Norfolk and Suffolk (Railways of Britain) [Hardcover]

These county rail atlases (I also have Kent & Sussex) are beautifully bound & put together, contain all sorts of fascinating historical information, but are also irritating in ways that the publishers should have picked up. They show all railways that existed in the counties covered, with all relevant ownerships of each line, together with opening and closure dates for nearly all stations and lines. There is some geographical background, consisting of a very well (over-)detailed coastline including (for the Kent edition) every last squiggle on the islands in the Medway estuary. All main roads are also shown (and numbered). I do like to see the geographical context so was disappointed that towns and built-up areas are only shown by their station names, with no background shading for urban areas. Also, rivers are truncated as soon as they leave the coast. The same Medway seems to dry up before the railways cross it at Rochester, and the magnificent HS1 Medway bridge does not exist in these atlases! There is no differentiation between electrified/non-electrified lines (let alone differentiation between electrification systems)

They are not just atlases. The first half of each book contains illustrated descriptions and histories of all the original lines, plus descriptions of sheds and depots.

There is almost no detail of rail yards (such as the Eurotunnel terminal). Given the scale and relatively small area covered by each book, I would have expected something beyond showing a same-thickness line for everything from mainline railway to private siding. There are no insets at greater scale to cover more complex parts of the network. Maybe I have been spoiled by Joe Brown's London Railway Atlas !

The other sources of irritation for me were:

a) The books are relatively small (for atlases) so each page does not cover much area, and without many geographical clues, can leave the reader wondering where he/she is. A larger format would have worked a lot better.

b) The key map is in the middle of the book, so you have to find that first before looking for an individual map page. I love those map-books that have the key maps on the inside of both front and back covers - Publishers please note!

c) The key maps just show the coastline plus some town names. Main railway routes would have been nice (most railway buffs know the current system reasonably well, so can orient themselves easily that way)

d) Worst sin of all, no indication of which pages continue each map to north and south. You have to return to the key map every time to find the next page up or down. The pages are numbered in words eg 'MAP TWO'. I know my numbers, so don't need this affectation.

e) The maps stop dead at county boundaries, with totally blank zones beyond. What is the point of that?