I came across this great 1926 map of the original Numbered U.S. Highway System via an article on CityLab. As I looked, I began to see that while the quality of the scan was good, and the content of the map was fascinating, the map itself was in a pretty sorry state -- so I decided to digitally restore it.
From a brochure introducing the now-infamous A/B stopping pattern on Chicago’s “L”. A trial run of the (mostly) alternating stopping pattern—designed to speed up operations on lines where there was no extra passing track for express services—had been carried out on the Lake Street Line in April 1948 and had been deemed a success. The next two lines to receive A/B service were the Ravenswood Line and the North-South Route as seen here. The revision […]
Great little system map from the back of a ticket. Amtrak’s modern-day Texas Eagle route is a direct descendant of the route shown here. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Submitted by Miles Taylor, who says: Here’s a pretty awful map I found of the MWRTA bus system in Framingham, MA. I can’t make heads or tails of these crazy routes. Transit Maps says: Yeah… this is pretty bad. It’s pretty much anyone’s guess as to what’s going on at the northwestern end of the red Route 7, as it looks like the bus just loops around aimlessly until it finds a way back east. […]
Someone ripped the map off the wall, so a kind soul thoughtfully drew the routes and stations back on with a pen. If it’s done from memory, that’s fairly impressive work. Source: Josh Kruger/Twitter – link no longer active
From A. Merritt Taylor’s Report of Transit Commissioner, City of Philadelphia. At the time, only the current Market-Frankford Line (complete with “Ferry Line” extension at the east end) was operating, so everything else shown here is proposed. Coincidentally, the colour scheme used seems to be almost identical to that used today, although the colours actually indicate immediacy of construction – blue for extant, orange for “immediate construction” and green for “future construction”. Source: 18brumaire/Flickr
A tiny little map of Chicago with streetcar lines and the underlying street grid printed on the obverse of a transfer ticket. It seems to be mainly used for indicating the time and place that the transfer was issued, rather than for any attempt at navigation of the system. If I’m reading the clock face at the top of the ticket correctly, this transfer was issued at 3:35 (or 7:15) on July 2nd by a […]
An old photo (taken in 2005 at Charles/MGH station according to the metadata over on Flickr), but even then the spider map was out of date. Love the red wall for the Red Line. Source: quicklyfailing/Flickr
Portland’s MAX light rail system as it appeared just after the initial opening of the Red Line. Note that the Red Line doesn’t continue out to Beaverton as it does these days, but turns around just west of downtown. Later, the Yellow Line would turn around here as well, before it was rerouted down the transit mall. The map itself does a nice job with a relatively simple system. The gracefully curved Willamette River is […]
Update: the Washington DC Metro Veterans Day Map now includes the Rosslyn–Pentagon shuttle bus service (shown as a dotted blue line with relevant call-out box). It’s like they’re reading my mind! Source: WMATA website – link no longer active
