Re: Old Australian Railway timetables

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

Don Sarno <dasarno@aol.com> wrote:

>I'm an American off to Australia for the first time this week.  I'll be
>exclusively in the Sydney area.

>Are there any shops in Sydney that deal with old railroad books and
>ephemera?  I'm looking for pre-1950 public and working timetables and am
>certain that there are collectors in Australia.

>I have a huge 40,000 item timetable collection covering US and Europe,
>but not much from Australia.   Have a couple of regional items from the
>1950s, but am looking for older items.

>Please e-mail me at dasarno@aol.com if you can be of assistance.

>Don Sarno

On Sun, 08 Mar 1998 15:31:53 +0000, you wrote:

>I'm an American off to Australia for the first time this week.  I'll be >exclusively in the Sydney area.

>Are there any shops in Sydney that deal with old railroad books and
>ephemera?  I'm looking for pre-1950 public and working timetables and am
>certain that there are collectors in Australia.

>I have a huge 40,000 item timetable collection covering US and Europe,
>but not much from Australia.   Have a couple of regional items from the
>1950s, but am looking for older items.

>Please e-mail me at dasarno@aol.com if you can be of assistance.

>Don Sarno

In Sydney, there are really only two shops that sell this stuff:

1. "Off the Rails" 
http://www.otr.com.au/, 
Email: otr@otr.com.au
160 Salisbury Rd., Camperdown 2050,NSW, Australia 
ph: (02) 9550 5355  (intl. +61 2 9550 5355) 
fax:(02)9519 9927   (intl. +61 2 9519 9927) 

and

2.  The Australian Railway Historical Society
http://www.accsoft.com.au/~arhsnsw/bookshp.htm
Australia's best selection of railway books, magazines and videos,
is at the ARHS Bookshop at 67 Renwick Street, Redfern, NSW.
Open Mondays to Fridays, noon to 5.30; Saturdays, 9-4. Mail order
welcome - or use the online order form, or 'phone/facsimile (02) 9699
1714 (international 61 2 9699 1714). Mastercard, Visa, Bankcard
accepted. If paying by cheque or Money Order for mailing to an
Australian address, please add $6.00 p&p for the first item and an
extra 50 cents for each additional item. Credit card users and
international postage charged at cost. 

The former nearly always have a small collection of both Working and
public timetables in stock.  Currently, they have some 1930's era
public timetables.  I usually buy most of their good stuff.  Pre-1950
stuff is very rare.  Their prices are very high, compared with a place
like the Depot Attic in Dobbs Ferry- I bought a 1914 PRR ETT from the
Depot Attic for what the man there called a "high price".... $25.  At
Off the Rails, you would expect to pay $100 or more.  Their Web site
catalog of T/Ts is woefully out of date and still lists stuff as "in
stock" which I bought a year ago.

The ARHS shop only sells these sorts of items very occasionally,
during a clearance sale of their archive material, once every 5 years
or so.  I was told that sales of this material can be arranged at
times other than clearance sales times, but I got such a hostile
reaction to my query (I was accused of wanting to steal the
material!), that I never pursued the matter.

Other sources for timetables are:

* The AATTC (Australian Association of TimeTable Collectors) is an
organisation for anyone interested in the study of transport
timetables, schedules, maps and associated literature. 

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~aattc/

They sell timetables by mail auction twice per year.

* The End of The Line
http://www.ozemail.com/~smalpass/
Another mail auction house.  Very slow and inefficient (sorry).


Retail shops outside Sydney with timetable sales, including mail
order, include:

VICTORIA (MELBOURNE):

* The Railfan Shop
http://railfan.webmania.com.au/
Melbourne's Only Railfan Specialist
We know SYAWLIAR backwards
New items added to lists 12 May 1997  (Yes, it's very outdated- G.L.)
Books, Videos, Ephemera,
Magazines, Model Railway Supplies
Mail Orders Welcome
40 Market St Melbourne Australia
(cnr Flinders Lane)
Mon - Thurs 9.00am - 5.30pm
Fri 9.00am - 7.00pm
Sat 9.00am - 4.00pm
Ph/Fax: +61 3 9621 2238

You can download a mail order form, but can't order over the Web.
They sell current Working timetables even before their introduction
date!

QUEENSLAND, BRISBANE

* The Railway Shop
http://qroti.bit.net.au/traveltrain/railshop/
The Railway Shop
co South Brisbane Railway Station
Grey Street South Brisbane 4101
Phone 07-3235-2218
Fax 07-3235-2209

They issue a mail order catalog, but don't have a Web order facility.


Both these shops hold and sell material from states other than their
home states.
Geoff Lambert