Memorized train timetables

[Dragan]

Hi everyone,
I wondered if anybody can help me remember the name of a book (or maybe it was a movie, I am not really sure).
All I can remember is that the main protagonist lives close to the rail tracks and knows all the train timetables by heart. This is an important fact for the plot, but I can't remember in what way (I keep getting the feeling that it is a spy novel or maybe some mystic realism one like Murakami's).
Hope someone knows it :)
Dragan

[Stelleri]

There was a Lord Peter Whimsey novel that relied on a very thorough knowledge of train tables.

[Darcy]

I was just thinking the same. I believe it was Five Red Herrings

[Dragan]

Thanks Stelleri, but I haven't read novels about Lord Peter Whimsey.
The one I can't remember is more modern - like second part of 20th century or so...

[Kris]

Blackout by Connie Willis? Memorization and time travel are involved.

Dragan, what's the location - London, large U.S. city, etc.?
Around what year did you read this book (assuming it's not a movie)?

[Tala]

The Railway Man by Eric Lomax? It was made into a movie in 2013 with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.

[Dragan]

No, it's not The Railway Man either.
I am not certain about the settings (that's why I skipped that) - but it's more of a suburban feel, though every time I rack my brains I only come up with the images from the movie Wanted, which has nothing to do with this... It is much more peaceful, like LeCarre or Murakami or maybe Tim Powers..

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Something by Georges Simenon maybe?

[``Laurie]

I can remember a movie set in London about a blind boy who memorized train time tables. I can't remember the name but the first part of the movie was shown from the blind boy's POV where he is the hero and rescues his family and saves the day. It's only in the 2nd part of the movie that you realize the blind boy was just imagining everything and was really very helpless. It was a weird movie and I couldn't figure out what was going on half the time. It involved a murder mystery if that's any help.

[Dragan]

Well, I have to admit that I have never read Georges Simenon (though I have looked him up and he looks interesting).
@Laurie, I can't remember blind boy and I am pretty sure it was a book, but what you have described goes along with what I can scrape.
Also, I believe that the book was written in English (wasn't a translation).

[Arielle]

bumping - sounds something like the Peter Dinklage movie The Station Agent.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340377/

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

There's a character who memorized train timetables in The Plague by Albert Camus, although it's not the protagonist. And of course that's a translation.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Dragan, still looking or did you find this?