In my new home of ithaca, New York, you can hear the trains go by every day, as freight rail uses old tracks running through town. For town residents and students, this is a painful reminder of how damn tough it is to get anywhere from Ithaca. Each blow of the horn makes us dream of passenger lines gone by.

To add fuel to the dreams, I've published a new map: Ithaca, 1921.

The map's current iteration. Click for full=sized map.

What's available now is just a draft, but I'm giving things a week for edits. Please let me know in the comments below how you think this map might be improved. If you're interested, the map can also now be preordered in the Map Store.

This was a side project when I needed a break from the the DC/Blatimore map. Unlike DC/Baltimore, the Ithaca map is very simple, with few lines and just a relative handful of stops.. In fact, the map was simple enough that I mapped out all service patterns, even those served by just one train per day.

Such a small project is remarkably satisfying, as the size cuts down on the tedium of data entry and labeling lines. If other projects take unexpectedly long, I may do other low-intensity maps.

So to all Ithacans: let me know how to make this better, and get one for your own wall. Ithaca may be Gorges, but it's got a history of steel and steam to celebrate, too.