[Talk-us] Rail tagging in US (and North America): operator=* and reporting_marks=*

[Chuck Sanders]

 Actually, that makes complete sense to me too.  It would be very easy to
use "operator_identifier", and simply clarify in the North America tagging
wiki that the appropriate value is the primary reporting mark for Canada,
US, and Mexico lines.  I see no reason that wouldn't serve exactly the same
use we were proposing, but be more widely applicable outside NA.

This may be a good topic to foward to the OpenRailwayMap list for input too
- I'll do that now, thanks!

Chuck

On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 12:07 PM Volker Schmidt <voschix at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks.
>
> so you are saying you use something which is part of of rolling stock
> identifier in a way for which it was not invented, but which is handy.
> From an OSM point of view, I would prefer a neutral tag (something like
> "operator_idenitfier") which in the US corresponds to the first part of the
> reporting mark of the carriages of that operator.
> And say in Germany it would be a different thing, but still a way of
> identifying line operators.
> This would give us a uniform approach.
> (I know that this is in theory irrelevant as OSM keys and values are
> codes, which in most cases are British English terms that make it easier to
> memorise them)
>
> Volker
>
> On Fri, 5 Jun 2020 at 16:56, Chuck Sanders <nathhad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ways.
>>
>> The original use of Reporting Marks in NA is for rolling stock
>> identification, yes.  However, it's also the only common, reliable, and
>> consistent short form abbreviation for operators.  It's widely used that
>> way in both the railroad industry here and among the industry-connected
>> portions of the public.  So, not an official defined use of the mark, but
>> so common in use that it is effectively industry standard here.  For
>> example, the FRA, the official US government agency in control of railway
>> regulations, exclusively uses the reporting marks (and not full operator
>> name) for identification of ways and routes in their GIS database (
>> https://fragis.fra.dot.gov/GISFRASafety/ which is OSM-compatible and
>> already being used as a reference in the US).  Hence, we have an official
>> and authoritative source for which reporting mark is "primary" for each
>> company, and most appropriate to use - and it's already used as the
>> operator identification in the government map.
>>
>> All larger railroads do own (and often use) multiple different reporting
>> marks for their equipment, but all also have a single, best known,
>> "primary" reporting mark by which it will be commonly known, so this
>> proposal is effective even for lines with multiple registered marks
>> (especially with the help of the FRA map to clarify any inconsistencies).
>>
>> Chuck
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 9:35 AM Volker Schmidt <voschix at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Question on the term "reporting_mark"
>>> Wikipedia defines "reporting_mark" as "code used to identify owners or
>>> lessees of rolling stock <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_stock>
>>> and other equipment" and describes such codes alo in other parts of the
>>> world.
>>> In your discussion you seem to refer to railway lines or routes and not
>>> to rolling stock.
>>>
>>> What kind objects in OSM will carry the tag reporting_mark=* ?
>>>
>>> Volker
>>> (Italy)
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
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