Best published railroad map

[ScottC4746]

I want to take a railroad map along with me on my trip. Can anyone recommend a good national rail map or is it broken up by region. If the latter can someone recommend a good map for Southwest Chief and California Zephyr?

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

From what I have seen the SPV Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America is quite good but they are pricey, especially considering each volume only covers a few states at most.

 

[FriskyFL]

Google Maps shows the rail lines, but unfortunately doesn't include the name of the RR.

 

[railiner]

At home, when looking for reference to threads brought up on this board, I refer to my old (1978) edition of Rand McNally & Company's "Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States". It shows a state-on-a-page basically, for an overview of various routes and junction points, and mileages between, but not close-up detail, nor highways for reference. It also has a national map, as well as a few blow-ups of metropolitan areas. Also some other info in its appendix. Not aware of whether it is still published.

When on board a train, I use my cellphones Verizon Navigator. It shows the actual tracks the train is on, and the usual road and other info. The railroads reporting marks are shown, although in a few cases, not entirely up to date. On the Eagle detour from Chicago to St. Louls, it was especially informative. Once in a while, on the former C&EI, it showed the road as "MP" instead of the current "UP", but other than that was very handy...

 

[Nathanael]

From what I have seen the SPV Comprehensive Railroad Atlas of North America is quite good but they are pricey, especially considering each volume only covers a few states at most.

SPV is by far the most detailed. But the price adds up fast as there are so many individual volumes.

I use Deskmap's atlas for quick reference. It's accurate up to 2004. It's not very detailed but gives you a good overview.

http://www.deskmap.com/rr_mapping/atlase3.html

 

[railiner]

Another source is to gather a collection of official state highway maps (free by the asking), many of which show railroads, and even Amtrak routes.

 

[NE933]

Hagstrom Maps, which has been merged/gobbled up/whatever, was by far the best that showed where railroad tracks were in both cities and towns, and, they did label the owner, though at times outdated (maps of New York and New Jersey showed the Northeast Corridor in some cases owned by Penn Central and ConRail, who have not been owners of it since 1976). These minor errors were inconsequential because the attention to accurate detail of the rail line's relationship with surounding streets and highways, parks, cemetaries, landmarks and important buildings, made it very easy to locate and to know where everything was. Yards and connecting spurs that lay unused for decades were included.

And stations!!! Very handy if you were either new or unfamiliar with a town that you're taking a train into, so that one could orient him or herself and know where to walk, or how far away something is from that station. Also, great help in assisting someone who plans to pick you up. Many printed maps simply omitted anything rail, as if it didn't exist (no doubt reflecting the values of the map printing company's ideology that people do not or should not ride trains).

Now even though as i said, Hagstrom has been bought out however, Google it and whatever company runs it now still prints them in the style they were known for. I bought a bunch a few years ago over the internet to keep my maps current and were mailed to me.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

Now if you want to get into a more technical and detailed navigation experience, pick up the Altamont Press Timetable(s) for the regions you will be traveling for. However, not all regions are covered and they have not published anything in about 2-3 years; so you are limited to whatever stock is still on hand. These are along the lines of what Conductors and Engineers carry and work best if you have a Scanner and can read MP/CP markers. I find I can usually figure my location much quicker this way than with a GPS, and some quick math will tell you how far away the next station, town or other reference point along the route is. And they are handy size fitting easily into your grip or side pants pocket.

 

[AMTK 99]

Altamont Press(AP) Timetables are very good, but thay are quite technical if you don't know about how railroads operate and certain terms they use. The only timetables produced cover the Western Part of the country, thay did not make any for the East Coast. Also, AP went out of business a few years ago, so finding one of their books is kind of tricky.

Sonrisa Productions (www.djcooley.com) produces some very good railroad maps for the West and Mid-West. They also make some Railfan Guides and a route guide for the Empire Builder. These books focus on the railroads but do show nearby highways and towns.

Another way to go is search ebay.com for Employee Timetables which generally have decent maps and lots if information about the railroad (including scanner frequencies)

I use all three of the above products, plus a professional railroad atlas, when I ride Amtrak. Plus I have a scanner, so I always know what's going on.

Hope this helps

Nick

 

[D T Nelson]

The BNSF has fairly detailed maps on its web site. Go to this page and then click on the Division Map for the area you are interested in. You can download the PDFs and print them out or load them on your iPad or whatever.

The UP has maps on its site but they are very high-level and not what you are looking for.

The CP has a PDF system map on its site that is not as detailed as the BNSF maps but is more detailed than what the UP offers.

The CN site has high-level maps like the UP.

 

[TinCan782]

Check out Sonrisa Publications...

http://www.djcooley.com/

 

[amtkstn]

Some states have highway or railroad maps of thier DOT websites.

 

[Bronzeman]

Many thanks to D T. We're taking the EB from CHI to GPK in a couple months and the BNSF maps will certainly come in handy.