William R. Hough Timetable Collection

The William R. Hough Timetables Collection consists of 812 timetables issued between 1907 and 2016. There are 753 railroad, 20 ship, 9 bus, and 3 airline timetables. The collection is primarily North American in scope, while also including some European and Australian content. Along with the more commonly available public timetables, the collection includes 142 employee timetables, primarily from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

The Hough collections were acquired gradually over two lifetimes. This finding aid covers the timetables only, primarily railroad timetables, most published between the 1930s and 1990s with a few outliers from 1907 through 2016. Several of the oldest timetables are reprints issued more recently by railroad historical groups. It includes both employee and public timetables published by railroads from North America and overseas. Materials held separately from the timetables are promotional publications, menus, and route maps, many dating from the time when railroads were promoting their reequipped passenger trains against air and auto competition. Finally, the collections include monographs, periodicals, annual reports, photographs, postcards, and realia. The collection has been split among several organizations, besides Northwestern, major parts are located at the SFO Museum Aviation Collection, the California State Railroad Museum Library and other institutions.