Rail Atlas

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for a national rail atlas that also shows local features (roads, interstates, town street grids, etc.). Some samples I've seen only show rail and towns, but not the overlying highway grid.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

[Anonymous]

the only one I can think of is the Delorme atlas they are not a railroad atlas but are topographic maps of an entire state, and they do include railroads. The railroads are no up to date but it shows railroads from today back to about 1970.

[Anonymous]

try the rand-mcnalley railroad atlas[^][}:)][bow][bow][bow][dinner]>>>glennbob

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

QUOTE: Originally posted by glennbob

try the rand-mcnalley railroad atlas[^][}:)][bow][bow][bow][dinner]>>>glennbob

The classic Rand-McNally railroad atlas of which we are all quite familiar (I have three different editions) has been discontinued for some time now. Some official state highway maps do show the railroads on their main maps but not on the various city insets.

[Anonymous]

Go to terraserverusa.com. They have photographic sattelite maps of the entire nation. Some of them are in color, and you can even zoom in close enough to see the trains.

[Anonymous]

The DeLorme Atlas of Texas I have has lots of gaps on the rail lines. Very frustrating.

[beaulieu]

For Canada there is the RAC Rail Atlas do a Google search for Rail Association of Canada. They sell them from their website. For the US your only choice are the Rail Atlases pu out by Steam Powered Video in the UK. Probably best purchased from a US store. It takes 10 or so Atlases to cover the US. There are some minor mistakes but I do recommend these because they are useful. Try Karen's Books or McMillan Publications on the Web for them or buy them direct.

[Anonymous]

I am in UK and have experienced (and to some extent solved) this problem

Contacts, please, from rail enthusiasts (fanners?), my wife and I are planning a lifetime coast to coast trip next year and would love to hear from you. All help reciprocated, of course, if you plan to visit UK

Best Regards

John and Tricia, London UK

[e-mail]

[blhanel]

Oh my God, this is wild. My youngest sister's name is Patricia, and we call her Tricia. Her husband is originally from near Oxford, and his name is Jon. They currently reside in Minnesota with their two kids, but make family trips to England every other year to visit his parents.

I'd love to find an up-to-date rail atlas as well. Maybe we could talk someone at Kalmbach into undertaking such a project?

[Anonymous]

Try this link:

http://www.deskmap.com/railroad.html

Has anyone used this product?

John Cammish

[blhanel]

Yikes! A little pricey. That'd make a good Christmas or Birthday suggestion, though.

[Anonymous]

There is no such Atlas available. It you think aout it, it would be enormous for full coverage of the U. S.: it would fill your trunk. It takes Steam Powered Video 16 volumes to cover the entire country and it ONLY shows railroads and a few natural features like lakes and rivers.


The Delorme Atlas series show railroads but the only thing shown is the track alignment and ownership and it often is very hard to follow. Also the size of the book makes it hard to use in a car. And the type is small.


The map sold for $29.95 at this site

http://www.deskmap.com/railroad.html

used to be sold by Rand McNally for $$9.95. As noted above I don't see it listed there anymore. Maybe eBay. It was called "United States Railroads," ISBN 1-929324-00-6. It only shows general track alignment , stations and track ownership (no trackage or haulage rights).


Delorme publishses two software packages, "Street Atlas" and "Map Print Pack," which show railroads. The information is outdated, ownership of the track is NOT shown nor are stations. And the railroad information only shows up at rather extreme magnificartion when street names are shown. They both can be used with a GPS device sold by Delorme so they could be used with a laptop in a car to help find the tracks from wherever you might be.


Sonrisa Publications at

www.djcooley.com

sells a series of "Railroad Map Books" covering nine western states. They are in Employee TimeTable format and do show major roads, i.e. Interstate, U.S.and State highways. All stations, detectors, etc. are shown.


None of these show anything like the information in the Altamont Press "Railfan TimeTables." See

www.altamontpress.com

for details. Like the Sonrisa "Railroad Map Rooks," they only cover the western states.


My health won't permit me to travel anymore but if could I would get the Sonrisa maps and annotate them with the info from the Altamont Press "Railfan TimeTables."

[Anonymous]

I like the 1950's-era Hammond World Atlas, which has a page for each state and shows all the rail lines identified by RR--pre-pre-mergers, such as NC&StL, I-GN, CCC&STL, T&NO, etc. It even shows the RGS in Rico, Colorado! Anyway, I have found several copies in used bookstores around the country. Problem is that it is perfect-bound, and the adhesive gets brittle, so with use the pages can fall out.
I started railfanning with a trip West in 1963 and had that Atlas with me then. It is very accurate, showing curves etc, although no topographic or highway information. I am never without it. In the early days, this atlas and an old Official Guide were all you needed to identify the lines. (Note: Later versions of the Hammond atlas forsook the RR lines and show highways instead.)

[MP173]

Anytime I am on vacation in a state I pickup the state's Official Transportation Map. Those are great and usually have the railroads included. What is really neat is if you have the old maps from 20 -30 years ago and can see the massive changes in not only the railroads, but the interstates.

I picked up a 1942 Indiana map and it was fascinating with all the railroads and the lack of interstates.

I also purchased a couple of Deskmap products...the Conrail Merger Map and the 2000 edition of the US rails (it was much cheaper). First thing I did on both maps was go to a printing company with a blueprint copier and have copies made, so I could use the copies ($3 each) and keep the maps safe.

If you can, pickup an old Official Railway guide....lots of maps and other fascinating stuff.

ed

[CG9602]

There are the atlases from Steam Powered Video. spv.co.uk
If you were to go to Rand McNally's website, Rand McNally offers the atlases from S. P. V. randmcnally.com

[waltersrails]

my IL map has them