[Tagging] unfinished railway of historic importance

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 03/05/12 05:48, Russ Nelson wrote:
>   >  >  how do you tag a never-completed railway which has significant important
>   >  >  landmark value in the current landscape?
>   >
>   >  I think that what you are seeing is not a railway at all.
>
> You're kidding, right? If you google search for "unfinished railroad"
> the first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth
> search results you'll find is the specific one that Richard is
> referring to.

In case there was any misunderstanding: I didn't want to say that 
Richard is clearly an idiot and all this was in his mind only. I don't 
dispute the historical facts.

The question, for me, is: What is the essence of a railroad? What is it 
that makes something a railroad and not, say, a taxiway or a powerline 
or a chairlift? What are the most important characteristics of it - and 
how many of those characteristics does the object in question have?

I've run into the same argument with people tagging construction sites 
for various kinds of buildings. I always maintained that the object in 
question is primarily a construction site, and the fact that a hotel or 
museum is being built is at most worth a note; whereas others were of 
the opinion that the object in question is primarily a hotel or museum, 
and the fact that it is under construction is of secondary nature.

> It's called
> ferroequinoyance -- the ability to spot a railroad from the barest of
> clues. It could be an alley at an odd angle, or a street that takes a
> funny turn, or a building with doors at boxcar height, or a crack in
> the asphalt, or a building with a corner cut off of it.

Imagine the fun these people could have if the map portrayed buildings 
with corners cut off of them or alleys at odd angles, and they would 
then have to ferroequinoy from the map where the railroad was planned to 
be ;)

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"