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  • ARA track shows up in map in Craigslist ad

  • All about the Arcade & Attica Railroad
All about the Arcade & Attica Railroad

Moderator: Benjamin Maggi

 #1427472  by mkirsch
 
I was browsing the Buffalo Craigslist when I came across this ad for some tractor manuals in Attica.

If you look at the map, you can see what appears to be the old ARA track from North Java to Attica, including the wye at the interchange. But, if you zoom in, it disappears!

Take a look and tell me I'm nuts:
https://buffalo.craigslist.org/grd/6045080823.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The map is from "openstreetmap." I went directly to their site but could not replicate the effect. It only shows up in the map in this Craigslist ad when you are zoomed out at a certain distance.
 #1427473  by mkirsch
 
For you Wyoming County rail history buffs:

Out of curiosity, I panned down the Southern Tier Line to Warsaw, and sure enough, the old switchback off the B&O line that went down into the village shows up.

Again, if you zoom in too much it all disappears... RATS!
 #1427886  by mkirsch
 
I've been playing with the "open streets map" on various Craigslist ads for the past couple of days, and when you zoom out to a certain level, it shows a LOT of old rail alignments.

Only thing is if I go straight to the open streets map website, I can't get this information to display. It only shows up on maps in Craigslist ads, and you can't zoom in to get a real good look at them because as soon as you get too close they disappear.

Apparently these old alignments have all been digitized.
 #1427999  by ctclark1
 
These lines you're seeing are tagged with "abandoned". The fact that they're showing in certain zoom levels of CL ads is amusing to me.

Don't fret, though. I don't know how to get them to show on the OSM site, but if you grab the JOSM editor (https://josm.openstreetmap.de/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) you can see these lines zoomed in much more. It's not the easiest thing to use in the world, but it's there. You have to select an area and download the data for that area, then you'll be able to see all the points/paths on OSM.

I thought there was a way to view this stuff online without the editor but I don't remember how to now.
 #1428186  by mkirsch
 
Yeah, I'm doing more research and discovering that this isn't a new thing. Kinda feel stupid posting about it now. At least the Craigslist angle does let me skate with a little street cred' and a small shred of dignity to my name.

Wish you could just go to the open street map website and get it to display as a layer but as you said, it looks like you have to get into hacker programming stuff.

I'm going to have to learn how to make it work, because in recent years I've become fascinated with abandoned railways for some reason. When you know what to look for in the landscape as you're driving down the road, it's amazing to see how many rail lines there actually were at one time.