Nice map of all rail lines

[tom mann]

http://www.openrailwaymap.org/

[C855B]

Yikes. Without a way to select/deselect abandoned ROWs from the display, in the U.S. it's mostly clutter. Depressing clutter, but noise nonetheless.

Also, from the "signaling" legend:

   No information about train protection
   no train protection
   Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung
   Linienzugbeeinflussung
   ETCS

This and the "speed" screen are pretty Euro-centric. Good start, good concept, but a lot of work to make it a usable reference in the States.

[Missaberoad]

How did they accomplish this? I'm assuming using satellite photos?
The areas I'm familiar with are incredibly accurate... Almost good enough to use to detirmine layouts for track planning.

It appears the abandoned trackage is track where the roadbed is still evident.

Thanks for sharing this

[C855B]

Many years back I was in the digital map generation business. From that I know there are numerous map databases with the data ready to go for things like this. For the U.S., two key free, public domain sources are (or were) Census Bureau TIGER, and certain USGS digitizations from the topographic dataset. I used to meld the two - USGS was more accurate geographically, TIGER was better for identifying infrastructure features. USGS was also pretty authoritative for indicating abandoned lines.

I suspect a similar blend here, and, as you suggest, confirmation or adjustment based on satellite views. It's a lot of work, and my hat's off to the team trying to update it!

[Missaberoad]

It's a lot of work, and my hat's off to the team trying to update it!

My thoughts exactly! Seems like quite the undertaking!

[sirenwerks]

It does a nice job of tracing lines on the eastern Shore.  Now I wonder why track ran all the way through St. Michaels and to, what looks like, the shore.  Was that a ferry head to meet up with the Chesapeake Beach?

[PRRATSF]

I wish I had access to this info a year ago, Maps and Arial Photography have been a passion since my Army days. I got out right before everything started going digital. I recently helped a co-worker decipher the PRR/NYC trackage south of Osceola Mills Pa. That Area is a Rats Nest of old rail lines. From whats shown, We did a pretty good job. On the topic of St Michaels, My Wife and I got Married on Tilghmans Island, and I did some investigating of the rail lines in the area. I didn't find any indication of a Ferry, but, who knows?

Sam     

[PRRATSF]

@sirenwerks, Wikipedia has a bit of info on the ferry service at Claiborne Md, it was quite the hopping place in the day.

Sam

[Bob Bufkin]

Yes, thanks for sharing.  I'm going to post this on several Facebook site.

[jmarley76]

Thanks for the share! 

[havingfuntoo]

This site takes you to the country you are in and the part of the country where you are located, I'm in Australia, Melbourne. That is what came up when I clicked the link.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I just discovered this works on mobile too, which makes it really useful.

[wcfn100]

I never made the connection between Gold Camp Road and old road bed.  Going to have to pull the top off the Wrangler this year before any fires shut everything down again.

Jason

[sossei]

Thanks for this!

[wm3798]

It does a nice job of tracing lines on the eastern Shore.  Now I wonder why track ran all the way through St. Michaels and to, what looks like, the shore.  Was that a ferry head to meet up with the Chesapeake Beach?

Yes, Claiborne was the steam boat landing for the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Atlantic's trains to Ocean City.  From the 1890s to the 1930s it was the equivalent of today's "Beach Traffic"...  You boarded the steam boat at the inner harbor pier, and took a night boat across to Claiborne, usually dining and dancing into the night, then you'd board the train at Claiborne, and be whisked by a 4-4-0 of dubious lineage straight through St. Michaels, Easton, Bethlehem, Preston, Hurlock, to Vienna, then cross the Nanticoke over a trestle with a swing span, thru Mardela, Hebron and Salisbury, then on to Berlin and Ocean City.  The 1933 hurricane that cut the inlet between OC and Assateague, also permanently removed the rails across Assawoman Bay (I'm not making that up, Google it!)  Once that connection was severed, the PRR bought the assets of the bankrupt BC&A, removed all the spindly bridges, and diverted what traffic that remained over to their own branches, leaving the segments of the old line where they intersected.

It was really a cool system, with a surprisingly diverse traffic base.  Most of the longer branches lingered until Conrail Day, but after that, the dominoes fell quickly.

Lee