Hi Steve,
I have read the wiki page https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/California/Railroads and found some tagging issues.
*railway=abandoned/disused/razed* Could you please add abandoned:railway=rail/light_rail/tram/narrow_gauge/…, disused:railway=rail/light_rail/tram/narrow_gauge/… and razed:railway=rail/light_rail/tram/narrow_gauge/…. We as OpenRailwayMap developers plan to support abandoned:railway=*, disused:railway=* and razed:railway=* in near future because a simple railway=disused does not tell the data user if it was a normal railroad or a tram or a monorail. That's why we suggest to tag both railway=disused/abandoned/razed AND disused/abandoned/razed:railway=rail/tram/narrow_gauge/…
*usage=freight* It is right that usage=freight is deprecated. But changing all usage=freight to usage=industrial is wrong. usage=freight is the old tag for railway:traffic_mode=freight. There are lots of not-industrial railway lines which are only used by freight trains.
usage=industrial is intended as a seperate railway line which is used inside a large factory. For example, the tracks at BASF works in Ludwigshafen are tagged usage=industrial. The same applies for the railway lines (they are no public railway lines, called Nord-Süd-Bahn and Hambachtalbahn) between brown coal mines and the power plants west of Cologne. http://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=de&lat=49.50955024276502&lon=8.4... http://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=de&lat=51.001522273512734&lon=6....
*service=spur* service=spur is intended to be used on tracks from a station to a neighbouring company. Usually these tracks are no independent railway lines and shorter than a mile. http://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=de&lat=51.8868887265603&lon=12.2...
*light rail, tram and subway* There are no hard criteria to differentiate between light rails, trams and subways. We developed a criteria catalogue which should support tagging decisions at Bad Nauheim Meeting in October 2014. https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenRailwayMap/Aktiventreffen_2014_2#lig...
Did you understand the ORM tagging page at OSM wiki the wrong way (i.e. we should improve this page)?
Best regards
Michael