Author: admin

  • Old working timetable mileages

    I have spent a bit of time over the last two weeks looking at resources from the local library. NZRLS over a number of years have published some working timetables of the NZR network and they do contain a lot of detail that can be useful for various purposes. However except for a list of…

  • Wairarapa Line [7A]: Rimutaka Incline Section [1A]: Upper Hutt-Mangaroa

    So here are first draft maps for Upper Hutt to Mangaroa. There are a few things to add and fix up before eventually releasing them. Upper Hutt station has changed a lot in 70 years. The turntable is long gone, the King St level crossing closed many years ago and the yard tracks rather than…

  • Wairarapa Line [6A]: Haywards-Silverstream

    Haywards to Silverstream is interesting because of various route changes. Haywards was originally reached from the first route of the Wairarapa Line up the western side of the Hutt Valley via Lower Hutt, Melling and Belmont. In February 1954 the Wairarapa Line was deviated to the eastern side of the valley so that Haywards (Manor…

  • Otago Central Railway [63L]: Ranfurly-Alexandra 12 (Lauder-Auripo 1)

    Here we have a 1951 diagram of Auripo. It looks like the proposed extension of the loop was constructed. Auripo was one of the smallest and most remote stations on the Otago Central branch. It had just a small shelter, loading bank, one loop and a stockyards. There were no extra sidings or goods shed…

  • Wairarapa Line [4A]: Hutt Valley Line [2]

    So now I have the complete set of aerial coverage for the Hutt Valley route here are some samples showing what these locations looked like in 1939/41. Whilst continuing with some stuff around the Wellington area I need to shift my focus back to the South Island so there won’t be much more along this…

  • Wairarapa Line [4A]: Hutt Valley line [1]

    Well we have been relatively quiet over the past week as I have thrown a lot of resources into the Hutt Valley line, which looked very different in 1939. The line was opened to Waterloo in 1927, but was not further extended to Haywards until the mid 1950s, when it took over as the main…

  • Wairarapa Line [5A]: Gracefield Branch [2]

    Well the last couple of days have been work in downloading the aerial photography needed to do the Gracefield Branch. This is split up into three sections: Woburn station, Hutt Park station and Gracefield station. At the moment I have completed a mosaic for Hutt Park and am working on the mosaics for Woburn and…

  • Wairarapa Line [5A]: Gracefield Branch [1]

    Since I did a bit of Wellington station last month I have shifted my interest to Lower Hutt and various areas to be covered there. One of the first will be the Gracefield Branch and Hutt Workshops and right now I am downloading background aerial photography at high resolution of Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt…

  • Otago Central Railway [63K]: Ranfurly-Alexandra 11 (Omakau-Lauder 4)

    Here are the final maps for Lauder. Aerial photography alignment was pretty difficult for this set of maps and what you can see reflects the best outcome I could achieve. The maps use the newest style that I am rolling out across all different map types for making them easier to use. Next station down…

  • Handheld Navigation

    Last week I touched on the subject of how to use the maps “in the field” and the challenges faced. Here is a map from the volume of the Napier-Gisborne line. I travelled from Wellington to Gisborne on the 22nd of June and returned to Wellington on the 24th. From there with a bit of…