skyliner
Well-Known Member
Thought I'd share this for anyone interested in maps. I recently acquired this map from a colleague, it's from the American Map Corporation, and is fairly large at over five feet wide. There is no date on it that I can find, but my guess is mid-1960s based on some of the railroads shown-- it has NYC, PRR, SAL, ACL, and EL. From what I recall, that would put it between the Erie Lackawanna merger of 1960, and the Seaboard Coast Line mash up in 1967. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure if there were any other mergers or closures between those years that would help narrow it down more.
Strangely enough, there seems to be very little info online about this map. Aside from a few library listings, the only other real reference I've found is one that sold on Ebay some years ago. This one is mounted and has some damage, which I might look into getting repaired in the future.
A colleague gave this to me on his recent retirement; the map had been in his office for many years, after he bought it in a Minneapolis cartography store back in the 1970s. He had worked first for the BN on its passenger trains and then Amtrak after the consolidation, in all sorts of roles including baggage handler, car attendant, waiter, and cook. He paid for law school through that work, and eventually became an attorney representing airline pilots, which is how I knew him. In one sense, the railroad experience was useful, because the Railway Labor Act--which is the law governing work laws and representation in the US for railway workers--also applies to airline employees. When I'd pass through his office, we'd chat about trains, I'd show him some of my photography, and he'd tell me stories of working on the railroad back then, like standing in the vestibule with the dutch door open on the Empire Builder after dinner service, watching Glacier Park go by, or about how for a while in the 70s he was the only white waiter working on diner service crews out of Chicago. I've told him now that he's retired, he needs to write some articles for Classic Trains or similar publications on his experiences.
Anyone else collect, or have any good railroad maps? I've got a few others I may share here when I get a chance. They do make great decorations for the layout room walls.
Strangely enough, there seems to be very little info online about this map. Aside from a few library listings, the only other real reference I've found is one that sold on Ebay some years ago. This one is mounted and has some damage, which I might look into getting repaired in the future.
A colleague gave this to me on his recent retirement; the map had been in his office for many years, after he bought it in a Minneapolis cartography store back in the 1970s. He had worked first for the BN on its passenger trains and then Amtrak after the consolidation, in all sorts of roles including baggage handler, car attendant, waiter, and cook. He paid for law school through that work, and eventually became an attorney representing airline pilots, which is how I knew him. In one sense, the railroad experience was useful, because the Railway Labor Act--which is the law governing work laws and representation in the US for railway workers--also applies to airline employees. When I'd pass through his office, we'd chat about trains, I'd show him some of my photography, and he'd tell me stories of working on the railroad back then, like standing in the vestibule with the dutch door open on the Empire Builder after dinner service, watching Glacier Park go by, or about how for a while in the 70s he was the only white waiter working on diner service crews out of Chicago. I've told him now that he's retired, he needs to write some articles for Classic Trains or similar publications on his experiences.
Anyone else collect, or have any good railroad maps? I've got a few others I may share here when I get a chance. They do make great decorations for the layout room walls.
