Map of the Grand Junction Railway and its Adjacent Country. [Copied by permission from the Company’s offcial map.] Shewing all the the stations on the line and their connection with the towns and places contiguous.

London, 1838. Lithographed folding map, 109.5 x 43.5 cms, dissected into 28 panels, original hand colour in outline; folding into original green pebble-cloth covers, lettered direct, rebacked, with advertisements for Cheffins’ lithographic printing office and other maps by the same publisher on the pastedown and panel facing the pastedown. Minor wear and signs of use to both map and covers. The Grand Junction Railway opened in 1837 and ran north from Birmingham to join the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Newton (the first steam railway junction). The engraved date on our map is January 1st 1838. As an assistant to George Stephenson, Cheffins (1807-1861) prepared many of the original plans and sections for the Grand Junction c. 1831-33. He then set up his own cartographic and drawing business, working as a surveyor on numerous early railway projects. Returning once more to the Grand Junction, this appears to be his first commercially published map, issued a few months after the line opened. Map