I (Mark Brader) wrote:
I'm curious whether this monochrome version is laid out the same as the
full-color version of that period. I would expect so, but let's see.

and gave a description. Charles Pottins replies:

Yes, that's a pretty accurate description.
The diagonal lines, apart from Central Line to West Ruislip, Bakerloo
south of Baker street and Picadilly after curving (as you describe)
n. from Picadilly Circus to Finsbury Park, are short links like the
South Acton spur, the Kensington Olympia, and New Cross. And yes,
joint sections are shown as double lines.

New Cross? Then this *isn't* what I was thinking of. Beck redrafted
the layout in 1954, and I was looking at the full-color maps from the
five years after that. On these maps, the junction south of Surrey
Docks (as it was then called) is symmetrical, the line curving to both
sides and then back southward to New Cross Gate and New Cross, like
a capital Y (in a font where its upper tips are vertical) inverted.
The junction at Finchley Central is drawn the same way.

Let me repeat my earlier description of the late 1950s maps:

* Most lines are horizontal or vertical; the only diagonal sections are
the Central Line's West Ruislip branch, the Bakerloo south of Baker
Street, the Waterloo & City, and two sections of the Piccadilly.

I should have listed the South Acton branch there as well. But on the
early 1950s maps there are more diagonal sections: the Richmond branch,
the New Cross branch (as noted), Camden Town to Highgate, Blackfriars
to Monument, Moorgate to Liverpool Street, and some other shorter bits
around Old Street, Paddington, and Gloucester Road.

Also, on the early 1950s maps the Thames has 5 diagonal sections; in the
late 1950s it has none.

* At the points where a line is shown as changing direction, it is
drawn as curved, except in some of the places (e.g. Rayners Lane,
Acton Town, Baker Street) where there is also an interchange there.

True in both versions.

* Except for the Circle Line, where two lines share track -- e.g. the
branches to Uxbridge, Hounslow West, and Barking -- they are drawn
as if two separate lines, with station symbols on both, but only one
station name for the pair.

True in both versions.

* Triple-circle interchange symbols are used at the following stations.
Laid out horizontally: Waterloo. In a triangle: Charing Cross, Holborn.
Vertical: Hammersmith, King's Cross St. Pancras, Mile End. Diagonal:
Moorgate. Vertical/diagonal combination: Paddington, Bank, Whitechapel.
(Charing Cross, of course, is the station now called Embankment.)

In the above, Monument is drawn as a separate station with an "escalator
connection" to Bank. In the early 1950s version, Bank/Monument is drawn
as one station with two names, using a quadruple circle linked with three
diagonals. Other differences in the early 1950s version: the Hammersmith
triple circle is a vertical/diagonal combination, and Whitechapel is only
a double circle.

* 2 southern, 3 western, and 6 of the northern termini are all aligned
near the respective edges of the map, and the other 3 northern termini
(Stanmore, Edgware, Mill Hill East) are drawn aligned with each other.

In the early 1950s version the Mill Hill East branch is drawn east-west,
not north-south, and Stanmore and Edgware are not drawn in alignment
either with Mill Hill East or with each other.

A further important difference is that on the early 1950s maps, the
District is drawn in a straight horizontal (east-west) line from
Hounslow West to Blackfriars, then diagonal as noted above, then
horizontal again from Monument to Barking. But at this point it runs
out of map, and ends with a green arrowhead; a subsidiary box is needed
to list the last 8 stations (as was also done on all earlier Beck maps).

On the late 1950s maps, the subsidiary box is gone. The District is a
straight horizontal (east-west) line from Hounslow West all the way to
Cannon Street, then jogs north for two stations (the whole Circle Line
is a rectangle with rounded corners), then east to Mile End, then *south*
to Barking, and in this way enough space is obtained to show the section
to Upminster horizontally in the normal manner.

Another change is that in the early 1950s map, the Northern Line is
drawn in a straight line from Edgware to Morden, with the two other
branches at Camden Town on the east side, whereas in the late 1950s
the layout at Camden Town is symmetrical and hence the long vertical
straight line of the earlier design is broken there.

So was this monochrome map like the early 1950s full-color maps?
--
Mark Brader "I can say nothing at this point."
Toronto "Well, you were wrong."
-- Monty Python's Flying Circus

My text in this article is in the public domain.