I used to collect railway time tables (the zonal ones as well as Trains at a Glance). Mid 70s through late 80s have some of my best memories. My time table collection went back to long before I was born: 1969, thanks to my dad. Back then, Gitanjali's predecessor was an AC Express. Mail had far fewer stops than it does today (Sakti, Kharsia, Bhatapara, Tumsar Rd in SECR, back then SER, were added).
My dad's elder brother was railway traffic controller based in Dhanbad back then, I recall having plenty of...
more... conversations and visits to his office when visiting.
Interestingly enough, Asansol-Dhanbad section was quicker than it is today (I traveled a lot on Coal Field and Black Diamond Express between HWH and DHN, the only way to get to DHN from Raipur at the time). Coal Field Express ran on a screaming little Japanese electric locomotive... I wonder what happened to those.