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

[DavidToad]

A wonderful piece of work which has kept me very busy for the last few evenings, and prompted me to register here to show my appreciation.

The only omission I can find is the St Annes miniature railway up near Blackpool but I note you are in the process of adding such stuff.

Many thanks!

 

[BurtonM]

A little bit of the Ashton end of the Metrolink is missing - map stops at Audenshaw.

 

[MK Tom]

Did the Stony Stratford tramway run right through to Deanshanger then? That's news to me, as is the little bit of isolated line to the north of Wolverton works.

 

[MatthewB]

Updated the map with the missing piece of Metrolink to Ashton under Lyne, and the St Anne's Miniature Rly. Thanks for the additions.

Quite a few other updates as well (details on the home page, or on the map page at Info, Latest New).

Cheers

 

[infobleep]

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

What your doing is a great idea. Thanks for putting up such a site. Love the fact you've included multiple spatial map projections so people can type in or see coordinates for obsolete map projections.

It would be great, if you ever get time, for a mobile friendly version of the site. I'm sure that's way down on the list, which would be fair enough.

One of my former lecturers, Professor Richard Healey, from the University of Portsmouth Geography department was doing research in to railroads in the USA in addition to work he was doing on oil production plants.

Railroad site can be found here: http://railroads.unl.edu

The Geography department main research area is historical geography/cartography, utilising geographical information systems along the way. I love working with historical maps, as well as using computers so I was very much at home when doing my masters there some years ago.

 

[glbotu]

This is an absolutely fantastic map. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

I was wondering, how feasible would it be to somehow incorporate the date? For example, rather than just seeing all the lines, you could see all the lines in an area in 1906.

 

[1018509]

There's a small miniature railway at Edisford Bridge, Clitheroe. 5" gauge it runs on Sunday mornings 50p a trip.

The only miniature railway I've ever seen using a Woodhead locomotive (battery powered no OHLE).

You can see it here

 

[MatthewB]

I've been away for a couple of weeks, so have only just got round to updating the maps. For L&Y Robert I've refreshed the area around Burnley, highlighting the tramways in light green and finding some new tramways. For 1018509 I've added in Edisford Bridge miniature rly.

Thanks to all those who have provided feedback. If you've emailed me with corrections and additions then hopefully I'll get round to implementing them in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also starting to build a new interface for the site, which hopefully will be a little more intuitive and tablet-friendly.

Cheers

 

[yorksrob]

Well, I've had it on my favourites since the original thread (a year or so ago) and have been delving in regularly.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Nice piece of work thanks

 

[southern442]

I've been away for a couple of weeks, so have only just got round to updating the maps. For L&Y Robert I've refreshed the area around Burnley, highlighting the tramways in light green and finding some new tramways. For 1018509 I've added in Edisford Bridge miniature rly.

Thanks to all those who have provided feedback. If you've emailed me with corrections and additions then hopefully I'll get round to implementing them in the next couple of weeks.

I'm also starting to build a new interface for the site, which hopefully will be a little more intuitive and tablet-friendly.

Cheers

There are a few things missing that I can point out, but I'm not sure weather you just missed them or deliberately didn't include them. some of the things that I noticed are:

• The Naional Motor Museum monorail (didn't know if it counted because it's sort of a fairground railway, but an interesting piece of engineering nonetheless
  • Two funiculars (the London Millenium funicular and the one at Greenwich pier; again I was unsure if they counted because the two are essentially operated as lifts, plus they are very little-known and there is hardly any information on the latter online
  • The Bransbury Park miniature railway in Portsmouth.

Nevertheless I think it's a great map and it was very interesting.

EDIT: I think I need to get my eyes tested. The London Millenium funicular IS included-as is another one near Southampton that I was just about to mention-sorry about that!

 

[MatthewB]

National Motor Museum and Bransbury Park Rly both added.

Haven't been able to find mention of a funicular at Greenwich Pier? It's not the cable car is it? Can you provide any more information?

Thanks for all the great feedback!

 

[southern442]

National Motor Museum and Bransbury Park Rly both added.

Haven't been able to find mention of a funicular at Greenwich Pier? It's not the cable car is it? Can you provide any more information?

Thanks for all the great feedback!

I can understand if you can't find any info on it, as far as I'm aware the only mention of it online is on an old website called http://benobve.110mb.com/

I can confirm that it definitely is there because I've seen it before, but I'm not sure if it still works () or is indeed still there, and it is essentially operated as a sort of platform lift. The only way of finding out is going there yourself I suppose!

 

[Scouseinmanc]

Absolutely superb Matthew!

I have done something similar using Google maps.

I started pushpinning every closed railway station in the UK (with exception to Northern Ireland). Well over 10,000 stations & have done this county by county.

I then used Google Earth to draw up the lines, linking them all together.

I've also included Metro sytems & the Tube.

I knew there had to be someone else, doing something pretty similar & you really have done a brilliant job.

Best rgds, SiM.

 

[Feathers44]

Wow, I like the detail of this.

It seems to already contain all the little details of the local area I've learned about over the years.

Good job!

 

[Old Bill]

This is brilliant! Thanks for this. The days at work will fly by!

One thing - I can't quite figure out how to turn off the closed lines?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
And wow... is the Reigate to Ashford line the longest stretch of straightest line in the country?? And engineer's dream!

 

[telstarbox]

This is brilliant! Thanks for this. The days at work will fly by!

One thing - I can't quite figure out how to turn off the closed lines?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
And wow... is the Reigate to Ashford line the longest stretch of straightest line in the country?? And engineer's dream!

No - it's almost straight but not quite.

 

[tsr]

And wow... is the Reigate to Ashford line the longest stretch of straightest line in the country?? And engineer's dream!

As above, no, it's not the longest straight stretch, though it does contain some considerable stretches of straight alignment. The reason (supposedly) was the lack of resistance from legal and land ownership perspectives during construction.

However, it isn't an engineer's dream. The line is has its maintenance issues, with high susceptibility to poor railhead conditions, various embankments with trees and drainage issues, occasional flooding, tunnels, some major stations, human factors at numerous crossings, and (nowadays) a signalling system which requires some careful workarounds. The alignment may be easier to negotiate than any other local line, but everything else is just as tricky!

 

[Old Bill]

As above, no, it's not the longest straight stretch, though it does contain some considerable stretches of straight alignment. The reason (supposedly) was the lack of resistance from legal and land ownership perspectives during construction.

However, it isn't an engineer's dream. The line is has its maintenance issues, with high susceptibility to poor railhead conditions, various embankments with trees and drainage issues, occasional flooding, tunnels, some major stations, human factors at numerous crossings, and (nowadays) a signalling system which requires some careful workarounds. The alignment may be easier to negotiate than any other local line, but everything else is just as tricky!

Ah yes of course! So maybe not an engineer's dream but more or a railway planning land purchasing dept's dream! hehe.
So where is there a longer straighter stretch of line?

 

[MatthewB]

I can understand if you can't find any info on it, as far as I'm aware the only mention of it online is on an old website called http://benobve.110mb.com/

I can confirm that it definitely is there because I've seen it before, but I'm not sure if it still works () or is indeed still there, and it is essentially operated as a sort of platform lift. The only way of finding out is going there yourself I suppose!

Found a picture of a lift at Greenwich Pier:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bu_udxcCIAAQWVb.jpg:large

If this is the one, then despite being on rails, I think I'll discount this one.

For Old Bill, you can't switch between closed and open lines. Its a "feature" of the map that it shows all historical lines on a single map. As a workaround if you go to Places, View Tracks, you can toggle all the lines on and off and view the current railways on the Google Map (best on the Google street map view).

Thanks for all the other comments and for all the visitors to the site.

 

[Ploughman]

Ah yes of course! So maybe not an engineer's dream but more or a railway planning land purchasing dept's dream! hehe.
So where is there a longer straighter stretch of line?

I believe that the longest straight is between Selby, Barlby and Brough on the line to Hull.
Approx 19 miles.