Talk:Tag:railway=abandoned

Introduction

The first sentence contains wording with a restriction much too harsh - and contradictory to all other wiki pages that reference railway=abandoned. Without discussion at this page. It was added in https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Tag:railway%3Dabandoned&oldid=2180030 with the comment:

(Major change / Really did not think about this before writing it. Had lots of conversations about people mapping abandoned railways and wanted to make the description clearer as the details were vague. Over all the description of degradation of railways needs to be better layered as there are some pages on the wiki that contradict similar tags.)

I propose to replace this text with that from https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Railways#Tag_life-cycle, part abandoned.

Abandoned The rail has been removed and the right-of-way may have been reused or left to decay but is still clearly visible, either from the replacement infrastructure, or from a line of trees around an original cutting or embankment. Use railway=abandoned. Where an abandoned rail right-of-way is being re-purposed as a bicycle path (e.g. "Rails to Trails"), add highway=cycleway. If known, add end_date=* or more specifically railway:end_date=* of when the abandonment happened.

This wiki page should reflect this. The picture should either changed or there should be a picture gallery to show the broad zone, where railway=abandoned can be used. --Vincentius (talk) 10:53, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

I think there is a misunderstanding here. This tag marks a railway line that can indeed be seen in the landscape. Only the railway lines have been removed. However, a railway line consists of many more components that are still visible / present. These can be the track gravel/ballast, the railway sleepers, retaining walls, railway embankments, railway bridges, etc. The principle of Good practice#Map what's on the ground applies, as the aforementioned objects can be seen, railway=abandoned should be used. For other dismantling stages, see lifecycle prefix.

In addition, the tag can only be changed by a majority decision, for example the Proposal process can help.

I have therefore reset the description to the status of 12/02/2023 and ask everyone to avoid an editwar.--Reneman (talk) 12:12, 23 February 2024 (UTC)