Richard Welty writes: > [OHM is] a real database, using the OSM software stack. it's live, and you > can pan around in it and not see much because it's pretty sparse.
The problem, as I see it, is that railroads are a contiguous whole. Yet some people seem to think that a railroad should be shopped up along its length, with part of it appearing in OSM (where you can see it on the ground), and part of it appearing in OHM (where it has been bulldozed away). If the two were layers in the same database, or if they have been tagged using railway=dismantled and railway=abandoned, then it's no problem to look at them, render them, edit them, analyze them. But that's not how it works. The databases are completely separate from each other. An edit in one isn't made in the other. So let's say that I'm out doing field work with my GPS (Hi, Frederik!!), and I see that the railroad that I *thought* was distinct from the highway, actually *is* the highway. Not dismantled, it's now the road. So I have to go into OHM, delete it from there, go into OSM, and add the highway to the railroad's relation. Oh. Crap. Relations are completely broken. Relations only work within the same database. It becomes impossible to give a single referent to a railroad, even if a substantial portion of it is still visible, or even still has tracks. Look at the West Side Railroad on the east side of Syracuse. There are still tracks in Canal Street. Very well, that's in OSM tagged "disused". Further down Canal Street there are no tracks. So in OHM tagged "dismantled". East of Canal Street you can see the embankment, so in OSM tagged "abandoned". I realize that some people just don't care about railroads. I'm 57, I know what a "foamer" is, I try not to be one. All I want is to be left alone with my "model railroad" to share with my fellow foamers. All I ask is that you not delete abandoned railroads from OSM. Please, if anybody thinks I'm being ridiculous, going overboard, suggesting a strawman that nobody actually wants, please say so. -- --my blog is at http://blog.russnelson.com Crynwr supports open source software 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815 Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | Sheepdog _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
