“Pioneer” is the second in a series of new map styles now available on Thunderforest (the first, Spinal Map, is described here). This style, designed by Richard Fairhurst, harks back to the days of pioneering railroad construction in the American West, using Western fonts, verdigris buildings and a limited colour palette to evoke those late-19th and early-20th century maps.

Don’t worry, these maps are bang up-to-date. Yet never have the modern Shinkansen lines in Osaka looked so old!

Since these maps were of a time when railroads were king, they have the main emphasis and roads are only lightly shown. My favourite parts are the large-scale maps around stations where the buildings give a wonderful backdrop to the railroads - combined with Richard’s great choice of fonts.

As with Spinal Map, Pioneer is based on our Transport vector tileset, enabling fast and scalable maps across the globe.