Submitted by Carter, who says:

I’ve always been fascinated with trains and tube-style maps, so I decided to make my own based on my home-town’s railroad. I found an old Official Guide which I used as my source for this map. I’d like to hear what your think of it.

Transit Maps says:

Carter says that this is his first map, and I think it’s absolutely amazing for a first effort. Even with an official route guide to help, the research and dedication needed to piece this together must have been immense! Design-wise, I really like the dead-straight trajectory that the main Chicago to New Orleans trunk line takes – a great focal point for the whole map. The stylised compression of the rest of the map works pretty well for the most part, although some of the states do take on some pretty odd shapes. An alternate solution might have been to simply point off the edge of the map towards Florida, but I do really appreciate the completeness of Carter’s approach.

Labelling is generally pretty good, although I’m never really in favour of bigger type for important stations. I feel it breaks up the flow of a map and causes more problems, spacing-wise, than it’s worth. Bolder text or even all-caps at the same point size as a regular station works better for me. The only truly problematic area for labelling is the Delta Express out of Memphis. Alternating station names on either side of a diagonal route line is very difficult to pull off effectively, and it’s quite difficult to work out which label belongs to which station.

Typographically, I’m not entirely sure that Century Gothic (a 1991 font attempting to emulate a 1970s font in Avant Garde) really evokes the right 1950s feel, but it is clear and legible. An American-style gothic like Franklin Gothic or News Gothic might work well, and perhaps tie in with the Illinois Central logo as well.

I love the completeness of the service icons at the stations – regular stop, flag stop, one-way stop, etc. – although this can be a lot of information for readers to take in at once. It’s important to make the icons as intuitive as possible, and in general, Carter’s done a good job. The last one, for a one-way flag stop, is perhaps a little too subtle in its execution to be told apart from a normal one-way stop quickly and easily. A little refinement and these should work!

Minor things: I’d move the legend away from the map and into the wide-open spaces in Arkansas, and I’d work on getting smooth curves out of stations along 45-degree routes instead of starting the angle directly from the station marker. The curves north of Clinton could be rotated 180 degrees and reused to the south of Gilman, for example.

Our rating: A labour of love, I feel, and a fantastic, ambitious effort for a first attempt at a transit map! Keep at it, Carter – revise and refine and this will be a great historical map.

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