All posts tagged: streetcar

Historical Map: Interurban Trips Over Vancouver, B.C. Electric Railway System, 1913

November 11, 2019
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A handsome birds-eye map of the extensive interurban electric railway network extending from Vancouver as far away as Chilliwack. An inset map shows the lines on Vancouver Island, though not terribly efficiently, as much space is devoted to showing the power transmission lines from the Jordan River power house. There’s lots of great little details on the map, like little interurban trains running along the route lines, steam trains shown on the main line and […]

Fantasy Map: Portland MAX in the Style of the Vignelli New York Subway Map

May 17, 2019
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I missed this when it was released yesterday, but those TriMet designers (who really do seem to have too much time on their hands!) have released another mash-up map, this time riffing off the (in)famous 1970s New York Subway diagram by Massimo Vignelli. It’s probably the best one so far, mimicking the style almost perfectly. If you’re going to do a homage, you may as well go all in, and that’s exactly what’s been done […]

Official Map: Subway and Streetcar Map of Toronto, 2019

February 19, 2019
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Seen on Twitter, and requested by a few readers is this new map from the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) that shows both Toronto’s subway and streetcar networks. It’s a great concept, though perhaps overdue, so how does it stack up? Overall, it’s really rather good. The larger poster format finally frees the subway part of the map from the compressed confines of the narrow above-the-door strip map, though they will still exist alongside these new […]

Historical Map: Map of the Laurelhurst Addition and Streetcar Lines, Portland, Oregon, c.1912

January 23, 2019
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Here’s a handsome map from a prospectus produced in the early 20th century to promote the exclusive new Laurelhurst addition in Portland, Oregon. Prominently shown in yellow “gold” ink are the three streetcar lines that provided service to the neighbourhood — the Rose City Park line, the Montavilla line, and the Sunnyside line. Streetcar lines to other parts of the city are also clearly shown, just not given the exclusive treatment of the other three. […]

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 […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Pacific Electric, Modern Day by Julian

November 9, 2018
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Submitted by Julian, who says: Although Los Angeles’ Pacific Electric interurban system fell victim to the postwar wave of urban railway closures, systems in other cities were preserved on account of their grade-separated infrastructure. In San Francisco in particular, the only streetcar lines that were preserved were the 5 that were segregated from traffic for part of their length. Since certain segments of the Pacific Electric system were not only segregated from traffic but 4-tracked […]

Submission – Fantasy Map: Integrated Rail Diagram of Washington, DC and Baltimore by Chris Smere

October 18, 2018
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Submitted by Chris, who says: This is one of my latest works: an integrated rail diagram for the Baltimore and Washington DC areas. The style is inspired by Vignelli’s subway maps from the 70s. There are no intentional geographic references. I have tried to show all rail services – heavy, light rail and streetcar – in the same manner (all strokes are of the same thickness). Station indicators are different depending on service/transportation mode (circle = metro, subway, square = light […]

Historical Map: Montreal Street Railway System, 1893

September 7, 2018
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A map showing the extent of the streetcar network in Montreal in 1893. Most of the lines at this time were horse-drawn, though electrification of the system had already begun. “The Rocket”, Montreal’s first electric streetcar, made its maiden journey in September 1892, and all lines were electrified by 1894. Source: Archives de Montreal

Historical Map: Map of Interurban Lines and Trolley Observation Trip, Portland Electric Power Company, c. 1923

September 6, 2018
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Here’s a handsome map of electric rail transportation in and around Portland, Oregon that – somewhat curiously – I hadn’t come across before. For the most part, it correlates with my own research into the network in the 1920s, though there are two little stub lines shown that I haven’t previously seen on any other map. The first of these is a branch on the Oregon City interurban from the Gladstone stop eastwards a short […]

Historical Map: Pacific Electric Railway System in Southern California, c. 1926 by Jake Berman

September 5, 2018
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I’m really enjoying this modern take on a map of the Pacific Electric’s sprawling electric streetcar network by Jake Berman. Obviously based on the period map shown (or an extremely similar one!), it retains a lot of the visual energy of the original – mainly because of the multiple angles used for both the route lines and labels. Normally, this might be something I’d find fault with, but I think it’s totally appropriate here when […]