Burning the midnight oil on this one big time. This is very slow and intensive, a lot more work than simply overlaying in GE, but better ultimately. Here are two illustrations: in GIMP and Qgis. Right now we are just at the level of putting in the base layer to draw the maps. The next…

Well the exercise in splicing the old aerials into the current aerial photography has been interesting so far because it has come up with different results to doing it in GE. And that is quite understandable all things considered. The aerial photography from Linz is orthorectified, which means it has been run through some complex…

I suppose when you look at the maps I have done, while they are interesting, they would be even more interesting if the historical aerial photography was overlaid into the present day aerial photography. This is really easy to do at a base level with Google Earth, but not so easy with the other tools…

So I have Part 1 of a series of articles appearing in the NZ Railway Observer No.346 this month. It covers the line from Cromwell to Alexandra and the reason I decided to go in this order is the likely keen level of interest in the Cromwell Gorge in particular. The article will probably be…

Fulton Hogan have occupied at least three different sites around Alexandra, including a current site occupying what used to be part of the railway yard. Fulton Hogan were roading contractors and they undertook work as contract road builders in Central Otago for many years from the 1930s onwards. This map shows where a bitumen depot…

As part of the public release of maps in stages for the Otago Central line, I have about 2 weeks to get maps of the section from Alexandra to Cromwell completed. The most complex section because of the large number of changes which need to be shown as snapshots on the maps is from Alexandra…

So this definitely will be the last yard diagram for a few weeks as I am busy, I have to finish Part 2 article but I also have other things happening, it is a busy time of year.   Overview of Omakau. I classify Omakau as a major station on this line. The size of the…

I have decided to keep going with station diagrams for the time being but it will be a busy time with writing Part 2 and finishing off the maps needed for Part 1 so we will see how that goes. Omakau is the next station, followed by Lauder, Auripo, Ida Valley, Oturehua, Wedderburn and then…

When I wrote my last post part of it was about the difficulty of getting good quality aerial imagery of some places. A bit of lateral thinking along with resurrecting the Linz aerial footprints layer has helped me obtain more quality aerial imagery of a few places, although the part of Alexandra covering the Fulton…