Col. Cobb Historical Railway Atlas

[Stan Cooke]

Hi All,

I'm thinking of treating myself to a copy of the Cobb "The Railways of Great Britain - A Historical Atlas", published by Ian Allan at £150. The trouble is that, although the atlas gets very good reviews, before spending that kind of money I really would prefer to actually see what I'm getting or, if that's not possible, find a bit more out about it.

Does anyone on the Forum have a copy of this atlas? If so, how impressed or otherwise are you with it? One thing that concerns me is that, although the atlas is based on the 1" Ordnance Survey and is therefore to a decent general scale, this doesn't seem to me to be a large enough scale to clearly show all the railways in high density urban areas such as the main city centres. How clear is the atlas in these areas - does it, for example, include larger scale local plans for high density areas, like most road atlases do?

Any information, advice or opinion from anyone who has first-hand knowledge of this atlas will be gratefully received.

thanks,
Stan.

 

[theblackwatch]

I've got a copy (well my brother has it at the moment - we split the cost 50/50 and shared it). It's expensive, but detailed and to me its fascinating. I can't be positive, but I don't think there are large scale plans, but I dont remember thinking any areas were too small and unclear.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

There might be (should be IMO) a copy in the research reading room of the NRM in York which you could study before you decide - you could get a bargain "readers offer" ticket there and back some day! Might even be worth enquiring of any large public libraries that you have easy access to?

 

[Stan Cooke]

Thanks, guys - I'm at the NRM in March so I will get into their library and see if they have a copy - as you say, Dave, it's highly likely that they will have one.

Stan.