COVID DELAYS: Altough the situation has much improved there are still some delays to overseas sendings. For information on a country-by-country basis please follow this link to the special Royal Mail website
FAQ 1 – I am unable to log in / sign into my account
There are two different sign-ups on this website. The first is that you can sign up for newsletters using the ‘Subscribe to my Newsletter’ applet (please do because you’ll be offered 20% of all new editions!) and the second is that you can create an account. It may be that you have subscribed to the newsletter but have not created an account and so can’t sign in. You can only do the latter by checking the ‘Create an Account’ box on the checkout page when you buy something.
FAQ 2 – I have purchased digital pdf but I can’t find the pdf.
You should receive an automatic receipt by email a minute or so after purchase. Down the right hand side of that receipt there will be a download link(s) in blue. If you no longer have the email please get in touch.
FAQ 3 – I haven’t been able to download my pdf and now your website says I have reached my download limit.
The system allows you to download from your link without time limit, however you can only download a few times. I have to have this limit in place to stop the unscrupulous from posting the links around the net. Unfortunately a partial download where the connection is dropped will count as a download and you might find at times that you are unable to complete a download without interruption. If this happens please drop me a note using the contact form on the right so that I can reset your download permissions.
FAQ 4 – Will you sell the maps as single country sheets?
Sorry, I have no plans to do this.
FAQ 5 – Do your maps contain historical information about closed lines and stations?
No, and I have no plans to do this. It would involve too much time and research and some countries are almost impossible to research anyway.
FAQ 6 – Why do you not show some Out of Use (OOU) lines?
This really goes back to the item above about not showing historical information. Once a line goes out of use I denote it with a broken line. If it is subsequently lifted (which can be hard to know!) then deleting it follows. The trouble is that many OOU lines are never lifted but just left to rot into the landscape. Eventually there comes a point where such a line becomes so derelict that it is no longer usable and so ceases to be a railway in the practical sense. I normally judge this by looking at the line on Google satellite and street view to see the extent of overgrowth, bridges out, bits of track lifted and level crossings asphalted over. Unless I am aware that there are plans for reopening I will then usually delete the line. It’s all a grey area and there is bound to be some disagreement about it.
FAQ 7 – Creating a mark-up PDF file
Of course you could use a highlighter on your atlas or even print it out greyscale and highlight that. But let’s say you want to highlight lines in a PDF file. There is probably more than one way to do this but here’s one I know using LibreOffice…
1. Create a copy of your PDF, since you will want to keep your original one ‘clean’.
2. Download and install (free) LibreOffice from https://www.libreoffice.org
3. Open LibreOffice and the open your mark-up PDF from within it.
4. Zoom in and right-click the line you want to highlight and select ‘copy’.
5. Right-click again and select ‘paste’. You now have a copy of the line overlying the original.
6. With the new line still selected click on the ‘Format’ tab and select ‘Line’.
7. Within the box leave the ‘Style’ as ‘Continuous’.
8. Change the ‘Colour’ to something suitable like pale lime green.
9. Change the ‘Width’ to something like .1 cm. (You’ll have to experiment with different widths to suit different thicknesses of line).
10. You now have the new highlight line overlying the original. Use the ‘Arrange’ tool on the toolbar to send it to the back.
11. To remove a highlight select and send the surface line/s to the back, then click and delete the highlight.
12. Save.
Updates
The European railway network is changing constantly and no atlas can ever be completely up to date. To help you keep up with the situation you can download files which list those changes and corrections that I am aware of.
Some very minor changes and certain changes too complicated to describe have been omitted.
For items updated during 2023 please click the Dropbox link here
For items updated during 2022 please click the Dropbox link here
For items updated during 2021 please click the Dropbox link here
For items updated during 2020 please click the Dropbox link here
For items updated during 2019 please click the Dropbox link here
If you have any new information or corrections for future editions please let me know via the contact form – thanks!
Key to the Maps
The All-Europe atlas has the key in 20 European languages, while each Regional Atlas has the Key in English and the most suitable languages for the area depicted.
Download an Adobe Acrobat file with all 20 available languages
If I don’t have a key in your language and you would like to provide one please contact me
I would especially welcome keys in Serbo-Croat (Latin and Cyrillic), Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.