[OSM-talk] railway=narrow_gauge

[Robert T Wyatt]

Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> On 6/18/07, Matthias Julius <lists at julius-net.net> wrote:
>> "Martijn van Oosterhout" <kleptog at gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> But why do we care at all about the gauge? Do you want to render it differently?
>> Yes, it would be good to render them differently.  At least in Germany
>> narrow gauge railways are very local, are often steam powered and are
>> usually tourist attractions.
> 
> So, we should also make a railway=wide_gauge for countries where such
> railways are wider than the normal gauge?
> 
> This is silly. If you want to mark such railways, make a
> railway=tourist or railway=not_normal_rail. In other words, say what
> it is, rather than using some tag that's completely unrelated (like
> gauge).

Upon thinking about this a little more, the fact that it is narrow
gauge is not important to the renderer. If it is a tourist amenity,
then perhaps it is important to the renderer, but this is the case
regardless of the gauge.

Regarding whether one can catch connections on the track, the issues
are the same as above; the gauge is not the determining factor.

I don't mind adding the value narrow_gauge, but I object to making
assumptions based on this value, and I object to adding it if the sole
purpose is to allow assumptions to be made.