[OSM-talk] stop deleting abandoned railroads

[Warin]

On 15/08/2015 7:19 PM, Volker Schmidt wrote:
> I would like to argue for a general 
> do-not-remove-if-you-do-not-have-the-original-mapper's-ok-beforehand 
> policy for these and similar cases.
>
> I have myself mapped a couple of abandoned railways where the remains 
> were often no longer recognizable individually as traces of a former 
> railway, but as a whole, in particular in satellite photos it is 
> clearly visible. This includes roads, paths, and vegetation strips 
> that mark the former track, and former railway buildings.
> In my case the specific interest is to keep the memory of these former 
> railway routes alive with the scope to have documentation ready to 
> argue for the (partial) re-utilization as bicycle routes.
>
> Two other types of routes, not railway-related, also spring to mind:
>
> Historic Route 66 (which is actually being recreated as an official 
> USBRS route for cycle tourists, trying to follow as much as possible 
> the original roads).
>
Unfortunately there are many people interested in old Route 66 ...
Tours from Australia have been done .. and I think that is now a yearly 
event where a group of Australian tourist go over, hire a car (each or 
in pairs) and travel as much of Route 66 as possible .. with a guide or 
two.

> Another example where historic roads have traditional appeared on maps 
> are the Roman Roads on UK Ordnance Survey maps.

There are remnants of old Highway 1 in Australia ... not much interest 
in them. Some bits are handy for camping on.
I wonder if the old Ghan Railway line is tagged in OSM? It is a tourist 
attraction. ,,, checking...
Yes it is there, and can be seen on the bing sat photos.
Tagged as 'disused' rather than abandoned. It is both!
But at least some it it remains - bridges over rivers (when they run), 
some stations with water tanks for the steam locomotives.
One of the bridges I'm looking at .. does not have the river tagged! 
Shows how often it runs, and the importance of the old railway line.

I'll just go and tag that bit of the river now.