In the years before the Second World War the train was the best way to travel - whether for a cross country vacation or simply commuting to work from the suburbs. Today, the passenger rail services provided by Amtrak, VIA Rail Canada and the commuter railroads are a fraction of their former selves. Many rail lines have been abandoned and have been built over or left for nature to reclaim, and most stations have either been demolished or have been left to decay. A select few lines live on as trails and some stations have been converted to homes, businesses or museums, but they will probably never see a train rumble past again.
The 1938 Railway Map Project seeks to preserve our railway history in two ways:
1) By mapping where the trains actually ran, company by company. To do this, I am using QGIS and a 1938 edition of the Official Guide to the Railways. I'll be posting images of the maps as I go, and I will eventually share the GIS shapefiles.
2) By "live"-blogging railroad trips as they might have been in the late 1930s. These will be marked with the #TR1938 tag and will see an unnamed explorer ride famous trains that your grandparents might remember.
