All posts tagged: streetcar

Historical Map: Boston MTA System, c. 1940s

November 29, 2011
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Historical Maps
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Another aerial-style view of a transit system – this time of Boston’s MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority: now known as the “T”) subway system. The attention to detail is wonderful, with each station and tunnel lovingly and accurately rendered. Note how the routes have different colours to the current map: the current colours come from a system-wide rebranding in the 1960s. Have we been there? Yes, and I used the “T” extensively while there. What we […]

Historical Map: Los Angeles Pacific Electric Relief Map, 1920

October 31, 2011
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Historical Maps, Prints Available
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A fascinating snapshot in time of the full extent of the great Pacific Electric Railway Company’s operations in Los Angeles and southern California. The famous “Red Cars”, a combination of streetcars and interurban light rail spanned vast distances at a time before the car had truly entered the American way of life. Within 30 years, most of this system – the “largest electric railway system in the world” – had been replaced by motorcoach services […]

Project: Historical Passenger Rail of Portland, Oregon

August 29, 2011
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Historical Maps, My Transit Maps, Visualizations
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Somewhat related to my previous post, here’s a new transit map of Portland for your perusal. This piece was born out of two things – a friendly after-work chat with the immensely talented Ryan Sullivan of Paste In Place, where we discussed a concept similar to this; and a chance discovery of a high-resolution scan of a 1943 streetcar/trolley map on the amazing Vintage Oregon site. Based on that map, and information gleaned from too […]

Project: Rail Transit of Portland, Oregon

August 16, 2011
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My Transit Maps, Unofficial Maps
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Here’s a new transit diagram that I’ve been working on for a while now – a unified rail transit map for the place I live, Portland, Oregon. Portland is blessed with fantastic public transportation, but I’ve always felt that the official TriMet system diagram fails to fully show this, even after its recent redesign. The official diagram only shows TriMet’s services – the MAX light rail and WES commuter rail – relegating the important Portland […]