Check the (historic) timetable!

I blithely set part of my novel on the Isle of Mull in April 1952, with relatively little research or planning. Max flies to Mull, but after a plane crash, she has to take a train back to London. Somehow I thought the steamer that went from Mull to Oban would match up with the train timetables, but upon research in Bradshaw's for April 1952, I learned it absolutely did not. Moreover, I also realised you couldn't take a through train from Oban to London on the weekend, so the timings of the novel required shifting. But the research was fun to do!

Oban steamer timetable, April 1952 (Tobermory to Oban)