This page is substantially outdated now (2023) but remains in place for historic and reference reasons. Thank you to many other editors for picking up on this work and massively improving the coverage of rail/river/road/canal/etc icons! --AlisonW (talk) 20
07, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Rail icons are complicated. The coding is mostly the same across icon developers and languages, but not always. These two pages try to consolidate the main available icons (it used to be one page but mediawiki breaks on trying to cope with them all at once!) Note that these pages and tables are not in the main namespace due to their reliance on CSS, thus making them not browser-independent (a requirement for main namespace articles).

Sections

0: Legend - how to decode colours

1: Straight tracks
2: Stations and stops
3: Cross-platform interchange
5: Other Elevated
6: Cross junctions and Flyovers

7: 2-way branches and junctions
8: 3-way branches and junctions
9: Curves
10: Branching symbols
11: Bridges and Tunnels
12: Line endings and sidings
13: Other symbols (borders, level crossings, etc)
14: Berlin S-Bahn

Extras

16: Hub overlays

How this works

Each entry line contains links to the possible icons in that series. Because many of the 'possible' codes may not actually exist - either because they are not logical/required or because no-one has yet needed to create them - this would cause lots of 'missing image' errors. CSS is therefore used to suppress those icons which do not exist, which is why these pages won't work effectively on non- CSS-capable browsers or for screen readers. It is, however, far more complete than the main manually-maintained version.

The purpose of these tables is to 'find' what icons already exist within WP, and to make it easier for editors to locate the simplest icon for their purpose. Because of this 'consolidation' approach you will find some icons are actually "wrong" according to some editors as their codes might be in error in some way. Similarly, it is often easier to overlay one simple icon with another simple icon to produce the required complexity, rather than create another icon from scratch. This also means that the tables shouldn't be used as a guide to what needs creating; just because there is a blank position it doesn't have to be filled!

It helps a lot to use this table on a wide-screen display! Multi-line-types in a single icon are being moved to their own tables due to the extension of the number of prefixes (eg 'h')

Legend

Note that the number of metals (tracks) is not normally signified in the graphic. Unless stated, naming is based on the vertical/primary route.

dark colour means a currently open line / facility
light colour means either a closed line / route / facility or one under construction / planned
red colour indicates heavy rail or freight line
blue colour indicates light rail, metro or tram line

Prefix:

t means 'tunnel'
h means high / elevated
u means 'unter'/'underground', eg metro and light rail
v indicates close parallel lines
Full list of prefixes in table below

Suffix:

l normally means to left / links / gauche
r normally means to right / rechts / droit
a normally means at start / anfang /
e normally means at end / ende / fin
f normally means forward (down) / fahrtrichtung
g normally means backward (up) / gegenrichtung
o normally means over /
u normally means under / unter
q normally means horizontal (replacing 'H' prefixes)
other codes are built up from joining these together
Prefix Example Line Type Feature Note
(none)   Open Heavy Open
xp   Open Heavy Open Express service; doesn't stop here
x   Part open Heavy Open
e   Open Heavy Closed
ex   Closed Heavy Closed
t   Open Heavy Open Tunnel
et   Open Heavy Closed Tunnel
xt   Open Heavy Closed Tunnel
ext   Closed Heavy Closed Tunnel
h   Open Heavy Open Elevated
eh   Open Heavy Closed Elevated
xh   Open Heavy Closed Elevated
exh   Closed Heavy Closed Elevated
v   Open Paired Open
tv   Open Paired Open Tunnel
ev File:BSicon evABZlf.svg Open Paired Closed
ve   Open Paired Open & Closed
vx   Open Paired Open & Closed
vex File:BSicon vexABZlf.svg Open Paired Open & Closed
xev File:BSicon xevBHF-STR.svg Closed & Open Paired Closed & Open
exv File:BSicon exvABZlf.svg Closed Paired Closed
u   Open Metro Open
ux File:BSicon uxKBFa.svg Part Open Metro Open
ue   Open Metro Closed
uex   Closed Metro Closed
ut   Open Metro Tunnel
uxt   Part Open Metro Tunnel
uet   Open Metro Tunnel
uext   Closed Metro Tunnel
uh   Open Metro Elevated
uxh   Part Open Metro Elevated
ueh   Open Metro Elevated
uexh   Closed Metro Elevated
Special IDs which have a partial code as part of the base ID are highlighted

Colour scheme

  • Existing lines in current use
  #be2d2c for heavy rail  
  #003399 for metro / light rail  
  • Lines not in current use (planned or closed)
  #d77f7e for heavy rail  
  #6281c0 for metro / light rail  
  • Other features
  #80a080 for elevated  , bridge   or tunnel portal  
  #034ea2 for accessible station  
  #00a030 for Berlin S-bahn  
  #000000 for cross-platform interchange border  
  #b3b3b3 for cross-platform interchange strap  
  #007cc3 for water  
  #000000 for other features in use (such as  ,  )
  #aaaaaa for other features not in use (such as  ,  )