A national timetable is not a book you read; it is a surface you search. The All-India Timetable and Newman's Indian Bradshaw squeezed thousands of departures into hairline-ruled columns on grey mechanical pulp, three scripts to a station name, every tint in the table standing for a class of train.

Outside, the same information system turned into steel: vitreous enamel plates, black on a yellow chosen to survive fog, dust and a lantern. This system keeps both halves — dense ink pages, loud enamel boards, and nothing in between.