All posts filed under: Historical Maps

Historical Map: 1962 Rose City Transit Bus Map, Portland, Oregon

November 18, 2022
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Here’s a map from a rarely-seen era of Portland, Oregon’s transit history – the period of time between the end of the streetcar era and the emergence of the current transit operator, TriMet in 1969. The Rose City Transit Company (with their lovely casual script logo and friendly “Rosy” nickname) operated bus service within the Portland city limits from 1956 until TriMet was formed. Under RTC’s watch, the last of Portland’s trolleybuses were phased out […]

Submission – Historical Map: Paris Métro + RER Map, c. 1984

October 13, 2022
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Submitted by Hayden, who says: An interesting map of Paris’ Métro and RER network found in a restaurant in Montreal. The map’s designers seem to have made the most of a limited color palette by assigning the same color to groups of lines that do not intersect–lavender for 2, 8, and 3b, brown for 11 and 6, magenta for 12 and 7, etc. Unfortunately it seems they could not avoid breaking this rule at Strasbourg-St. […]

Historical Map: New York Subway IND Division Map by Arthur Weindorf, 1942

September 9, 2022
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Over on Twitter, Peter Lloyd – the doyen of new York Subway experts – has been showcasing the many maps of Arthur Weindorf (1885–1979), a perhaps unsung contributor to the rich transit mapping history of that city. Weindorf was something of an artistic Renaissance Man – he was a cartoonist, fine art painter, and architectural engineer for the New York Public Service Commission. As well as his many drawings and maps of the subway, he […]

Submission – Historical Map: Montreal Metro, 1982

August 10, 2022
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Submitted by Hayden, who says: My apologies for the glare in the photo [No problem! I also straightened the image for publication – Cam]. I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this 1982 Montreal Metro map. I found it in a preserved MR-63 subway car at Exporail, a railway museum outside Montreal. The map shows the three Metro lines open at the time with white stations, as well as the under-construction Blue Line […]

Historical Map: Peninsular Electric Railway, California, c. 1908

August 3, 2022
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An attractive bird’s-eye panoramic map of the lines of the Peninsular Railway (1900–1934), affectionately known as “the Pin” by locals. The railway was founded as a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Railroad to provide connecting electric interurban service through the Santa Clara Valley from San Jose. The map itself is a fairly typical example of the genre, though the curved labels for locality names along the lines are an unusual and effective device for enclosing […]

Historical Map: Transportation Map of Greater Kansas City, 1941

July 26, 2022
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A very handsome map of transportation services in the greater Kansas City area from 1941. A nicely subdued olive street grid is overlaid by the route lines – colour-coded by mode (black for streetcars, blue and red for bus lines, and a lovely aqua for trolleybuses). Areas of interest are called out in bright yellow, so this looks like a six-colour print job – quite a luxury in 1941! There’s also a great downtown inset, […]

Submission – Historical Map: Streetcars of Kingston, Ontario, 1910 by Noah Gaffran

January 13, 2022
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Submitted by Noah, who says: Here’s my map of the streetcar services operated by the Kingston, Portsmouth & Cataraqui Electric Railway in 1910. I was inspired to do this after seeing several maps of historic tram networks including the ones on this website [See my historical maps of Portland, Spokane and Yakima – Cam]. The system opened on Princess St in 1893. By around 1898 it had reached its largest extent as shown in this […]

Historical Map: Baltimore United Railways & Electric Co., 1929

January 7, 2022
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A charming map of streetcar services – and a few of those newfangled gas buses! – in central Baltimore from 1929. Points of interest are clearly illustrated, and the map is surrounded by vignettes of life and architecture in this “historic, pleasant, thriving city”. A prominent cartouche proclaims that “STREET CARS and BUSES in Baltimore go wherever there is anything to see…” and little streetcars have been drawn running along major thoroughfares. As a side […]

Submission – Historical Map Recreation: Southern Electric 1934 Carriage Map by Paul Cooper

January 3, 2022
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Submitted by Paul, who says: Attached is my re-draw of the Southern Electric Map, dated 1934, showing the electrified services (using 3rd rail top-contact 750v DC) serving South London. These were displayed in frames inside carriages, normally printed on heavy-grade card. The temptation to correct some of the ‘issues’ of the original (the station names appearing over lines, odd spacing of lettering that doesn’t appear to be consistent and some rather interesting angles for the […]

Historical Map: Express Road Services Through The Thames Valley, c. 1950

January 2, 2022
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Starting the New Year off right with this lovely illustrated map of coach services from London through the Thames Valley to destinations like Oxford, Reading and Worcester. Designed by illustrator Derrick Sayer, the simplified route diagram is presented on the back of a beautiful swan, acting as a symbol of the Thames. Another contemporaneous poster by the same illustrator uses a jumping fish as the backdrop to the diagram, to slightly less visual effect. At […]