All posts tagged: illustration

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: 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 […]

Historical Map: Prague Metro Booklet, c. May 1974

July 2, 2021
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A charming page introducing the Prague Metro, probably from around May 1974 when the first section of the Metro – Line C from Sokolovská (now Florenc) to Kačerov – opened. A diagram of the planned system takes up the majority of the page, accompanied by illustrations and text explaining how ticketing, barriers and ingress/egress from the stations would work. Altogether rather lovely. Source: transphoto.org

Historical Map: West Yorkshire ElectroBus Informational Leaflet, 1985

September 9, 2020
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On from the “what could have been?” files – a proposed double-decker trolleybus service covering 76 kilometres (just under 50 miles) of routes in West Yorkshire. Between 1980 and 1990, the West Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive repeatedly attempted to gain government funding for this project: this leaflet looks like one of those efforts, extolling the benefits of such a network. Eventually, a private bus operator announced a plan to operate a diesel bus service along […]

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: 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 […]

Historical Map: MUNI Route Changes, January 27, 1982

December 5, 2018
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Sent my way by Marcin Wichary on Twitter is this rather adorable little illustrated map. It’s from the front page of a leaflet issued to introduce new – and quite substantial – changes to routes in San Francisco, moving from a radial pattern that centred on downtown to more of a gridlike pattern covering the whole city. The changes also introduced the concept of timed transfers at some stations to eliminate long waits for transfers. The illustration […]

Historical Map – Bus and Streetcar Lines on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, c. 1935

June 7, 2018
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An unusual perspective here – looking down the length of the mile-long diagonal parkway to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and its famous steps), with bus and streetcar routes highlighted in a lovely shade of apple green. Does a lot of work with just two printed colours – a reminder that limited palettes can sometimes be just as effective as full-colour. Really quite lovely. Prints of this map are now available in the Transit Maps […]