Right,

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to colour
in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini trains
run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it a go
myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the Paddington lines
done:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

Apologies for the weird look; i had to rasterise the PDF to edit it, and
it's come out funny (blame Ghostscript!).

The reason i'm posting it with one line done (well, two, as i'm planning
to do Thameslink in black!) is to ask: does this look completely rubbish
or what? I think colouring in the edges of the quite thin NR lines isn't
visually strong enough. Am i wasting my time doing it like this? An
alternative route would be to dig out Illustrator and see if i can make
the lines a bit thicker.

For those who care, i'm picking colours by associating each terminus with
a tube line, based on the area served, and copying its colour. I'm
currently thinking:

Paddington - H&C
Marylebone - Metropolitan
Euston - Bakerloo
St Pancras - Northern (Thameslink is like the Northern line of railways)
King's Cross - Piccadilly
Moorgate - as King's Cross
Liverpool Street - Central
Fenchurch Street - Jubilee
London Bridge - East London
Cannon Street - as London Bridge
Blackfriars - Northern (as St Pancras)
Charing Cross - as London Bridge
Waterloo - District
Victoria - Victoria (hey, it's a link!)
orbital lines - Circle

I'm not totally convinced about Fenchurch Street and London Bridge, or the
orbital lines.

tom

--
Plus, you gotta understand I can now type far, far faster than I can
think. This is not boasting - its admitting a personal tragedy. -- D

On Jul 10, 10:52 am, Tom Anderson wrote:
Right,

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to colour
in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini trains
run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it a go
myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the Paddington lines
done:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

Apologies for the weird look; i had to rasterise the PDF to edit it, and
it's come out funny (blame Ghostscript!).

The reason i'm posting it with one line done (well, two, as i'm planning
to do Thameslink in black!) is to ask: does this look completely rubbish
or what? I think colouring in the edges of the quite thin NR lines isn't
visually strong enough. Am i wasting my time doing it like this? An
alternative route would be to dig out Illustrator and see if i can make
the lines a bit thicker.

For those who care, i'm picking colours by associating each terminus with
a tube line, based on the area served, and copying its colour. I'm
currently thinking:

Paddington - H&C
Marylebone - Metropolitan
Euston - Bakerloo
St Pancras - Northern (Thameslink is like the Northern line of railways)
King's Cross - Piccadilly
Moorgate - as King's Cross
Liverpool Street - Central
Fenchurch Street - Jubilee
London Bridge - East London
Cannon Street - as London Bridge
Blackfriars - Northern (as St Pancras)
Charing Cross - as London Bridge
Waterloo - District
Victoria - Victoria (hey, it's a link!)
orbital lines - Circle

I'm not totally convinced about Fenchurch Street and London Bridge, or the
orbital lines.

tom


This is actually based on the zones map, which doesn't attempt to
diagram the routes, it simply shows which stations the zones are in
and some rather bizarre routes between them (like the weird branch to
Hither Green between Lewisham and Blackheath).

There is a London Connections map which would be a more useful
starting point and includes the zones as well.

The diagram that's been given out with the National Rail timetable for
years always had a kind of attempt at colouring routes according to
terminus, but the trouble is that it can result in having to have
parallel lines along certain routes, or else sillinesses like having a
colour for Charing Cross/Cannon Street and then saying that the route
from Dartford to Victoria is really covered by Charing Cross services
that go to Victoria, rather than have two colours along the
Bexleyheath line.

In the end, the grouping of services by TOC (or former BR division) is
more likely to correspond to some kind of operational reality without
creating incredible complication.

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...
Right,

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to colour
in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini trains
run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it a go
myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the Paddington lines
done:


Why don't you have a look at the NR London Connections map, it has thicker
NR lines and they are already in colour - I reckon your problem really only
applies to Southern and Southeastern doesn't it?
http://nationalrail.co.uk/system/gal...onnections.pdf

Paul

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, MIG wrote:

On Jul 10, 10:52 am, Tom Anderson wrote:

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to colour
in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini trains
run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it a go
myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the Paddington lines
done:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

This is actually based on the zones map, which doesn't attempt to
diagram the routes, it simply shows which stations the zones are in and
some rather bizarre routes between them (like the weird branch to Hither
Green between Lewisham and Blackheath).

True, but that's more or less what the tube map does too, so i'm not
overly bothered.

There is a London Connections map which would be a more useful starting
point and includes the zones as well.

Is there? Distinct from this map? Do you mean the NR one? If not, what?

The diagram that's been given out with the National Rail timetable for
years always had a kind of attempt at colouring routes according to
terminus,

This one:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system...onnections.pdf

?

I note that has the same treatment of Hither Green.

but the trouble is that it can result in having to have
parallel lines along certain routes,

Yes, this is inevitable, as with the LU network - you get just this all
around the Circle, out beyond Rayner's Lane, out to Barking, etc, but
nobody seems to have trouble with it. It's a bit worse on NR, but not
colossally so. If you look at the NR map above, no route is more than
three lines wide, except at London Bridge where it's arguably gratuitous.

or else sillinesses like having a colour for Charing Cross/Cannon Street
and then saying that the route from Dartford to Victoria is really
covered by Charing Cross services that go to Victoria, rather than have
two colours along the Bexleyheath line.

This is bad, wrong, and i will not be doing it.

In the end, the grouping of services by TOC (or former BR division) is
more likely to correspond to some kind of operational reality without
creating incredible complication.

No, colouring by terminus is fine, as i will soon demonstrate!

tom

--
3.141592666666 and then it's just all sixes for the other 298 digits. Then
after that there's just hieroglyphs of scary eyes.

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, Paul Scott wrote:

"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to
colour in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini
trains run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give
it a go myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the
Paddington lines done:

Why don't you have a look at the NR London Connections map, it has
thicker NR lines and they are already in colour

Yes, but it's entirely vile, and also de-emphasises the tube, which is as
bad as the tube map not showing the railway lines.

- I reckon your problem really only applies to Southern and Southeastern
doesn't it?

And the Watford services vs the NLR.

tom

--
3.141592666666 and then it's just all sixes for the other 298 digits. Then
after that there's just hieroglyphs of scary eyes.

Tom Anderson wrote:
Right,

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to
colour in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini
trains run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it
a go myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the
Paddington lines done:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

Apologies for the weird look; i had to rasterise the PDF to edit it, and
it's come out funny (blame Ghostscript!).

The reason i'm posting it with one line done (well, two, as i'm planning
to do Thameslink in black!) is to ask: does this look completely rubbish
or what? I think colouring in the edges of the quite thin NR lines isn't
visually strong enough. Am i wasting my time doing it like this? An
alternative route would be to dig out Illustrator and see if i can make
the lines a bit thicker.

For those who care, i'm picking colours by associating each terminus
with a tube line, based on the area served, and copying its colour. I'm
currently thinking:

Paddington - H&C
Marylebone - Metropolitan
Euston - Bakerloo
St Pancras - Northern (Thameslink is like the Northern line of railways)
King's Cross - Piccadilly
Moorgate - as King's Cross
Liverpool Street - Central
Fenchurch Street - Jubilee
London Bridge - East London
Cannon Street - as London Bridge
Blackfriars - Northern (as St Pancras)
Charing Cross - as London Bridge
Waterloo - District
Victoria - Victoria (hey, it's a link!)
orbital lines - Circle

I'm not totally convinced about Fenchurch Street and London Bridge, or
the orbital lines.

tom

The address link doesn't work for me!

MikeR

On Jul 10, 2:37 pm, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007, MIG wrote:
On Jul 10, 10:52 am, Tom Anderson wrote:

All that stuff about maps got me thinking. It should be possible to colour
in the lines on the London Connections map to show which termini trains
run to. Since i'm a dab hand with the Gimp, i thought i'd give it a go
myself. Here's the first draft, which so far only has the Paddington lines
done:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

This is actually based on the zones map, which doesn't attempt to
diagram the routes, it simply shows which stations the zones are in and
some rather bizarre routes between them (like the weird branch to Hither
Green between Lewisham and Blackheath).

True, but that's more or less what the tube map does too, so i'm not
overly bothered.

There is a London Connections map which would be a more useful starting
point and includes the zones as well.

Is there? Distinct from this map? Do you mean the NR one? If not, what?

The diagram that's been given out with the National Rail timetable for
years always had a kind of attempt at colouring routes according to
terminus,

This one:

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/system.../print_maps/Lo...


That's the one. It's not quite accurate around that area, but in
general it's more accurate (or less inaccurate) than the zones one.
It's not the same though, in that at least it doesn't show everything
going through Lewisham (station). It's a bit better on limited
service routes as well. Also, with most operators, the colours do
correspond to one terminus (I assume you wouldn't try to distinguish
Charing Cross from Cannon Street.)



?

I note that has the same treatment of Hither Green.

but the trouble is that it can result in having to have
parallel lines along certain routes,

Yes, this is inevitable, as with the LU network - you get just this all
around the Circle, out beyond Rayner's Lane, out to Barking, etc, but
nobody seems to have trouble with it. It's a bit worse on NR, but not
colossally so. If you look at the NR map above, no route is more than
three lines wide, except at London Bridge where it's arguably gratuitous.

or else sillinesses like having a colour for Charing Cross/Cannon Street
and then saying that the route from Dartford to Victoria is really
covered by Charing Cross services that go to Victoria, rather than have
two colours along the Bexleyheath line.

This is bad, wrong, and i will not be doing it.

It's not the most awful thing about that map that comes (came) with
the timetable. I can't find it on the Web.



In the end, the grouping of services by TOC (or former BR division) is
more likely to correspond to some kind of operational reality without
creating incredible complication.

No, colouring by terminus is fine, as i will soon demonstrate!

tom

--
3.141592666666 and then it's just all sixes for the other 298 digits. Then
after that there's just hieroglyphs of scary eyes.

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:54:58 +0100, Mike Roberts
wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

http://urchin.earth.li/~twic/tmp/Lon...(Coloured).png

The address link doesn't work for me!

Your newsreaser is presumably being confused by the brackets. I had to
copy/paste rather than just click.

James Farrar wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:54:58 +0100, Mike Roberts
wrote:

Snip
Your newsreaser is presumably being confused by the brackets. I had to
copy/paste rather than just click.

Closer inspection showed that the .png was not in the hyperlink address

MikeR

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:11:08 -0700, MIG wrote:

or else sillinesses like having a colour for Charing Cross/Cannon Street
and then saying that the route from Dartford to Victoria is really
covered by Charing Cross services that go to Victoria, rather than have
two colours along the Bexleyheath line.

This is bad, wrong, and i will not be doing it.

It's not the most awful thing about that map that comes (came) with
the timetable. I can't find it on the Web.

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%...atic%20map.pdf