Some current Links to On-Line Resources

  In researching my current project I've discovered some excellent resources on line. May be some are quite well known, others perhaps less so and I thought it worthwhile to list them with some background notes.
 
Rail Map Online
 
Overlays historical and current rail and canal infrastructure on your choice of base map, from simple to topographic. An amazing resource to help bring your railway setting to life. Used in conjunction with the following Map resource it's likely all you'll need.

National Library of Scotland
https://maps.nls.uk
 
 A diverse set of historical OS and other maps. The ability to overlay old maps on a modern base is a valuable tool especially when researching older station configurations and infrastructure. To realise the full potential takes a bit of exploring. For example individual map pages can be interlinked to give a continuous view in some editions they have. Handy when that 25in map boundary falls bang in the middle of your sidings!

A Vision of Britain Though Time

Rainy day reading which just might be your Hotel California. A very well organised site which lets you drill down to the data and background of any area. For Rural areas it's helpful to know which Administrative District it lies in.

Britain from Above - Aerial Photographs

95,000 of the oldest and most valuable photographs in the Aerofilms collection, those dating from 1919 to 1953.

Interesting links there Colin - thanks for that but I could really waste some time there ................... :hmm

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Interesting links there Colin - thanks for that but I could really waste some time there ………………. :hmm

Depends on your definition of "waste" I guess!

Very useful, thank you Colin.  I spent a very enjoyable hour yesterday skimming through these resources, the aerial photos being particularly useful and enjoyable.
Michael

For accurate train formations, and general information on coaching stock for the BR period, I would recommend joining the BR Coaching Stock E group on groups.io

main@brcoachingstock.groups.io

By the work of Robert Carroll and with the permission of BRB (Residuary) Ltd, there are roughly 450 Carriage Working Diagram Books covering all regions from 1948 to the early 1980s, with a few grouping company diagrams thrown in as well.


You do need to be a member to access them though.

For Southern Railway items, images of stock and infrastructure etc

https://sremg.org.uk/

Very useful, the aerial photos particularly…

Should add these ones to the growing set of reference sources:

I've been using this :http://www.igg.org.uk/rail/

  The main site is devoted to wide-ranging info in "An overview of railway freight operations for modellers (from around 1830 to about 2010)"…

I found it very handy when researching the history of Milk transportation by rail and there's much else besides.

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For all manner of fully detailed Historical Passenger Timetables including a vast array of "Bradshaw's" (ranging from 1839 to 1961!), each of the Big Four,  scanned and bookmarked, look no further than:

Timetable World