25 years ago, the Denver Stapleton Airport was closed and a new airport was built further from the city. Over 5,000 new homes were built, including schools, a library, a recreation center, over 150 shops, service businesses, restaurants and open spaces.
The opinion of some users is that if nothing had been built in place of the airport, if every trace of the airport had been removed and plowed under, then OSM users should not remove anything, but simply tag all buildings, runways, service roads, parking lots, etc., with the razed tag and leave it all on the map?
Why are railways given a special status? Why not tag sidewalks, buildings, and trees with the razed tag and leave them on the map? Why only keep railways as part of a historical database alongside reality-based mapping? Perhaps everything from the past that used to exist should be kept on the current map.
If something has been removed and there is still something on the ground remaining, then it makes sense to map what is actually there. But, mapping something in OSM that does not exist, except in someone's mind...why should it be on a map that is supposed to reflect the current situation? As the wiki states, "Do not map objects if they do not exist currently".
In the given example in Denver the (well-meaning) mapper not only mapped non-existent rails, but non-existent switches as well. The switches do not exist. The rails do not exist. It's all imaginary.
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