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How it came to be
made
David Lawrence who designed
the map says:
"In the mid 1950s I lived at
Richmond, Surrey and worked as a draughtsman at J.
Lyons & Co. a catering and food manufacturer in
Hammersmith so I mainly used the London Transport
District line and only occasionally traveled on the
SR. Having mostly lived before that north of the
Thames I was used to the LT 'tube' and Beck's
familiar LT map. When I did ride on the British
Rail (SR) I was never too sure of the trains and
their routes. The map in the carriages at that time
was a geographical type - a part of which is shown
below - with the rail lines all shown in black.
Unless you were used to the Southern system and
knew all the headcodes one had little idea which
way the train would head when it came to a
junction, and several times when I was on a journey
the train would veer off in a direction I least
expected and I would have to backtrack from a
station I hadn't intended to visit. This I wanted
to change as soon as possible, but what to do?
Well, I could put myself through a stiff network
learning course but better than that, I thought,
perhaps I should have a try at making something
similar to Beck's multicolored diagram map of the
LT system, for the Southern network. I was 29, had
a good job but eager for freelance
opportunities."
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