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Crowdsourcing - Google Maps UK Railmap

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tomtrainspots

tomtrainspots

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Guildford
Hello everyone-

I'm a recent signup on here however I have been exploring the forums for a while without an account before. I decided to make an account today because of an idea I had...

Google maps has a function to "create your own map", essentially letting one annotate the existing "Google Map" to their liking, adding information, pictures, custom places and much more to personalise as much as possible. My idea was, as you have probably guessed by now, to create a geographically accurate, fully comprehensive UK rail map (eventually) including all stations, all operators and extra info on platforms, depots, sidings etc where appropriate.

Now this is where you guys come in. I only have a limited amount of knowledge, and, to make this possible I will need help from this community; help that I fully believe will pay off as the map becomes a genuinely useful tool for people planning their journeys and for people who wish to learn more about the rail network.

Well, here's where I do a blue peter: here's one I made earlier!: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PzTIC9DS0zhcEs6-AsgLnV-D2kD-4U86&usp=sharing

If anyone wishes to be a part of this project (and ambitious idea) then please don't hesitate to get in touch with me ^_^ I would give credit for work done by users on the map so rest assured your work wont go without my recognition, praise and respect.

Thanks- Tom :)
 
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RailUK Forums

AlbertBeale

AlbertBeale

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tomtrainspots said:
Hello everyone-

I'm a recent signup on here however I have been exploring the forums for a while without an account before. I decided to make an account today because of an idea I had...

Google maps has a function to "create your own map", essentially letting one annotate the existing "Google Map" to their liking, adding information, pictures, custom places and much more to personalise as much as possible. My idea was, as you have probably guessed by now, to create a geographically accurate, fully comprehensive UK rail map (eventually) including all stations, all operators and extra info on platforms, depots, sidings etc where appropriate.

Now this is where you guys come in. I only have a limited amount of knowledge, and, to make this possible I will need help from this community; help that I fully believe will pay off as the map becomes a genuinely useful tool for people planning their journeys and for people who wish to learn more about the rail network.

Well, here's where I do a blue peter: here's one I made earlier!: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PzTIC9DS0zhcEs6-AsgLnV-D2kD-4U86&usp=sharing

If anyone wishes to be a part of this project (and ambitious idea) then please don't hesitate to get in touch with me ^_^ I would give credit for work done by users on the map so rest assured your work wont go without my recognition, praise and respect.

Thanks- Tom :)
Click to expand...

There are maps like Open Street Map which already show all the rail lines and stations far better than Google does, since that's not a priority for Google's business model.This is yet another reason (and there are other more important ones!) to steer very clear of any connection whatsoever with Google.
 
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RichT54

Member
Joined
6 Jun 2018
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420
AlbertBeale said:
There are maps like Open Street Map which already show all the rail lines and stations far better than Google does, since that's not a priority for Google's business model.This is yet another reason (and there are other more important ones!) to steer very clear of any connection whatsoever with Google.
Click to expand...

I made a couple of attempts to get Google to correct a footpath near Sandhurst station which Google maps shows as connecting to the wrong road. It's still wrong on Google maps, whereas Open Street Map does show it correctly.
 
DerekC

DerekC

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Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
If you want a route map of historic railways you can't do much better than railmaponline.com. It doesn't show operators, though. Not sure how you would do that since they overlap.
 
Senex

Senex

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York
pdeaves said:
Barry Does does an operator map (linked via https://www.barrydoe.co.uk/rail.pdf - he insists on doing everything in PDFs so is a bit strange to use at first).
Click to expand...
There does seem to be a vector file underlying it. If you import it into a program like Inkscape, it is fully editable.
pdeaves said:
Barry Does does an operator map (linked via https://www.barrydoe.co.uk/rail.pdf - he insists on doing everything in PDFs so is a bit strange to use at first).
Click to expand...
 
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Meerkat

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Am I very cynical or is most crowdsourced mapping just a way to share the blame for copyright infringement across too many people to prove? Isn’t most of it just redrawing other map sources?
 
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