General

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  • If a station has a Wikipedia article, link to that rather than the town.
  • Avoid overlinkage to a city or railway when its occurrences are adjacent to each other on the route map. When the same feature (river, connecting railway, etc.) appears in multiple places it should be linked in each instance so that it not necessary to search for the wikilink.
  • In order to comply with the no original research and Wikipedia is not a crystal ball policies, information regarding planned and proposed features need to be verifiable with reliable sources.
  • When a map grows too large (such as this), it is recommended to not transclude the map inside an infobox or table which floats or aligns to the left or right, otherwise it would compress the adjacent main text into too narrow a space. This problem is exaggerated for users with low screen resolution. It is a good idea to center align the standalone table (as explained in BS-map). If a left- or right-aligned table is desired, adjust the map width for a minimum of 1024px display width in Monobook or Vector Wiki style. Setting the table to “collapsed” by default (by applying the parameter |collapse=yes) also helps.
  • If an unusual situation requires using an icon in a non-standard manner, give an explanation either on the text row with the icon, or by a note at the top or bottom of the map—separated by an empty row or horizontal line—showing the “misused” icon and its meaning.

Naming

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If a route template does not have the same title as its parent article (Xyz railway and Template:Xyz railway), then the template should use the suffix "RDT" (Template:Xyz railway RDT). These are diagrammatic representations, not geographic maps of routes.

Titles

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Route diagram titles should not be wikilinks. The diagram should be transcluded into the parent article, and a link to the parent is normally added to the template page by {{Railway-routemap}} or one of its related templates.

If it is necessary to have a link in the title it should be in the |map-title= subtitle.

Directionality

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Route diagrams should be laid out following the standard mapping convention of north at the top. For east-west lines the preference is for west to be at the top, but if there is any north-south aspect to a route that would take precedence. Distances and station numbers can ascend or descend down the page.

Colors

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The standard colors for RDTs are

In
use
Out
of
use
Line type Set
    heavy rail standard
    light rail/rapid transit
watered canals
set u
    unwatered canals set g
    trails set f
  navigable watercourses navigable
  non-navigable watercourses water

Although there are over three dozen other colors in the BSicon color palette, in general they should only be used for system diagrams.

Symbols

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RDTs should only show physical routes, rather than individual lines and services.

Stations and stops

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Adjacent lines
 N
 Y
A
 
 
 
 
A
X
 
 
 
 
B
B
 
 
 
 
C
Y
 
 
 
 
X
C
 
 
 
 
Y
Z
 
 
 
 
Z

  (BHF) indicates a major stations: a city's central terminal, a multi-platform/multi-track junction, a major division point, a heavily-used (≥ 1,000,000 passengers/year) station, etc. In general, heavy-rail rapid transit uses this symbol.

A terminal station, especially on a minor branch line, does not automatically warrant the BHF symbol.

  (HST) indicates a minor/secondary station or stop. In general, light rail transit uses this symbol.

Similarly,

  (DST) indicates a major, non-passenger facility (works, depot, freight station, port, etc.)

  (BST) indicates a minor/secondary, non-passenger facility (factory, workshops, etc.). It should not be used to indicate passing tracks (loops and sidings), mileposts, or signalling control (signalboxes, switch towers and interlocking); there are specific icons for those: passing   (PSL), mileage   (KMW), and signalling   (SIGNAL).

Don't interleave stations on adjacent lines, as it makes the diagram unnecessarily confusing. (See this example why not to.)

Interchanges and junctions

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Options for vee station
 
 
 
 
BHFABZgl+l
 
 
 
vSTR-STR+l with
 
vBHF and
 
vSHI2g+l-
 
 
 
 
ABZgl+l overlaid
 
 
with lBHF
  • For junction stations, show the lines as already joined in the station to indicate the connection or use the interchange set. The inclusion of this configuration shows that it has not been overlooked.
  • At intermodal interchanges, it is not desirable to list all the routes of the other modes, just the mode(s) themselves. For example, at a central railway station it is enough to show   , rather than  A   B   10   11 , etc.
INT vs BHF
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Icon Used Example
  (INT) between modes
 
 
Airport Station  
between different lines on the same system
 
 
 
Interchange
  (BHF) between branches of the same line
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Junction station
 
 
 
between modes where there is a cross-platform interchange
 
 
 
 
 
Interchange
 
 
 
 

Station codes

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Station codes should be against the outer edge of the diagram, not between the station symbol and name. Excessive white-space (particularly at junctions) can be confusing when names are separated from their stations.

Connecting lines

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Connecting lines
 
 
 
 
 
Other Railway
to Somewhere
  
 
 
Station
 
 
Other Railway
 
 
  • In general, other lines are shown in italics.
  • Connecting lines should be linked to their own articles.
  • At the ends of a line, show tracks which go further with a CONTinuation arrow:         .
  • For lines branching off, specify “to X” or “
    Route
    to X
    ”.
    • The templates {{RoutemapRouteIcon}}) and {{Arrow2}} are helpful to show route directions in the text column:        ;        .

Interruptions

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Faded
interruption
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Crossing and connecting lines which are shown more than once can be connected with interruptions ( ), but it should not normally be necessary to have more than two interruption icons in a row. Note that WikiProject UK Waterways uses dotted lines   (uLSTR) to denote routes that are planned or under construction, in which case there is no restriction on the number needed.

  • Fades can also be used for clarity to show interruptions when no features are omitted in the "missing'" section.

Line ends

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Line ends
 
 
Only for a
specific reason
 
 
BHFKBHF
 
 
 
 

It is sufficient to use a K… icon at a terminal, unless the rails continue for a significant distance beyond (e.g. storage or overrun tracks, provision for a future extension, etc.), or the diagram is detailed enough to show individual tracks.

Waterways

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  • Rivers are only shown continuously when they run adjacent to the railway.
  • In rapid transit/light rail diagrams that show both canals and non-navigable waterways, the similarly-coloured cerulean icons ( ) can be used to distinguish tracks from water (  (WASSER).

Non-standard usage

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Custom legend
 
 
 
Station A
 
 
 
Station B
 
 
 
Station C
 
 
 
Station D
Key to services
 
Express
 
Weekday local
 
Weekend & holiday local

When icons are used in a different manner than shown in the catalog, a custom legend should be used.

Text

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Column "0" Column 1 Column 2[a] Column 3
plain distances
mileposts
bridge and lock numbers
stations and stops
major facilities
secondary and minor facilities
rivers and roads
borders
other features
elevation and length
fare zone boundaries
station codes
interchange icons
italic connecting lines
bold branch line names[b]
  1. ^ <small></small> and {{small}} should not be used, per MOS:SMALLFONT.
  2. ^ When shown on the diagram, otherwise branches are treated as connecting lines.


Standard abbreviations are acceptable to save space:

and junction Railroad Railway
& Jn (UK)
Jct (US)
RR Rwy (UK)
Ry (US)

Places

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To avoid clutter and repetition of the word "station" the use of shortcut templates ( {{rws}} (railway station), {{stn}} (station) and {{slk}} (station link) – see the documentation for a full explanation) is encouraged.

Do not use foreign-language abbreviations in names. (e.g. Hauptbahnhof rather than Hbf.) The templates {{gare}} and {{hbf}} are used for untranslated French and German station names.

Connecting lines

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Connecting lines
 N
 Y
 
 
 
 

The names of connecting lines should be spelled out. Icons should not be substituted for text; their use should be restricted to interchange locations.

When a destination is shown for a connecting lines, it is preferred to use the terminus rather than the adjacent station (for consistency with line names).

Station codes

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When shown on a diagram, station codes should be in a column adjacent to the outer edge of the diagram. They can take up too much space when placed between the icons and names (particularly at junctions).

Bold

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The use of bold, other than for titles, should be avoided as it is automatically applied to names when a diagram is transcluded into that self-same article. Bold is acceptable, as secondary text, for branch names on a diagram.

Italics

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Italics, as secondary text, are used for connecting lines. Italics should not be used for any other features (including closed or future stations).

Strike-through

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Striking out a name should be avoided, as it can obscure the text. An exception is to indicate temporary closures.

Text separation

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When a visual separator is desired in text fields, the Unicode Box Drawing character should be used. (It is visually identical to the vertical bar, but ignored by Wiki markup and will not change if italicized.) This character can be coded in HTML by &#2503; or inserted with the {{¡}} template. In Microsoft Windows it can be input directly from the keyboard by holding down Alt, followed by +2503 on the numeric keypad; or the sequence 2503 Alt+x.

Dates

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Dates should be avoided, unless it is to differentiate between different locations of the same station, or if there is no article for a station; i.e. the information is in no other place.

Please avoid adding these icons within the prose of articles: per Wikipedia's Manual of Style for icons, "Icons should not be used in the article body... This breaks up the continuity of the text, distracting the reader". In addition, icons used in this way are primarily decorative, e.g. "aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder: one reader's harmless decoration may be another reader's distraction": While the icons provide visual cues in certain circumstances, writing in prose will usually suffice. Instead, provide a link to the services directly.

Icons for connecting services can be either adjacent to names, or in the time/distance column (right/left justified), but not mixed. An exception is the airport icon (  {{Rail-interchange|air}}), which is often shown on station signage.

Icons should not be used to indicate connecting lines (i.e. beside   (CONT) icons). The route or line name should be spelled out.

Documentation

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Route diagram templates do not have documentation pages. All necessary information is normally included by transcluding {{Railway-routemap}} or one of the similar templates into the diagram.

Categories

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{{Railway-routemap}} and its related templates automatically place RDTs into the appropriate category. However, the default categorization can be overridden if necessary.