Official Guide of The Railways - History

History

In the post-Civil War era of the late 1860s, as the transcontinental railroad pushed westward across the prairies, the burgeoning growth of railroad passenger traffic created the need for accurate train schedule information. On October 2, 1866, the National Association of General Passenger and Ticket Agents passed a resolution calling for a "railway guide" to be published, for use as a reference by all association members. The result was the monthly publication of the Travelers Official Railway Guide of the United States, Mexico and Canada, beginning with a 200-page first edition in June 1868. Eventually the Official Guide would list all of the passenger train schedules of railroads in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America. At the peak of rail passenger service in the 1920s, "The Guide", as it was commonly known in the industry, exceeded 1,500 pages and was widely used by railroad personnel, travel agents, and corporate travel departments. With the advent of passenger airlines the Official Guide included schedules for major US airlines. The Official Guide was the primary reference used by ticket agents for all railroads in the U.S. and Canada, and for international rail travel to Mexico. The Guide was especially useful for constructing connections among the many railroads of the time.

The Official Guide also included some high priority freight schedules, system maps, listing of company officers, an index of all railroad stations, industry news briefs and personnel changes, rosters of key railroad officials, and new passenger train announcements, along with steamship schedules.

Other related publications produced by National Railway Publication Company and its affiliates included the Pocket List of Railroad Officials and freight equipment listings.

With the decline of long-distance passenger service in the U.S. during the 1950s–1960s and the eventual demise of passenger service by most individual railroads at the inception of Amtrak on May 1, 1971, the need for a monthly rail passenger Official Guide diminished considerably. In the years after Amtrak was established the Official Guide was split into separate freight and passenger editions.