[Tagging] Disused/historic railway stations

[Steve Bennett]

On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 9:28 PM, Jonathan Bennett <jonobennett at gmail.com> wrote:
> There was this discussion on talk-gb recently:
>
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2013-January/014376.html

Yeah, that's actually what prompted this discussion - I was pointed
there by Andy Allan when I commented on some OpenCycleMap rendering
peculiarities.
I guess there is a complete continuum between "there is an active
train station here" and "there was once a train station here, but now
there is nothing but a memory":

railway=station (active)
disused:railway=station (temporarily or recently inactive)
railway:historic=station (a building that was formerly a station, and
is now decrepit or used for a different purpose?)
historic:railway=station (the same thing?)
railway:historic=station_site (less than a building - maybe a marker,
an old platform etc.)

Do I have this right? How does one tag a station that is active, but
also of great historical value?

Greg wrote:
>But, I'd ask: how is the distinction between a station location and
>station building made now, for stations that are in service?  Is it
>really railway=station vs building=train_station?

I can't speak for others, but "building=yes" is the only building tag
I ever use. Otherwise you get into a double tagging mess. So I put a
"railway=station" node at the centre, and various "building=yes" and
"railway=platform" ways as needed. (What is a "station building"
technically, anyway... frequently stations have several buildings,
etc.)

Steve