Joe Brown

I am a railway professional and near-lifelong London resident who since childhood had a keen interest in cartography as well as railways. I joined London Underground as a Northern Line Guard in 1997 shortly after leaving school, and progressed to a ‘Guard-Motorman’ on that line in 1998 before transferring to be a District Line Train Operator at Parson’s Green the following year. In 2001 I was promoted to Duty Manager Trains at Earl’s Court, where I remained for six years before again being promoted to Train Operations Manager at Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo Line) in 2007. Since then, I have gained experience managing station operations on the Marylebone Group of six Bakerloo Line stations, before returning to Trains management in 2011 as Train Operations Manager at Wembley Park Depot on the Jubilee Line. Earlier this year I moved to the role of Executive Officer for Line Operations, which through its timing has been primarily concerned with our operational recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. It was around 2003 that the seed was sown in my mind; I tried to find an historical atlas of London’s railways and failed. I couldn’t believe that nobody had produced one, and so after asking around with regard to appropriate software, I started having a crack myself. It was nothing more than a hobby, but after a year or so of work I sent a sample off to Ian Allan and the rest is history. I have produced the five editions of the London Railway Atlas, the first edition of the Birmingham Railway Atlas, and now the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Atlas around a busy work schedule on a home computer, self-taught on fairly basic software without any formal design training. Long-term I hope to continue updating all three titles every few years, with a view to tackling other cities in this same format when time permits. In 2019 I was approached by Ian Allan’s successor Crécy to assist the legendary S K Baker with getting the delayed fifteenth edition of his national railway atlas over the line; his 1988 fifth edition being the first railway atlas that I possessed and was instrumental in piquing my interest in drawing railway maps of my own. To have been asked to edit such a formidable title was extremely flattering, and with Mr Baker’s sad passing while I was completing this work, I hope to keep his legacy alive by continuing the series in his memory. Transforming from a member of Tube staff clumsily ‘having a go’ at drawing maps at home to a ‘go-to’ railway cartographer and authority on railway history in a few years is definitely not something I’d have ever predicted!