All posts filed under: Illustrations

Historical Map: BART “Going Places” Advertising Supplement Poster, 1982

March 26, 2021
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Here’s a fantastic poster designed as the centre spread of an advertising supplement to various Bay Area newspapers to celebrate the first ten years of BART (1972–1982). The immediately recognisable system diagram is overlaid on top of some charming line illustrations of landmarks and attractions, with the routes of BART Express buses also indicated. It’s all very simple – the illustration looks like it’s been done with some coloured fine felt-tip pens – but it’s […]

Historical Map: Swiss Spiral Tunnels Cutaway, 1952

August 14, 2020
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A superb cutaway map of the spectacular spiral tunnels on the Albula Railway in Switzerland, drawn for The Eagle magazine in 1952 by prolific artist Leslie Ashwell Wood. Compare to similar spiral tunnels on the Gotthardbahn. Source: ausdew/Flickr

Historical Map: Pullman, Washington, 1911 – The Palouse Country

May 11, 2020
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This handsome birds-eye view map of eastern Washington State comes from the Pullman Primer, a prospectus put together by the Pullman Chamber of Commerce in 1911 to attract business to the city. It shows the city nestled in the foreground, surrounded by the fertile lands of the Palouse, with Seattle and Portland in the far distance. All across the plains stretch the lines of the many and varied railroad companies of the day, connecting Pullman […]

Official Map: Amtrak Network Map by James Niehues for Amtrak’s “The National” Magazine

February 5, 2020
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Yes, that James Niehues. As you’d expect from the acclaimed master of ski resort maps, the mountains in this map are gorgeously rendered, and Amtrak’s routes are drawn as straight red lines — almost as if they were ski lifts across the country. I particularly like it when a route line “disappears” behind a particularly tall mountain — it’s something that really sells the implied dimensionality of the map. It is perhaps unfortunate that some […]

Official Map: Ouigo TGV “Ouigoland” Map, France, 2020

January 30, 2020
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This confection of a map appears on SNCF’s website for their low-cost, no-frills, everything-costs-extra TGV service, Ouigo (a name that makes a pun in both English and French — “we go” in the former and “yes, go” in the latter). The map is certainly bright and cheerful, and very definitely on brand for the service. It uses the bright magenta and sky blue colours from the train livery liberally and presents all of France as […]

Submission – Official Map: JR West Kakogawa Line Strip Map, Japan

April 5, 2019
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Submitted by Jason H., who says: Hi! I’m currently living in Japan for a year as an exchange student, and I’ve come across many train maps here (of course), and I actually originally found your website from the JR West system map you posted many years ago. (It has been updated, with a few route changes but also more colors if you want to check it again). Here is a picture I took of a […]

Illustration: Walking the Paris Métro by Hwan Lee

June 18, 2014
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This is just beautiful. Artist Hwan Lee has walked (yes, walked!) to 261 Métro stations in Paris, sketching their many and varied entrances, from the spectacular Hector Guimard-designed Art Nouveau édicules at Abbesses and Porte Dauphine to the more prosaic entrances of the modern Ligne 14. The lively sketches of each entrance are arranged nicely onto a stylised Métro map, with Lee’s walking path denoted by a trail of feet all over the city. Delightful! Source: Hwan’s […]

Illustration: Southern Rail’s “Southern Adventure” Ad Campaign by Rod Hunt

June 8, 2014
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Extremely nifty isometric “pixel art” illustration showing all the family-friendly adventures that can be had on England’s Southern Rail network. Probably not much use as an actual map, but it does name/highlight a lot of the useful stations and the activities that can be had in the region. A lot of fun to be had poring over the detailed illustration, and I love the pencilled rough for comparison. The artist, Rod Hunt, is perhaps best […]