information on this subject. It explains each RWS book and history on the characters, along with the creation of Sodor. Wilberts book, IOS, which is much harder to get, probably has the appropriate information.

Doesn't SirTophamHattNWR on Twitter have a timetable?

Isn't that non-canon?

I'm pretty sure he did a ton of research.

It still is not canon.

We still don't get very much canon info anymore though

I know this is an old topic ... but ...
Did you see the Railway Modeller 2008 article about the Ffarquhar layout constructed by Awdry. It has quite a detailed AM timetable for the Ffarquhar Branch.
The timetable was most likely constructed to suit the layout, as I am aware that the second of Awdry's Ffarquhar layouts had a slightly different timetable.

Sorry, that should be December 1959 issue of Railway Modeller.