Following the sad death of Stuart Baker, the creator of Rail Atlas Great Britain and Ireland, in 2020, we were fortunate that another fine railway cartographer, Joe Brown, agreed to complete the work that Stuart had begun, to revise what became the 15th edition. However, the railway network of Great Britain and Ireland is always changing and never static and revised editions of this atlas are required on a regular basis; the rebuilding of the line from Oxford towards Cambridge and the reinstatement of the Foynes branch in Ireland being examples of some of the additions to this new edition.

Fortunately, Joe Brown has agreed to take on this work and this 16th edition will be the first one to be fully edited and revised by him. As with all the previous editions, the Atlas has been fully revised and updated whilst retaining the convenient format of mapping where each page overlaps with that on adjoining pages to make it easier to follow a long-distance route. Where appropriate, additional detailed inset maps have been drawn to show the complex railway developments in metropolitan areas such as Nottingham and Manchester.

While some minor changes to the layout have been made, Rail Atlas Great Britain and Ireland remains true to the standards of clarity and accuracy which were the hallmarks of its creator that have made the Atlas an essential work of reference for both railway professionals and enthusiasts since it was first published in the 1970s.