Macauleys Station Map of the 1881 Railways of Great Britain & Aireys Junction Diagrams

This is a facsimile of Macauley's Station Map of the Railways of Great Britain published in 1881 showing all the lines built and planned at that date and the owners of each line. By this date the railway network in Britain was largely complete but many changes took place between 1881 and the eve of the Grouping in 1923 - some of the planned lines were never built and many of the original owning companies were taken over by other companies. This is a portrait of Britain's railways as the well known large companies (which ultimately came to be be narrowed down to the Big Four) were vying with a myriad of local lines to rationalise a network which had been built on the various demands of local communities and business interests throughout Britain. The book also comprises the 4th edition of Airey's Railway Junction Diagrams which was published in 1880. This is the perfect complement to Macauley's railway atlas as it shows in detail each contemporary railway junction in Britain where different (often competing) railway companies met on the network. The original volume of junction diagrams comprises 130 pages of maps which have been interposed in this edition with the relevant pages of the atlas.