Help:Naming Images
RR-XING uses the following image naming guidelines in order to search for photos by subject. It is important to understand if the picture should be classified as a location or railroad picture as the naming conventions differ. Picture names should always have a location, subject, and date. Railroad images will also include the rail line owning the equipment.
These naming conventions are for images uploaded on the companion site RR-Pics and are not for naming pictures on this wiki. This wiki does not have a formal image naming policy. As it is not a photo gallery, name collisions are less likely to occur.
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Location vs. Railroad picture classification
If the photograph subject is a locomotive, rolling stock, or other railroad equipment, it should be classified as a railroad picture.
If the photograph subject is a building, train yard (even if it contains locomotives and equipment), tracks, or industry, it is classified as a location picture.
If it is too hard to tell what the subject is (in the case of a yard that has a piece of railroad equipment in the foreground) classify it as a location picture. (Unless the piece of equipment is well known such as UP 844)
Location
In it's simplest form, a location picture is named in the following manner: ST-CITY_Subject_YYYY-MM-DD_Num.jpg where ST is the state abbreviation, City is the city, Subject is the subject of the photograph with pertinent information, YYYY-MM-DD is the date in Year, month, day format, and Num is the image number. The image number is typically 3 digits in order to allow for a sequence of photos that occur in the same location.
However, a more precise naming would include the address: ST-CITY_Street_Str-Num_Subject_YYYY-MM-DD_No.jpg where Street is the street, and Str-Num is the address number.
State and City always precedes a location picture's file name. example NE-Fremont. If there is an address, the street name is placed prior to the street address number, for example NE-Fremont_S-Main-St_123_ This reverse convention is used so that when the image files are sorted they may be grouped by state, city, street, location on street.
An example of a picture taken in Fremont, Nebraska, where the address is unknown, the subject is the CNW Freight House and the date is August 20, 2000 would be NE-Fremont_CNW-Freight-House_2000-08-20_001.jpg If the address was 50 E. Main St., it would be NE-Fremont_E-1st-St_50_CNW-Freight-House_2000-08-20_001.jpg
Railroad
In its simplist form, a railroad picture is named in the following manner: RR_Equipment-Info_YYYY-MM-DD_Location_Num.jpg Where RR is the railroad abbreviation, Equipment info includes items like formal name, type, build year, Location is formulated as described in the Location classification pictures (State, city, street, street address) and finally the date and picture number.
For example, in a picture featuring the Milwaukee Road's Twin City Hiawatha Pullman Super Dome taken 2008-09-04 in the St. Paul Amtrak yard it would be named: MILW_TC-Hiawatha-Pullman-Super-Dome_2008-09-04_Amtrak-Yard_02.jpg. Even better, if we knew the address of the Amtrak yard we could add it: MILW_TC-Hiawatha-Pullman-Super-Dome_2008-09-04_MN-St-Paul_N-Transfer-Rd_730_Amtrak-Yard_02.jpg.
There is one variation to be aware of. If the location is a popular rail-fanning spot, it may be placed right after the road abbreviation as in the example: MNNR_MN-Hugo_Norlakes-Switching_2007-07-20_01.jpg
Underscore vs Dash
The underscore separates information pieces, and the dash is used within the information pieces to replace the space character. What is an information piece? Well, think of it as a piece of information that is always known as a group. For example, State and City are always known, you can't have one without the other. NE-Fremont would be a state/city information piece, MN-St-Paul would be another. (Remember, state always goes before city so that when sorted all locations within the state are together in the list.)
Another information piece is the street. For example N-Transfer-Rd is one information piece. The address number is separate (and always follows the street name) because you could know the street, but not have an address--such as in rural areas.
Sometimes items within the Subject information piece is separated with an underscore, but this is not always necessary. It is perfectly acceptable to have Ronin-Bldg_blt-18871 or Ronin-Bldg-blt-1887.
Name to Sort
It is important to name the file so that it may be easily retrieved by sorting. If all pictures were placed into one directory, and sorted by file name, you should be able to quickly locate a subject such as the Hamms Brewery in St. Paul, Minnesota. Scroll down to the MN-St-Paul_ section of the file list and either look by address or title. It is true, that if the image was stored with it's address in the file name, you may have difficulty finding it, but as long as you at least knew it was on Minnehaha Avenue you should be able to quickly find it. That is one of the reasons the address number is listed last in the location sequence.
Final Examples
Here are some final examples, that when sorted by image name, it become apparent why these naming conventions are used.
Railroad image list
- ATSF_Mohave-2826-Coach_2008-09-04_MN-St-Paul_N-Transfer-Rd_730_Amtrak-Yard_01.jpg
- ATSF_Mohave-2826-Coach_2008-09-04_MN-St-Paul_N-Transfer-Rd_730_Amtrak-Yard_02.jpg
- GMO_Patron-Tequila-Express-Business-Car-50_blt-1926_2008-09-04_MN-St-Paul_N-Transfer-Rd_730_Amtrak-Yard_01.jpg
- GMO_Patron-Tequila-Express-Business-Car-50_blt-1926_2008-09-04_MN-St-Paul_N-Transfer-Rd_730_Amtrak-Yard_02.jpg
- MNNR_MN-Hugo_Norlakes-Switching_2007-07-20_01.jpg (note how this variation has the location right after the railroad name)
- MNNR_MN-Hugo_Norlakes-Switching_2007-08-15_01.jpg (as you can see by the date, it is a frequent rail-fanning spot)
Location image list
- NE-Fremont_N-Main-St_515-517_Union-Block_Blt-1890_1999-08_01.jpg
- NE-Fremont_N-Main-St-E-4th-St_350_Hotel-Terry-Later-Hotel-Magil_1999-08_01.jpg (notice how this is a street corner, the street that the address number is on is placed before the cross street)
- NE-Fremont_N-Park-Ave_435_3rd-Courthouse_Blt-1917-18_1999-08_01.jpg
- NE-Fremont_S-Main-St_Burlington-Depot_1999-08_02.jpg
- NE-Fremont_S-Main-St_Burlington-Depot_1999-08_03.jpg
- MN-St-Paul_Minnehaha-Ave-E_681_Hamms-Brewery_Brewhouse_2001-07-20_16.jpg
- MN-St-Paul_Minnehaha-Ave-E_681_Hamms-Brewery_Brewhouse_2001-07-20_17.jpg
- MN-St-Paul_Minnehaha-Ave-E_681_Hamms-Brewery_Brewhouse_2007-09-22_01.jpg (notice how since the date is last, the pictures in this group are in date order showing an evolution of the building)
Final Words on Getting it Right
A quick search on RR-PICS will show you that early pictures uploaded do not adhere to the naming convention described above. That is because it is a process that evolved after organizing the pictures over a two year period. As new pictures and new circumstances came up, it was realized that there were better ways to organize the pictures in a file structure. I can assure you, that in the actual photo collection these mistakes have been corrected, whereas they stand as is in RR-PICS because since it is a dynamic web site with a built in tagging system and search feature, the file name has no use other than to give an explanation of the picture when a title or caption is lacking.
