Update: I see now I’ve added this to the relation for the Maryland Transit Administration’s light rail routes but not to the individual tracks. For example, this light rail route has:
| tag key | tag value |
|---|---|
| operator | Maryland Transit Administration |
| operator:wikidata | Q1863801 |
| operator:wikipedia | en:Maryland Transit Administration |
| ref | LR |
| route | light_rail |
Its code isn’t actively maintained. There has been times where the raster tiles wouldn’t update.
The website claims that the data was updated, yet the map doesn’t seem to update.
Thank you!
The edits on railmap.gl do not write back to OSM. You can edit operator “themes” (map colors and logo). If you want, you can “submit” the theme, to be used by everyone by default. (probably not useful to OSM…)
Other info that can be submitted is the operator information (mostly links, also a system map). I think this operator information can be written back (mechanically) to the applicable features in OSM, if and when that make sense.
This vector tiles ORM is awesome. It’s back-end tech is pretty different than railmap.gl, but the front-end uses maplibre, so styles and icons etc. may be usable.
Many routes are missing, I am working on sorting that out atm.
@railmapgl , your site has absolutely no (0) links on it for
Be sure any OSM rail data will show up on the map, including
There are plenty already mapped in OSM. Don’t let them go to waste. Thanks.
I don’t really think that is the purpose of this map to include rail infrastructure.
It is mostly a visualization of railway lines where the operators are put forward instead of the track name.
If you want a general purpose railway map with signals, defect detectors, stations, etc. look at https://openrailwaymap.org/
I apologize to everybody for bringing out an app that is so unfinished. I needed some positive feedback. (which I did receive, thank you)
My kids just got picked up by their grandpa and I have 48 undisturbed hours to work on this.
First big issue is route parsing. Then the updating/notification system needs to be robust. Then open github (or other) repo, where I can upload different parts of this app (not all at once, the code needs cleanup) and bugs can be reported.
No apologies necessary, you have no obligations to anyone’s preferences, however brusque they are. Thank you for sharing.
hi!
congrats on the cool project!
Thank you!
Three.js is used for the hover and highlighting lines, as well as the unit/train animation.
The line animation uses threejs LineSegmentsGeometry (InstancedBufferGeometry) and ShaderMaterial.
Agreed. It’s excellent work.
Potentially very useful for hunting down escaped tagging for defunct organisations such as Montana Rail Link. Also good for tracking down tagging for organisations that ceased to exist long before OSM began and should thus never have appeared in the database such as Southern Pacific or Burlington Northern.
Not as useful for mainlines in Europe and elsewhere as in the US. However there are plenty of preserved lines or metro operators or light rail or trams that could potentially benefit from being seen on this map.
I have updated the route parsing and presentation.
There is a new button that opens ‘operator view’ and will show a list if routes
This is phenomenal!
Thank you!
It’s a bit rough around the edges, hasn’t been optimized yet, etc., but should be useable.
The “Report for North America” was not getting updated. 
You mentioned a user NE2, looks like not active for a while. (I am not familiar with this user. did they contribute a lot railroad stuff?)
NE2 was a notorious (not for good reasons) Contributor in the USA (primarily the southeast) from the early 2010s who was eventually asked to leave the project. His contributions were often somewhere between speculative and outright wrong, despite him considering himself a rail expert. He also had a smug, abrasive attitude towards others which certainly contributed to his dismissal. As he was quite prolific, much of his data remain in the project today; I still find some of his contributions (especially rail, especially in the southeast) and while I can’t always vouch for the specific correctness of these, I do consider his data somewhat suspect whenever I encounter them, encouraging me to conduct some additional research as to the correctness of his tagging. Your mileage may vary.
Thank you once again for both this rendering and its continuing improvements: I find it a valuable component of better interpreting OSM’s US rail data.
I think most of NE2’s editing was accurate, but they definitely made some arbitrary tagging decisions that went against the consensus, which goes along with their general lack of cooperation with other editors and extraordinarily in your face communication was what lead to their banning.
edit: The only reason why I am adding this is that I tend to not be suspicious of NE2’s edits when I see them unless they have a tagging scheme I have never seen.
I would like for train ferries to show up on the map as well. These are tagged with railway=ferry (see Overpass). Without these ferries, it’s not obvious that the rail networks of Alaska and eastern Quebec have a connection to the rest of the continent.
