Wednesday, November 9, 2011

new book on historic British railway maps


We did an earlier post about a new book on historic railway maps from around the world; this book is a similar but more comprehensive focus on those of Britain with examples from "a communication by canal or railway through the great Vallies of Strathearn & Strathmore" from 1819 to the "National Rail Network Diagram" of this year. 

Not only those interested in transport history but those into cartography generally should find this nearly 200 year survey of mapping interesting. The maps involve quite a variety of styles - from standard geographical maps with the railways in bolder lines to decorative (usually designed to encourage travel), aerial skew panoramas to the basic schematic style which has generally become the fashion in the last 50 years.   However, you don't just get maps, but also quite a few pictures (photos and paintings) of trains and stations, advertising material, cartoons, cartographer profiles and relevant items of equipment.  The book has 304 pages in 220 x 280 mm portrait format, colour throughout, hardcover with jacket.

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