OpenGeofiction
In Norðurland, the railroads have a large standard gauge, larger than the gauges of the most neighboring countries. However, in the border regions, many tracks have the same gauge as the neighbouring country. So I would tend to tag those tracks as railway = narrow_gauge - as the OSM wiki suggests (the most common gauge in a country should be dawn as standard railway (railway = rail).
However, the neigbour country would most likely tag that track as standard gauge - which would result in “magic narrow-gauge to standard-gauge transitions” at the borders, due to the style in which both types of rail are drawn.
So, what should I do in your opinion? Should I accept that “graphical glitch” or should I tag my narrow gauge railroads as standard gauge, even if they aren’t?
Discussion
Comment from Sarepava on 27 November 2015 at 19:34
From the point of view of a map user, the gauge of the rail isn’t particularly important. They simply want to know where the tracks go. Showing an actual break-of-gauge might be helpful if it requires a change of train or stop for a bogie transfer, but if this isn’t the case it would probably be better to keep the track type the same across borders.
Karolia uses a broad gauge, and mixed broad-standard gauge in border areas, but I only use narrow for actual narrow-gauge lines in the mountains. It’s a pity OSM can’t show three different types of track, but that’s what we have to work with.
Comment from histor on 27 November 2015 at 23:49
Narrow-gauge as “light railway”? O.k - looks like a streetcar-line, but can be your significant difference.
Comment from joschi81 on 28 November 2015 at 09:34
There is a gauge key, I think. Narrow gauge should only be used for significantly narrow gauges of regional railway lines. I already tagged many railway lines with gauge=1435. Is this distinction sufficient for you, even if the gauge differences aren’t visible within the rendering?
Comment from EMKLI on 28 November 2015 at 17:49
I know that there is a gauge tag and I’m already making use of it. However, this doesn’t render. It would be nice, as Serepava noted, if OGF could render: - narrow gauge - standard gauge - broad gauge all differently.
Maybe this would be a point for the new OGF rendering style? ;-)
Comment from joschi81 on 29 November 2015 at 08:50
I think this is rather an issue for a special railway map layer that we could introduce later. It is too detailed to be included in a basic layer that aims to show the most important aspects of all different mapping features.
The point is: Broad gauge is not defined in an exact way. E.g. broad gauge in Russia/the Baltic states/Finland/Belarus… is different to broad gauge in Ireland or broad gauge in Spain/Portugal.
Then we have broad gauges that are almost similar to normal gauges, but “a little bit broader”: 1458mm (Leipzig tramway network), 1450mm (Dresden tramway network), 1495mm (large part of Toronto subway network, Toronto tramway network)… How should those be mapped? And when it comes to narrow gauge, we have an even larger variety.
In a special railway layer, we can use a color gradient corresponding to the gauge key. To make gauge differences at least partly visible in “normal” map layers, you could introduce special features that mark gauge differences, e.g. gauge changing facilities like the Cambiador de Portbou or other small “hints”.
Comment from joschi81 on 29 November 2015 at 08:51
PS: Of course, broad gauge is defined in an exact way: everything larger than 1435mm. What I wanted to say is that there are many, many different broad gauges.
Comment from EMKLI on 29 November 2015 at 23:05
Yes, of course, you are right. I wasn’t specific enough: I meant exactly what you stated in your addendum: narrow_gauge < 1435 mm, standard gauge = 1435 mm, broad_gauge > 1435mm. I didn’t want to differenciate all different gauges - this might be an impossible thing. ;)