[Talk-GB] Railway bridge numbers

Craig Wallace craigw84 at fastmail.fm
Tue Apr 9 14:30:32 UTC 2013


On 2013-04-09 14:39, Andy Mabbett wrote:
> All railway bridges (over- and under-) in the UK have a unique number.
> often carried on a metal (more recently plastic) identification plate,
> or painted on:
>
>     http://www.semgonline.com/structures/numbering.html
>
> Among other things, these are used to speedily identify the bridge in
> case of a vehicle strike which may pose a danger to trains or other
> traffic:
>
>     http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3563.aspx
>
> Do we have a scheme for tagging UK railway bridges with their numbers?
> I have looked on Wiki, and can't find anything, and my local bridges
> are either not tagged; or tagged (for example) ref = B4124:
>
>     http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/103233329
>
> which does not identify that number as being a NetworkRail reference
> (if indeed it is, being on a road overbridge maintained by the local
> authority).
>
> If we do not have something more specific, I'm happy to draft
> something for discussion.

That ref=B4124 is presumably the road number, not the bridge number.
The tag bridge_ref (or bridge:ref or ref:bridge) is in fairly common use 
for bridge numbers.

I'm not sure if there is any common standard for railway bridges. What 
is signposted can vary. Sometimes its just a painted number, sometimes 
its a proper plate, including the line reference.
Do you include the line reference as part of the bridge reference? I 
think its a good idea to do so, when its known. eg tag as something like 
bridge_ref=ETN/1601

Craig



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