the Dutch rail infrastructure provider ProRail has a lot of data available in the public domain, which makes the Dutch situation quite different than the German one (I heard DB-netz is not very willing to share data). To make use of the data I'm working on quite a large import proposal: named the ProRail import. As described at the wiki-link, it will be done in several slices: one per object category (e.g. platforms, signals, turnouts). I will inform this mailing list about each slice, before proposing it to the imports mailing list.
The first slice is on milestones. The milestone import already has it's own wiki section within the ProRail import wiki. You can read all import details there. The tagging, however, is very important to ORM. This because the milestone placement in the ProRail database is quite in another way than is described in the ORM tagging scheme. Quote: ''They should be entered as nodes on the tracks themselves. If the railway line has more than one track, it should be entered on each track.'' I personally object to such an approach, because it neither encompasses the theoretical nor practical situation. The theoretical situation is placement of milestones directly on the reference ribbon, along the centre of a railway line. The practical situation, however, is placement of signs perpendicular from the reference ribbon (note that this can create other signs intervals than described on the signs).
Railway companies mostly use the reference ribbons in their maps and systems, because those values are more precise. I would propose to make mapping of the theoretical and practical locations of milestones possible, by allowing these systems on the wiki. Importing the Dutch milestones automatically would be impossible without such permission.
Your thoughts on the milestone import and milestone locations are highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
Jeroen