43106
Member
It's been suggested by one of the mods that I post this message in this section, even though it's neither a Preserved nor a Heritage railway!
On and off for a number of years, I've been documenting closed lines and stations. This stems from a book I bought in the late 1980's called "Complete British Railways Maps and Gazeteer, 1825-1985" by C.J. Wignall. It details EVERY line in Britain that has carried a scheduled passenger train service. It's a brilliant book, that shows what a huge network there was in mainland U.K. - even before Beeching.
The trouble with the book is that there are literally HUNDREDS of errors in it, there have been numerous changes since the book was published, and the graphics showing the lines are poorly done.
Two things have happened to really rekindle my personnal interest in this area. Firstly, someone else has had a go at doing the same thing - check out http://www.systemed.plus.com/New_Adlestrop_Railway_Atlas.pdf - it does much the same thing as the book I mentioned, but it's much better quality. However, it is incomplete, but is being worked on - allegedly. There is an e-mail contact address, which I used, but the recipient didn't reply, suggesting that the project has been abandoned. The other tool that confirms old lines is Google Maps, which I've been making use of in a big way. Unfortunately, there are 'dead spots' in some parts of Britain on Google maps (e.g. the Scottish borders). I've been trying to correct the info in the book and re-drawing the maps on Excel Spreadsheets.
Something like this should be made a work of reference - probably some sort of 'sticky' on this forum maybe.
43106
On and off for a number of years, I've been documenting closed lines and stations. This stems from a book I bought in the late 1980's called "Complete British Railways Maps and Gazeteer, 1825-1985" by C.J. Wignall. It details EVERY line in Britain that has carried a scheduled passenger train service. It's a brilliant book, that shows what a huge network there was in mainland U.K. - even before Beeching.
The trouble with the book is that there are literally HUNDREDS of errors in it, there have been numerous changes since the book was published, and the graphics showing the lines are poorly done.
Two things have happened to really rekindle my personnal interest in this area. Firstly, someone else has had a go at doing the same thing - check out http://www.systemed.plus.com/New_Adlestrop_Railway_Atlas.pdf - it does much the same thing as the book I mentioned, but it's much better quality. However, it is incomplete, but is being worked on - allegedly. There is an e-mail contact address, which I used, but the recipient didn't reply, suggesting that the project has been abandoned. The other tool that confirms old lines is Google Maps, which I've been making use of in a big way. Unfortunately, there are 'dead spots' in some parts of Britain on Google maps (e.g. the Scottish borders). I've been trying to correct the info in the book and re-drawing the maps on Excel Spreadsheets.
Something like this should be made a work of reference - probably some sort of 'sticky' on this forum maybe.
43106