Abandoned Railroad Map of Rhode Island

 Last month, I took my data that I'd gathered on Abandoned and Out-of-Service Railroad Lines and created a static map of abandoned lines in the State of Illinois. The reason? I just got a certificate in Geographic Information Science and I want to try my hand at getting better at cartography. 

The data I've gathered for the last few years is by and large quite good, although I've clearly made some mistakes in spots. However, I cringe when I see my map shared with the general public, as the design clearly needs improvement. I cringe harder when people don't properly attribute it to this site, but thankfully that's a problem that is usually few and far between.

So with this in mind, the second state that I created a static map for is Rhode Island, which is also obviously the smallest US State. I thought it would be Iowa, but I am still working out the kinks in that map, and that state has one of the largest abandoned railroad networks in the US. 

In the case of Rhode Island, while it is far from immune from abandoned rail lines, it has relatively few, even for its size, as there are almost no abandonments in the southwestern part of the state. Much of the abandonments are interurban lines as well, such as the Sea View Railroad, which stopped running its interurban trains in 1922.


Map of Abandoned Railroad Lines in Rhode Island. FRRandP creation.

My own data is supplemented by Rhode Island GIS, who I audited my own data against. The only abandoned railroad line I did not have in the state was a branch of the Woonsocket Street Trolley, which is now on the interactive map. 

Based on availability of state-level data, I'm probably going to be doing the State of Iowa or Washington next, as both states have great abandoned railroad data that I'm able to compare my data to for accuracy. But in the meantime, I welcome your constructive criticism, and if you have a GIS project that I may be of help with, please send me an email or a message.

Thanks as always for reading!

Location: Rhode Island, USA

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