Help required regarding symbols in LNER Working Timetables

[Dungrange]

The image below shows an extract from LNER Traffic Notice F2/700, 1947 which sets out instructions regarding the working of Fruit and Vegetable Traffic in the Cambridge District.  This is the Saturday 'Up' timetable for the fruit season of 1947 on the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.

 

The various trains are described as "Epts" (which I presume is 'Empties'), "Gds" (which I presume is unfitted 'Goods') and "Pass Fr't" (which I assume is Fruit Vans and other Passenger Rated vehicles).  However, 'E&V' has me stumped - the first Up train on a Saturday is the only train with this heading.    Any suggestions what this means?

 

Secondly, you'll note that the times at intermediate stations are shows as .. for the first train but * for the other two that day.  Any ideas what the * means?  It's not related to the type of train as some of the weekday services have .. against Outwell Village but * against Outwell Basin.  My guess is that perhaps * means 'stops to shunt' or similar instruction, but that doesn't really make sense as the first train takes longer than the other two.  Unfortunately, there isn't a key, so I'm assuming that means that these would have been widely understood symbols.

 

The first weekday service in each direction is marked as Q, which I assume meant runs if required, since that's still in use in current Working Timetables.

[Tom Burnham]

I'd guess that E&V is Engine and (Brake) Van. 

Southern Region timetables of around 1970 use * to mean 'Stops and shunts for other trains to pass' so you're probably right in your interpretation.  Presumably trams wouldn't need to pass another one at every depot, so mostly it would be just shunting.

[Dungrange]

9 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

I'd guess that E&V is Engine and (Brake) Van. 

 

That seems a logical enough suggestion, even if such a move isn't what I was expecting.  The whole point of the enhanced summer service was to get the large quantities of harvested fruit and vegetables moved from Upwell to Wisbech.  Running a light engine and brake van in the direction of peak demand seems counter-intuitive.  I'm guessing that it must have been a timing issue.  Presumably most of the fruit and vegetables that arrived at Upwell for dispatch did so after 9:30 am and was therefore conveyed in the two later trains and if there was no suitable connecting services through Wisbech in the morning, then there was little point in moving wagons in the first train.  Presumably it was therefore necessitated by the extra inbound train probably conveying empty wagons, which would of course have needed a brake van.

 

9 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

Presumably trams wouldn't need to pass another one at every depot, so mostly it would be just shunting.

 

Yes, it's nothing to do with trains passing.  The 'Instructions for the Working of the Tramway' set out that the only location at which trains crossed was at Boyce's Bridge Deport.  That is, the line operated as 'one engine in steam' between Wisbech and Boyce's Bridge and 'one engine in steam' between Boyce's Bridge and Upwell.  Boyce's Bridge acted as though it were a token exchange point, even although there were no physical tokens used on the Tramway.  There is also a footnote that states "40 to cross 42 at Boyce's Depot".  40 is the 9 am down goods and 42 the 9:15 am up E&V service.  40 is marked as * at all depots and 42 as all --.  In pre-grouping days when the passenger service was in operation the end to end journey time was 39 minutes, so presumably the 10:35 arrival time at Wisbech is a latest time (ie it may arrive as late as that if the down goods had to do lots of shunting at Elm Depot), but if the down goods had nothing to shunt at Elm Depot, then the 9:15 E&V could presumably have been in Wisbech by 10:00.

 

I'm guessing that the varying journey times was a reflection of the likely amount of shunting undertaken at the intermediate depots.

 

* was never used in the Working Timetables in GER days, which always gave a notional time at each Depot.  From the timetables that I have, the * first appeared in the LNER timetable for 1928, which was the first year in which passenger services no longer operated and it became a freight only line.

[Michael Hodgson]

 

Different railways adopted a number of various conventions for standardised instructions to minimise the number of pages needed.  This wasn't just cost of print - it was also to do with the weight of paper that the rules said train crews had to lug about with them on duty.   I would assume the asterisk means it stops if required to attach/detach traffic, but runs through otherwise.  The key is probably printed in the Sectional Appendix, and did appear in some WTTs though it didn't appear in all of them, perhaps because the staff all knew it anyway.

 

E&V is a commonly used  abbreviation of Engine & Van.  This would be an outward working to collect a train from somewhere that locos/crews weren't available, or its return to base from such a working.

 

a "Q" path  is provided in working timetables for trains that only run when required (eg seasonal crops or similar intermittent flows of traffic).  In the case of East Anglian crops, even during the season the number of trains needed would vary from day to day, some would be shown as running anyway, others only if required.  It was important to balance workings by bringing locos and crews back, possibly empties, possibly just E&V.

 

The companies had different ways of indicating morning/afternoon before the general adoption of the 24-hour clock.  Some used am/pm.  Others used a full stop (1.30 vs 130), though I can't remember which was which!.

 

[billbedford]

Isn't the asterisk the goods equivalent of a request stop? i.e. stops as required?

Edited December 9, 2023 by billbedford

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, billbedford said:

Isn't the asterisk the goods equivalent of a request stop? i.e. stops as required?

No.  In BR WTTs it meant stops or shunts for another trains to pass, that is a different meaning from crossing a train on a singe line but the asterisk symbol could be used on a single line line  In GWR STTs it meant 'shunt for another train to pass not to perform traffic work'.   Certainly in my time - late 1960s onwards -it meant the first of those - i.e it was a regulating symbol and nothing to do with traffic working.  

 

On the LNER it might well have had a different meaning but I haven't got any LNER WTTs against which I can check.  Equally it might well have had a special on certain routes and would be shwn in the notes to the relevant page of the WTT.