Arranging railway timetables 1908

An ingenious system of threads used by railway timetable planners to secure the perfect working of a great railway system in 1909. This was achieved by stretching threads across a board. Each section of the board from top to bottom represents one hour, and hose spaces were subdivided by thinner lines representing five minutes. The horizontal divisions represented the distances between the stations. A thread was stretched from the starting-point of the train to its destination, and the points where the threads intersected the ruled lines showed the time of the arrival of the trains at stations. It was essential that no two threads should cross. Crossings are avoided by carrying the thread horizontally along the sections equivalent to five minutes, and each horizontal deviation means tat the train must stop for a time equal to the number of minute-spaces it covers on the board. Perhaps something to be considered by current rail company timetable compilers?

Arranging Clockwork Complicated Maze Network Planners Sep18 Thread Timetable Timetables

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