Same thing in the states, at least on the SP. Again, rules could vary between roads. But a scheduled train was a scheduled train. The SP regularly used second and third class schedules for freights, although the schedules were honored in the breach and the only real reason was to simplify dispatching by giving the "scheduled" trains right over the extras running in the opposite direction. The real "schedule" if needed would usually be a series of "waits". In most places the second and third class schedules were in only one direction, and eight hours apart, with trains in the opposite direction all extra. And SP occasionally ran freights as a section of a first class passenger train. Indeed, if I remember correctly some of the early expedited TOFC trains were run as first class trains. Dispatching a busy single track railroad by trainorders and timetable was a real art.