World Railway Map - online, zoomable and free

[Baxenden Bank]

For anyone interested, I have just found this zoomable world rail map. New lines in Africa are included so it is nicely up-to-date. Well done to the person/s responsible.

http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

 

[kentuckytony]

I checked it out - it even has the newly opened tram/streetcar line in Cincinnati, Ohio USA.
Must be a lot of work to maintain.

 

[InOban]

I assume it's done on the same basis as openstreetmap, which famously has maps of developing settlements before any official ones appear. I wouldn't be surprised if it has maps of the latest refugee camps.

 

[Old Yard Dog]

A quick look suggests there are lots of missing lines in Africa e.g. in Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Eritrea. However that is not to decry a good effort by the compiler. I have never come across a decent rail atlas of Africa, not even of South Africa. Does one exist? The continent seems to be devoid of railway enthusiasts.

 

[InOban]

Lack of enthusiasts may be the problem. These open maps don't have a single compiler. They are like wikepedia. Everyone is able to input their own information.

 

[CyrusWuff]

Looking at the UK, it shows a number of disused and dismantled railways, but not all of them. So it's got the line between Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace, and between Seven Sisters and Palace Gates; but it's missing the line from Bury Street Junction to Angel Road via Lower Edmonton Low Level, and the short-lived Great Northern London Cemetery spurs at Belle Isle and New Southgate; for example.

 

[Doctor Fegg]

I assume it's done on the same basis as openstreetmap, which famously has maps of developing settlements before any official ones appear. I wouldn't be surprised if it has maps of the latest refugee camps.

It is OpenStreetMap. It’s just a different rendering - the same OSM data, but with railways shown prominently and roads filtered out. You can make any sort of map from OSM this way.

OSM maps what’s on the ground, so old lines where no physical trace remains are generally not included.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

The representation of lines in the UK is also somewhat strange - with some lines in orange (= mainline) or yellow (=branchline) - which by itself makes sense. But many other lines are shown in black (I can't tell if that's supposed to be 'railroad' or 'spur' as the colours are too similar in the key.) For example, the Alton branch is in yellow, but Uckfield/East Grinstead is black (along with most of the lines around Hastings/Eastbourne). The black lines aren't displayed at all until you're at quite a high level of resolution, which makes the UK map look completely wrong at lower scales:

 

[30907]

The representation of lines in the UK is also somewhat strange - with some lines in orange (= mainline) or yellow (=branchline) - which by itself makes sense. But many other lines are shown in black (I can't tell if that's supposed to be 'railroad' or 'spur' as the colours are too similar in the key.) For example, the Alton branch is in yellow, but Uckfield/East Grinstead is black (along with most of the lines around Hastings/Eastbourne). The black lines aren't displayed at all until you're at quite a high level of resolution, which makes the UK map look completely wrong at lower scales:

The formal main/branch distinction is a distinctive feature of German-influenced Europe where a Hauptbahn has stricter operating rules than a Nebenbahn, and doesn't work in other countries, especially not the UK - I am not sure it is correctly applied in CZ/SK for example, where I think it goes with the public timetable designations.

Why the UK has so many uncoloured lines I can't work out.

 

[monxton]

Why the UK has so many uncoloured lines I can't work out.

The designers of the Open Railway Map have specified a particular tagging scheme, see [http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenRailwayMap/Tagging]. The specifics of that scheme are newer than much of the openstreetmap data, in particular the usage= and highspeed= tags which determine that highspeed/main/branch colouring are missing on many UK railway lines. Probably there are some UK rail mapping enthusiasts working through and adding detail for the ORM schema. You could help!

There is an older transport rendering for OSM: [http://www.openstreetmap.org?layers=T] which will show you all the lines in black, but it is not so featured as the new ORM.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

A quick look suggests there are lots of missing lines in Africa e.g. in Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Kenya and Eritrea. However that is not to decry a good effort by the compiler. I have never come across a decent rail atlas of Africa, not even of South Africa. Does one exist? The continent seems to be devoid of railway enthusiasts.

I picked up a copy of 'World Atlas of Railways' by O.S Nock from a charity shop last year. A snip at £4.00. Very large and heavy but a decent map section. Published in 1978 but things in deepest, darkest Africa don't change much.

Also available 'World Rail Atlas and Historical Summary. Volume 7: North, East and Central Africa' by Neil Robinson, published in 2009. Barnsley, UK: World Rail Atlas Ltd. ISBN 978 954 92184 3 5. I haven't seen a copy so cannot comment on its content.

The thing I particularly like about this online map is the ability to track a route across a country at a glance. The underlying open-street map is good but it is the layer / rendering which makes the lines show up nicely.

The problem with Google is that you have to zoom in quite close to pick up the rail lines, at which point you lose the context and you have to scroll / pan hundreds of times to follow a whole route. Plus the lines are often in the wrong place! Plus the place names on Google seem entirely random. An example being Stoke-on-Trent which doesn't appear until you zoom in yet the six towns which make up Stoke-on-Trent are visible.

As for enthusiasts, try http://www.friendsoftherail.com/forum/ A South Africa based website with lots a photographs. The phrase 'registration required' is generally incorrect and they are visible to all users. Must dash for another fix, I'm getting all excited again by those English Electric diesels with their bonnets and headlights.

 

[InOban]

Actually things in 'deepest darkest Africa' are changing. The Chinese are building lots of new railways.

 

[Ginaro]

It is OpenStreetMap. It’s just a different rendering - the same OSM data, but with railways shown prominently and roads filtered out. You can make any sort of map from OSM this way.

OSM maps what’s on the ground, so old lines where no physical trace remains are generally not included.

Unlike the main OSM website, OpenRailwayMap renders railways tagged as "abandoned" - where there's no track in place but the alignment can still be made out - or "razed" - where's no trace of the line, which is useful for filling gaps between abandoned sections across farmland for example.

I'd encourage anyone to get involved with OpenStreetMap to help provide local knowledge of railway infrastructure - you can either sign up and edit the map or use the "add a note" feature on the main website to provide information.