Th refreshment room at Birmingham Moor Street Station has on display on its wall, a -- by all likely reckoning, original -- Great Western Railway map of that undertaking's system, and connections. This map can prompt intriguing figurings concerning "what it shows and what it doesn't".
The map would seem very accurate as regards the GWR's own lines at its mid / late-1930s date: all the system then in traffic, is shown -- passenger lines solid red, "thick" or "thin" according to "main line or secondary"; freight-only lines indicated in red, with the "solid-line-hatched" old Ordnance Survey "mineral lines, sidings and tramways" symbol. Oddities and speculation-fodder are furnished chiefly by the map's "non-GW" railway content, shown in black -- and it appears, at times in a quirky fashion.
For a start: fairly accurate dating seems furnishable by the map's (mostly accurate re areas of GW territory with non-GW trackage also plentiful) not featuring the 1935-abandoned Bishop's Castle, and Lynton & Barnstaple, lines (it shows a road-coach route, Barnstaple -- Lynton -- Minehead). It does however show, presumably in passenger use (with all intermediate stations), the Welsh Highland line from Dinas Junction to Portmadoc. This would seem to narrow the map's date down to 1936 or possibly '37: the Welsh Highland's last summer in traffic was 1936, but the line was technically closed totally -- including for freight -- early in 1937. (And the GW's Cleobury Mortimer -- Ditton Priors branch is shown as in passenger use -- this line lost its passenger service in 1938.)
As referred to above: non-GWR lines / networks directly impinged on by the GW -- in "shared land" or by sea ferries with a GW interest therein -- would appear to be usually, (reasonably) fully and accurately shown: in Great Britain, by thin black lines regardless of "major or minor" status; and sections freight-only by 1936 / 7, where shown, are indicated by the identical thin plain black line, as those passenger-served. The further from GW territory / sphere of influence, the more sketchily and seemingly almost randomly the railway map is drawn -- as in the south-east / east / north, of England. Wales's standard-gauge far north -- solidly LMS ex-LNWR territory -- is ruthlessly "pruned"; most branches with no GWR connection, are omitted: i.e. Holywell, Bethesda, Amlwch even -- and Dyserth, Llanberis, and Red Wharf Bay -- these later having by the date of the map lost their regular passenger services, but still going then for freight. The LNER's outpost in north-east Wales, based on Wrexham and Chester, appears not at all. Further south in Wales, with GWR and LMS closely interwoven: the LMS Gowerton -- Llanmorlais branch (freight-only since 1931) is shown; but the Swansea & Mumbles is omitted -- one speculates, dismissed as "only a tram".
Colonel Stephens's Weston, Clevedon & Portishead and Shropshire & Montgomeryshire standard-gauge private lines feature, in non-GWR black: the latter (freight-only since 1933) with only its Shrewsbury -- Llanymynech main line shown -- not the Criggion branch, though that also stayed in use for freight for as long as the S & M remained active.
Southern Railway lines are fairly faithfully depicted as far east as Hampshire, inclusive; save for an odd glitch or two. Everything on the Isle of Wight is faithfully shown except, oddly, Merstone -- Sandown; and the Brockenhurst -- Lymington branch is missing. There is a temptation to speculate whimsically about devious plotting on the part of the GWR, to lure and mislead visitors to Wight away from the logical means of attaining the island by the SR; but instead to have them travel to Southampton via the indicated GW running-powers route leading off the former Midland & South-Western Junction line via Andover -- and get a ferry thence to Cowes.
The map's makers would appear to have had a "thing" about fairly meticulous delineation of non-GW-owned scenes where -- as above -- the GW played some sort of real or imagined role; but to have troubled themselves little over areas where their railway had no kind of presence. The map features a same-scale inset of the Isle of Man, considerably south of the island's real geographical position: showing accurately and in full by thin black lines, the Isle of Man Railway / Manx Electric / Snaefell Mountain routes -- though it wots not of the Douglas Southern Electric Tramway or the Groudle Glen. Man's relevance to the GW would seem to be the rather far-fetched one of the recommendation as per the map, for passengers to go to Liverpool (for the IOM ferry), travelling first from Paddington to Birkenhead.
Yet "curiouser" is the suggested relationship between the GWR and Ireland; no doubt chiefly stemming from the GWR's Fishguard -- Rosslare ferry route. The map includes in its proper geographical place, roughly the most south-easterly quarter of the island of Ireland -- stopping where the borders of the map are reached. All lines then operational in that area -- all, at that time, property of Eire's Great Southern Railways -- are shown: the makers in their wisdom, chose to have them as thick black lines, with the two branches in the area which were then freight-only (Enfield -- Edenderry, and Bagenalstown -- Palace East) shown with the "old mineral-lines-sidings-and-tramways" symbol. One can only assume that all this made some kind of sense to those responsible...
I find this map, with its striking oddities and "signs of the times", to hold more interest in some ways, than the more frequently met-with, often reproduced, GWR map of the company's system very shortly after Grouping. Would recommend to anyone finding themselves at Moor Street Station in Birmingham with a little time to spare, to take a look at this item.
The map would seem very accurate as regards the GWR's own lines at its mid / late-1930s date: all the system then in traffic, is shown -- passenger lines solid red, "thick" or "thin" according to "main line or secondary"; freight-only lines indicated in red, with the "solid-line-hatched" old Ordnance Survey "mineral lines, sidings and tramways" symbol. Oddities and speculation-fodder are furnished chiefly by the map's "non-GW" railway content, shown in black -- and it appears, at times in a quirky fashion.
For a start: fairly accurate dating seems furnishable by the map's (mostly accurate re areas of GW territory with non-GW trackage also plentiful) not featuring the 1935-abandoned Bishop's Castle, and Lynton & Barnstaple, lines (it shows a road-coach route, Barnstaple -- Lynton -- Minehead). It does however show, presumably in passenger use (with all intermediate stations), the Welsh Highland line from Dinas Junction to Portmadoc. This would seem to narrow the map's date down to 1936 or possibly '37: the Welsh Highland's last summer in traffic was 1936, but the line was technically closed totally -- including for freight -- early in 1937. (And the GW's Cleobury Mortimer -- Ditton Priors branch is shown as in passenger use -- this line lost its passenger service in 1938.)
As referred to above: non-GWR lines / networks directly impinged on by the GW -- in "shared land" or by sea ferries with a GW interest therein -- would appear to be usually, (reasonably) fully and accurately shown: in Great Britain, by thin black lines regardless of "major or minor" status; and sections freight-only by 1936 / 7, where shown, are indicated by the identical thin plain black line, as those passenger-served. The further from GW territory / sphere of influence, the more sketchily and seemingly almost randomly the railway map is drawn -- as in the south-east / east / north, of England. Wales's standard-gauge far north -- solidly LMS ex-LNWR territory -- is ruthlessly "pruned"; most branches with no GWR connection, are omitted: i.e. Holywell, Bethesda, Amlwch even -- and Dyserth, Llanberis, and Red Wharf Bay -- these later having by the date of the map lost their regular passenger services, but still going then for freight. The LNER's outpost in north-east Wales, based on Wrexham and Chester, appears not at all. Further south in Wales, with GWR and LMS closely interwoven: the LMS Gowerton -- Llanmorlais branch (freight-only since 1931) is shown; but the Swansea & Mumbles is omitted -- one speculates, dismissed as "only a tram".
Colonel Stephens's Weston, Clevedon & Portishead and Shropshire & Montgomeryshire standard-gauge private lines feature, in non-GWR black: the latter (freight-only since 1933) with only its Shrewsbury -- Llanymynech main line shown -- not the Criggion branch, though that also stayed in use for freight for as long as the S & M remained active.
Southern Railway lines are fairly faithfully depicted as far east as Hampshire, inclusive; save for an odd glitch or two. Everything on the Isle of Wight is faithfully shown except, oddly, Merstone -- Sandown; and the Brockenhurst -- Lymington branch is missing. There is a temptation to speculate whimsically about devious plotting on the part of the GWR, to lure and mislead visitors to Wight away from the logical means of attaining the island by the SR; but instead to have them travel to Southampton via the indicated GW running-powers route leading off the former Midland & South-Western Junction line via Andover -- and get a ferry thence to Cowes.
The map's makers would appear to have had a "thing" about fairly meticulous delineation of non-GW-owned scenes where -- as above -- the GW played some sort of real or imagined role; but to have troubled themselves little over areas where their railway had no kind of presence. The map features a same-scale inset of the Isle of Man, considerably south of the island's real geographical position: showing accurately and in full by thin black lines, the Isle of Man Railway / Manx Electric / Snaefell Mountain routes -- though it wots not of the Douglas Southern Electric Tramway or the Groudle Glen. Man's relevance to the GW would seem to be the rather far-fetched one of the recommendation as per the map, for passengers to go to Liverpool (for the IOM ferry), travelling first from Paddington to Birkenhead.
Yet "curiouser" is the suggested relationship between the GWR and Ireland; no doubt chiefly stemming from the GWR's Fishguard -- Rosslare ferry route. The map includes in its proper geographical place, roughly the most south-easterly quarter of the island of Ireland -- stopping where the borders of the map are reached. All lines then operational in that area -- all, at that time, property of Eire's Great Southern Railways -- are shown: the makers in their wisdom, chose to have them as thick black lines, with the two branches in the area which were then freight-only (Enfield -- Edenderry, and Bagenalstown -- Palace East) shown with the "old mineral-lines-sidings-and-tramways" symbol. One can only assume that all this made some kind of sense to those responsible...
I find this map, with its striking oddities and "signs of the times", to hold more interest in some ways, than the more frequently met-with, often reproduced, GWR map of the company's system very shortly after Grouping. Would recommend to anyone finding themselves at Moor Street Station in Birmingham with a little time to spare, to take a look at this item.