Rail Map.....All lines!!!

[rogger13]

I would like to bring this web site to the attention of all members....

http://www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php?lat=53.53306&lng=-2.38792

Please take a look, it is brill.......

Its still a work in progress.....,check out the Wick Fabrication Railway..

Im not connected to it, its just what Ive always wanted

Rog

 

[47802]

Interesting, I presume the different colours represent the different railway companies that originally built them, personally I think I would prefer it simply as one colour for lines that still exist and another for lines that are now closed.

 

[Western Lord]

Not as useful as old Ordnance Survey maps (which are available free online), which at least show the locations of stations. Identifying the companies through the colour coding is a pain (it helps if you already know).

 

[Helvellyn]

Interesting. I never knew about Bramley Munitions Depot near Basingstoke.

 

[jnjkerbin]

At a guess, maybe MoD?

 

[albertd]

Bramley Camp From Wikipedia

 

[Ironside]

A good website with lots of info but it does require a lot of knowledge to make sence of it.

 

[GatwickDepress]

For those that aren't aware, clicking on a line will bring up a link to the appropriate Wikipedia article, or where one isn't available, the location of the line. A bit of Google sleuthing may be in order with some lines too. Some are a little beta-y too, the Chatham Main Line apparently extends to France!

 

[route:oxford]

It's a very interesting map.

Just been reading about:-

Comrie miniature railway
Letham Moss railway (near Stirling)
Kerrs miniature railway (Arbroath)

 

[34D]

Wow - great piece of work.

 

[MatthewB]

Just seen all this interest in the site. Thanks to all those who have visited and provided feedback.

The interface is a bit clunky at the moment. It's evolved over the past year with new features bolted on, so apologies to those of you who have found it difficult to find all the features. To help, here's a few tips:

- You can click on most lines to bring up links to Wikipedia and other articles, and to search for more details in Google.

- Stations can be turned on by selecting Places, View Stations. You need to zoom in to get all of them. Hovering the mouse over a station brings up a tooltip with its name, or clicking on it gives you the name and position. Currently stations and features have been completed for England. You can search for stations at Places, List, and clicking on the station in the list will centre the map on it (double-click to zoom in).

- You can switch off the tracks by selecting Places, View Tracks. This allows you to toggle between current tracks (as depicted on the underlying Google Map) and the historical tracks.

- The legend is available by clicking on Legend. To just show the lines in the map view, click on Legend, Dynamic.

- Click on Map (top right) to select the satellite imagery or street map.

- You can get more tips by clicking on the little ? symbols for help on features.


The map is constantly being updated, so some areas are more detailed than others. Currently southern England, London and the West Midlands have the most detail. Please get in touch with any omissions, corrections and suggestions - they're all appreciated. A lot of the smaller, more obscure lines have come from user feedback. You can contact me by clicking the email symbol on the website, direct to [email protected], or via a Private Message on RailUKForums.

Cheers

 

[34D]

What is your criteria over tramways? I see that part of the Leeds City Transport system is included (the Middleton Woods bit).

Amazing site

 

[rogger13]

Just seen all this interest in the site. Thanks to all those who have visited and provided feedback.

The interface is a bit clunky at the moment. It's evolved over the past year with new features bolted on, so apologies to those of you who have found it difficult to find all the features. To help, here's a few tips:

- You can click on most lines to bring up links to Wikipedia and other articles, and to search for more details in Google.

- Stations can be turned on by selecting Places, View Stations. You need to zoom in to get all of them. Hovering the mouse over a station brings up a tooltip with its name, or clicking on it gives you the name and position. Currently stations and features have been completed for England. You can search for stations at Places, List, and clicking on the station in the list will centre the map on it (double-click to zoom in).

- You can switch off the tracks by selecting Places, View Tracks. This allows you to toggle between current tracks (as depicted on the underlying Google Map) and the historical tracks.

- The legend is available by clicking on Legend. To just show the lines in the map view, click on Legend, Dynamic.

- Click on Map (top right) to select the satellite imagery or street map.

- You can get more tips by clicking on the little ? symbols for help on features.


The map is constantly being updated, so some areas are more detailed than others. Currently southern England, London and the West Midlands have the most detail. Please get in touch with any omissions, corrections and suggestions - they're all appreciated. A lot of the smaller, more obscure lines have come from user feedback. You can contact me by clicking the email symbol on the website, direct to [email protected], or via a Private Message on RailUKForums.

Cheers

Thanks for the advice on the site..................time vanishes even more now!!!

rog

 

[Rapidash]

Very nifty site. Very sad to see how much of Devons network has been eviscerated over the years.

 

[plymothian]

What is your criteria over tramways? I see that part of the Leeds City Transport system is included (the Middleton Woods bit).

Amazing site

Also, how about narrow gauge tourist attractions?

The Trago Mills Bickington Stream Railway is included, but the defunct Dobwalls and Gorse Blossom attractions aren't.

 

[MatthewB]

What's included - well basically if you can ride it then it's included. However, I have ruled out the following in order to keep the workload a little more manageable:

- Old, urban tram lines. Simply too much work at this stage to include all the vast tram networks. However, some of the smaller, more interesting tram lines have been included, particularly if they went cross-country.

- Mining/construction railways underground. Lack of information has made this impossible. Some underground railways are included where there is good information and the subject is particularly interesting.

- Fair ground rides such as roller-coasters.

Miniature railways are slowly being added. The older lines and short-lived lines are particularly difficult to find information on, so if you can provide additional details that would help.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Thanks for these explanations.

It's nice to see that the Victoria Tunnel running straight under the centre of Newcastle is included (I fully agree with the criterion of "where there is good information and the subject is particularly interesting").

Equally pleasing to see the newly opened Edinburgh tram line on the map.

Good stuff!

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I appreciate colour coding is difficult, given the overall number of small/joint railways.
But it would be nice if "traditional" colours were given to the principal companies, as in the Ian Allan atlas.
ie black for LNWR, red for Midland, dark blue for GN, dark brown for GWR, light blue for Caledonian etc.
I can't quite get used to the Midland being lemon yellow!

 

[oversteer]

Fascinating. I had no idea so much rail network had been built up around the docks, especially the areas that are now Docklands / London City Airport etc.

An idea for a feature.. select a year and only show rail network that existed at that point.. it would be really interesting to zip forward from the 19th century and see how lines came and went.

 

[MatthewB]

Dobwalls Miniature Rly and Gorse Blossom Miniature Rly now added (albeit a best guess at the track layout). Thanks to 'plymothian' for spotting they were missing.

You may have to refresh your browser to pick up the latest map.

 

[tsr]

You missed the Merstham Valley Railway. A description of the route is at the bottom of this page:

http://www.worldrailfans.info/7.25inch/GalleryMersthamVRConstruction.shtml

I'm not sure when it last ran in "public" use. I last visited a few (maybe 2 or 3) years ago.

To be fair, I'm not entirely surprised it's not on there!

 

[Philip Elliott]

Dobwalls Miniature Rly and Gorse Blossom Miniature Rly now added (albeit a best guess at the track layout). Thanks to 'plymothian' for spotting they were missing.

You may have to refresh your browser to pick up the latest map.

Just out of interest what is the source of information...?

 

[L+Y]

Great website, I have to say.

One suggestion I would make is asking if it's possible to toggle between showing just the "mainline network" and then it and minor industrial lines in addition? This could definitely help with making sense of things, I would think, although it might be quite a lot of work!

I also like the idea of toggling across years: even if this was done on a restricted basis of five year "jumps" from 1830 onward it could be useful. For a project like that I'd certainly be willing to help out with the railways of Lancashire.

 

[GNERman]

Not sure if this has been mentioned - http://www.systemed.net/atlas/

It's been around for a while, but unfortunately there's been no update in the last few years. Shame really.

 

[MatthewB]

Merstham Valley Rly added, and also updated the Middleton Rly and added the East & West Yorkshire Union Rly.

Sources of information vary. I started by using old maps and reference books I collected over the years or borrowed from libraries, but more recently almost everything is available online. There are lots of articles, not to mention forum posts about various lines, and many of the published pictures give vital clues to locations. Both Wikipedia and RailBrit contain a vast amount of information, and I've tried to link relevant articles to the tracks. There are also some excellent map sites now available which I'm sure most of you are already aware of, such as www.nls.uk, www.sabre-roads.org.uk, http://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html, www.old-maps.co.uk, www.npemap.org.uk, and www.osi.ie

Ultimately it all has to be overlaid on Google Maps, and for this I use Google Earth. The historical imagery in Google Earth is really useful (for instance with the Gorse Blossom Rly), and the ability to overlay maps and images makes accurate positioning possible.

The US maps are harder to find online information for, so I've relied more on reference books and the Google satellite imagery, but luckily disused US railroads tend to still be easy to trace as the landscape changes so little.

Colour coding of lines was always going to be a problem. Unfortunately I'd drawn much of the maps by the time someone pointed out I should have matched it to the Ian Allen sectional maps - D'oh! So apologies if the colours are unfamiliar. Hopefully the colours do at least illustrate how the different companies carved up their territories and why some towns have so many competing railways.

The most requested feature has been for a time-slider or ability to pick a specific year. Unfortunately the maps haven't been designed with that in mind, and it would take a lot of work to redraw the maps and do the research into each line. Maybe I'll get round to it one day, once the UK, Ireland and US maps are completed!

Cheers

 

[rogger13]

Merstham Valley Rly added, and also updated the Middleton Rly and added the East & West Yorkshire Union Rly.

Sources of information vary. I started by using old maps and reference books I collected over the years or borrowed from libraries, but more recently almost everything is available online. There are lots of articles, not to mention forum posts about various lines, and many of the published pictures give vital clues to locations. Both Wikipedia and RailBrit contain a vast amount of information, and I've tried to link relevant articles to the tracks. There are also some excellent map sites now available which I'm sure most of you are already aware of, such as www.nls.uk, www.sabre-roads.org.uk, http://www.ponies.me.uk/maps/osmap.html, www.old-maps.co.uk, www.npemap.org.uk, and www.osi.ie

Ultimately it all has to be overlaid on Google Maps, and for this I use Google Earth. The historical imagery in Google Earth is really useful (for instance with the Gorse Blossom Rly), and the ability to overlay maps and images makes accurate positioning possible.

The US maps are harder to find online information for, so I've relied more on reference books and the Google satellite imagery, but luckily disused US railroads tend to still be easy to trace as the landscape changes so little.

Colour coding of lines was always going to be a problem. Unfortunately I'd drawn much of the maps by the time someone pointed out I should have matched it to the Ian Allen sectional maps - D'oh! So apologies if the colours are unfamiliar. Hopefully the colours do at least illustrate how the different companies carved up their territories and why some towns have so many competing railways.

The most requested feature has been for a time-slider or ability to pick a specific year. Unfortunately the maps haven't been designed with that in mind, and it would take a lot of work to redraw the maps and do the research into each line. Maybe I'll get round to it one day, once the UK, Ireland and US maps are completed!

Cheers

Top site Matt, keep up the good work

rog

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Not sure if this has been mentioned - http://www.systemed.net/atlas/

It's been around for a while, but unfortunately there's been no update in the last few years. Shame really.

I've been annoyingly busy. But there's a nearly-complete update sitting on my hard drive which I hope to upload before too long...

 

[GNERman]

Excellent - it really is a quality piece of work.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I appreciate colour coding is difficult, given the overall number of small/joint railways.

But it would be nice if "traditional" colours were given to the principal companies, as in the Ian Allan atlas....ie black for LNWR, red for Midland, dark blue for GN, dark brown for GWR, light blue for Caledonian etc. I can't quite get used to the Midland being lemon yellow!

I too would second the views so expressed in your posting.

 

[L&Y Robert]

Some of the lines shown around Burnley are what we kids used to call "Ginny wagons". These were colliery tubs, chain-hauled along plateways. They brought the coal from outlying pits and adits to the railway sidings. From memory, they were about two foot guage, the wagon - a steel box with wheels - had a cleat on the top edge of the box into which the chain engaged. The empties rode back on the adjacent track. Ride on them you did NOT!