• Need good USA maps

  • General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.
General discussion about railroad operations, related facilities, maps, and other resources.

Moderator: Robert Paniagua

  by CPSK
 
Hi;
I am looking for a good up to date map of railroads in the US. I am doing a project in Google Earth, creating kmz files of paths for every rail line in the US (eventually). GE is great for locating the rail lines, but I am looking for ownership and line name (subdivision, branch, etc) info. I am looking at the FRA GIS maps, but they aren't very easy to use, and the website keeps timing out after a while.

Thanks for any info

CP
  by RussNelson
 
I already have all of New York State mapped in OpenStreetMap. The quality of the railroad maps in OSM in other states is not as good. But you can download it all and convert it into kmz files.
  by lpetrich
 
OpenStreetMap
It has a spinoff project for railroad lines that uses OSM data as a base map:
OpenRailwayMap
I don't know how good it is. Its identification of "Main Lines" seems rather spotty, as if its contributors had gone only part of the way in identifying them.