Trains versus dragons?
In case you haven’t noticed by now, I like railways. Just a bit.
I also like George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones. Isn’t series 7 shaping up to be the best yet?
So what could be better than mixing the two up?
This is precisely what designer Michael Tyznik has done with his incredibly detailed maps of an imaginary railway network across the across the continents of Westeros and Essos as set in the books A Song of Fire and Ice and Game of Thrones and the award winning HBO TV series.
You can now plot journey’s around the kingdoms and imagine what it would be like to ride a train from King’s Landing to Casterly Rock or The Eyrie or work out the connections to journey from Castle Black to Widows Watch (take the Kings Line to Winterfell, change to North East Line to White Harbour and then transfer to the ferry – also mapped).
The maps are a glorious piece of cartography and design into which Michael has also incorporated many events and details from the epic fantasy. Stations of destroyed and abandoned castles shown as closed for example.
The maps are available as posters and available to order, links on Michael’s website.
How long will it be before someone creates a model railway from these… We’ve had a model railway set in Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings so why not Westeros?
Pictures reproduced by kind permission and (c) Michael Tyznik.
> A final, personal, note: I spend a huge amount of time testing, photographing, writing and researching techniques for these articles and pay for all the running costs of MRE out of my own pocket. If you found this article useful you can support me by making a donation on my fund-raising page. Thanks and happy modelling, Andy.
Andy is a lifelong modeler, writer, and founder of modelrailwayengineer.com. He has been building model railways, dioramas, and miniatures for over 20 years. His passion for model making and railways began when he was a child, building his first layout at the age of seven.
Andy’s particular passion is making scenery and structures in 4mm scale, which he sells commercially. He is particularly interested in modelling the railways of South West England during the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, although he also enjoys making sci-fi and fantasy figures and dioramas. His website has won several awards, and he is a member of MERG (Model Railway Electronics Group) and the 009 Society.
When not making models, Andy lives in Surrey with his wife and teenage son. Other interests include history, science fiction, photography, and programming. Read more about Andy.