Today in 1839, cartographer, printer and publisher George Bradshaw of Manchester, England, issued a timetable for the London and Birmingham Railway. A week earlier, Bradshaw published the first in the series of Bradshaw's Railway Time Tables and Assistant to Railway Travelling, for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
These were the first railway timetables—very necessary tools for travelers in the new and confusing railroad networks. The original Bradshaw time tables were published before the limited introduction of standardized Railway time in November 1840, and its subsequent development into standard time…
From this small beginning Bradshaw expanded into publishing a wide variety of time tables and travel guides. After his early death in 1853 his business continued—so much so that "Bradshaw" became synonymous in England with time table and travel guide. The last Bradshaw guides were published in 1961.