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

[stevea]

Russ Nelson writes:
> Yeah, for me the map is much more important than the wiki. Except for Wikipedia's stupid citation rules, all that information > belongs in Wikipedia. Although if it drives more mappers, that's fine. Maybe we should populate the wiki with the
> old_railroad_operator information? That would be a smart. I wish NE2 could have managed to color within the lines.
> He was a very prolific mapper.

As the author of that "in-its-infancy / not-even-alpha" New York/Railroads wiki (and dozens of other state-level /Railroads wikis, some of which ARE alpha, and a few are beta) I must say I agree whole-heartedly with Russ (and I believe most of us) that "map data are much more important than wiki data."  Additionally, in 11 years of OSM mapping and wiki-writing, I HAVE seen that wiki (which admittedly does lag mapping) very much can contribute quite positively to developing community, establishing standards (which might slightly diverge at a continental-level instead of worldwide, or a state-level instead of nationwide, so let's wiki-document those divergences) AND allows an at-a-glance "status report" mechanism by color-coding (red-yellow-green) how far certain progress is (such as TIGER Review) in tables.

This admittedly does straddle a line of "effort expended vs. positive benefit gained" but in another agreement with Russ, "as it DOES seem to drive mappers, that's fine."  The wiki isn't always a go-to for would-be rail mappers, but for those curious who discover somebody has taken some time to develop a statewide rail wiki local to them (even at a pre-alpha level of completion) it can be like a guided tour while someone gently holds your hand.  As "all Western states" now have at least a preliminary /Railroads wiki, we are well on our way to the back-and-forth development of both better rail editing that improves TIGER data and developed and updated wiki which reflect the progress in doing so:  the "divide (by a state at a time) and conquer (to the extent any single editor has the energy to do so!)" strategy of doing this with USA rail really works.

I like the potentiality of a typo with "that would be a smart" (start?)  Yes, old_railroad_operator tagging and wiki-inclusion is an important consideration for rail tagging in the USA, most often for Abandoned rail:  see how https://wiki.osm.org/wiki/California/Railroads#Abandoned_lines (for example) consistently includes old_railway_operator=* as table Column #2, this seems the completely correct thing to do (in the wiki, yes, but in tagging old_railway_operator=* in the map as "more important," we agree).

Regarding NE2, I had my interactions with him way-back-when.  He was like the Good (he WAS prolific!), the Bad and the Ugly all rolled up into one.  Many have said "good riddance" to him being banned, he was certainly an early OSM example of "be bold."

My personal experience of feeling like USA rail mapping is overwhelming (it is a VAST amount of data) is that "eating the elephant" really can be done one bite at a time, where state-level "divide and conquer" is actually doable.  Yes, California is a gigantic rail state, but over the years, we've been able to get the data and the wiki to "later beta."  We can do so in other states, too:  data being more important, wiki being secondary, but still important to build community, establish maybe-local standards, and offer "status reporting" with color-coded tables.

I am bowled over that Nathan Proudfoot says "Researchers utilize OSM as we have the most up to date railway map in the country of any data source...".  Wow!

Go OSM,
SteveA