Demolished railways

A former railway bridge has been destroyed/demolished. Some mappers would consider this mappable as railway=abandoned, while others would not.

Here, the railway is gone without any clearly identifiable trace in terrain. Its course is known from various documents, but such historic features are out of scope for OpenStreetMap, should not be mapped and deleted from OSM if present there. It can be mapped in OpenHistoricalMap Website comparing modern situation from past one when railway existed.

The tags railway=abandoned, railway=razed, railway=dismantled and railway=historic are currently all used to tag the route of a former railway, where mostly all evidence of the line has been removed. None of those tags are considered a standard by a majority of mappers, some even consider them to differ slightly in what they mean.

Of the tags mentioned, only railway=razed and railway=abandoned are rendered on OpenRailwayMap. Some mappers argue that the prescence of former railways in OpenStreetMap is a form of Tagging for the renderer, to cause former railways to render on OpenRailwayMap.

Most mappers follow a basic "Map what's on the ground" principle, and therefore regard the mapping of non-existent railways without remaining traces as out-of-scope data placed in the OpenStreetMap database. On the wiki this is discussed at Talk:Railways#Abandoned railways where all evidence has been removed and multiple times on mailing lists, see for example [1]. There are significant differences of opinion in what constitutes 'remaining traces' and what justifies the prescence of a historic railway in OSM.

If you can still see man_made=embankment, barrier=hedge_bank, man_made=bridge or highway=* along the route of a former alignment, they should be mapped. Some mappers consider these features enough to map railway=abandoned, while other mappers would only map railway=abandoned if non-serviceable track, sleepers or ballast remain.

There is controversy as to what constitutes sufficient remains of a railway for mapping. Everyone agrees that overgrown railway rails remain mappable. Some mappers argue that embankments, cuttings or rail-trail cycleways along a former railway can be mapped as railway=abandoned, while others believe that this tag should only be used when track, sleepers or ballast remain. In locations where the railway has been replaced by new buildings and roads, the mapping of such features becomes out of scope for OpenStreetMap. Historical mapping can occur on OpenHistoricalMap and propagate from there to OpenRailwayMap.

What is sufficient to map a former railway

Mapping of completely non-existent railways is considered as out of scope for OSM. But railways leave long-lasting traces and some mappers consider even small vestiges of rail as being sufficient for mapping very broadly.

Recognizable signs of a former railway include features such as terrain shape (cuttings and embankments), remaining characteristic ballast, and/or track ties. Some mappers consider more indirect traces such as buildings or road alignments as sufficient grounds for mapping a railway which has been removed.

In case of tagging features that are not immediately obvious for everyone consider using note=* or description=*, particularly where evidence of a former railway is visible on the ground but not on aerial imagery.

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  Clearly mappable remains - track ties, ballast and embankment remain present, map as railway=abandoned
• 
  Former railway cutting. Cutting is clearly a terrain feature. It has been argued that such a feature indicates that the railway itself is still mappable.
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  Clearly mappable as railway=abandoned - remaining track ties
• 
  More complicated case. Not immediately recognized as a railway. Characteristic railway ballast remains in place. Terrain appearance may still indicate a railway track.
• 
  Abandoned and overgrown railway tracks, clearly mappable as railway=disused
• 
  Ballast remaining as a recognizable marker of a railway line

Former railroad now rail trail	Land Cutting of former railway
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=862995113157808	https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=1005171080218704
Overgrown Track	Cut off from other rail
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=503402554350327	https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=113342888050770

What is not sufficient to map a former railway

Where the path of a former railway is no longer clearly recognizable on the ground to most mappers, it is not mappable in OSM. There is much debate over what exactly counts as recognizable, but some situations are quite clearly out of scope. If something different has been constructed where the railway used to be and/or the landscape has been significantly altered then the path of the former railway is clearly no longer recognizable as such. The examples below all show significant construction and landscape changes since the former railway existed. A dam, reservoir, buildings, and highways are the mappable features currently recognizable on the ground. The path of the former railway is not a visible feature of the landscape in these spots and thus these sections do not belong in OSM. These would all be welcome additions to OpenHistoricalMap, though.

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  Here a dam and reservoir has been constructed on the path of a former railway.
• 
  Here the path of a former railway goes across two rivers and through a building. There are no obvious remnants of a bridge.
• 
  Here several buildings have been built where a railway used to be.
• 
  The path of this former railway goes through a modern day highway interchange.
• 
  Location of a former railway and railway station without any traces whatsoever. Not mappable.

New construction within the old right of way	Building built on right of way
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=1502115480128700	https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=1520930665683932

The Gray Area

As railway and railway right of way are nuanced and what many rail mappers can see as railroad of right of way but normal mappers have a hard time seeing here are some nuanced examples. Most mappers can agree that these are at least railway=abandoned or railway=razed

site of old railway disused further south, extra wide street	former railroad right of way. now rail trail where track way is not visibile	Old trolley line in extra wide street
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=1458118065495738	https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=1627753614729671	https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=243281851463131

Actual use

railway=abandoned	railway=razed	railway=dismantled	railway=historic
The wiki definition: Is a key to map former railways, where the rails have been removed but the route is still visible in some way.	The old-wiki definition: Is a key to tag a former railway, where all evidence of the line has been removed. It may have been replaced by new buildings and roads that don't refer to the old alignment, or may have been returned to farmland. 2	The old-wiki definition: If it is impossible to guess the former route use railway=dismantled instead. 1	A wiki definition never existed. But there are historic=railway (on page historic) or historic=railway (on History-Map).

Other discussions

There are many, add not listed here.

• "razed railways and other things that don't exist today" on OSM-talk mailing list
• Seltsame Tags für Verkehrswege in the German section of the OSM-Forum
• Voormalige trambaan Voorne-Putten in the Dutch section of the OSM-forum
• Forum proposal to deprecate railway=razed and railway=dismantled
• Request for OpenRailwayMap to supplement demolished railways from OpenHistoricalMap
• Request for OpenRailwayMap (vector version) to supplement demolished railways from OpenHistoricalMap

See also

• Key:railway
• Railways
• OpenRailwayMap/Tagging
• RailwayHistoryMap, an experimental renderer based on externally maintained patches
• Historic for mapping relics of history in the present day
• OpenHistoricalMap for mapping anything, including railways, regardless of when it existed

External links

• Historic mailing list