The dudes at fmach did a nice and useful piece of work:

http://geodati.fmach.it/gfoss_geodata/osm/wtosm/index.html

that lead me to a wikipedia article about an abandoned railway in Umbria, not mapped yet in OSM. When I was living there I’ve heard about that, from old people.

Let’s gather some information and map it in OSM, I’m curious about how much of the original trace is still there!

tick tack tick tack …

ok, found some picture of old maps, converted, geo-referred, mapped the gpx. Unfortunately much of the original track has been cancelled by new buildings and roads.

While the OSM concept of mapping what exists. The old railways can be a kind of exception.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Railways#Abandoned_railways_where_all_evidence_has_been_removed

To start with, I’ll map just the sectors of the original trace where there is evidence it was a railway. Relation for this railway is 3691276

The Ellera-Tavernelle old railway is a tough task, as it is a mixture of several cases of historic railways. There are ‘'’abandoned’’’ (no more tracks) as well as ‘'’disused’’’ segments, and some parts are not mappable (i.e. a new, big jail was built just in the middle of the trace).

References

• abandoned railways entry in OSM wiki