Welcome to our Facebook Group readers (NZRailMapz) as this will be the first entirely automated blog post sent to you, courtesy of IFTTT and the Buffer service. I already use IFTTT to syndicate  my posts on the NZRM Facebook page, but now they are expected to automagically feed to the group as well.

Latest progress to report is having laid out and masked off the retros for the east side of Addington. Tomorrow (Friday) the rendering of the eight geojpegs can be carried out and that will give me everything I need for the whole of Addington. I also made some adjustments to West and North and as a result some of those geojpegs need to be re-rendered as well.

Addington was many things: several important NZR industrial sites, the junction between the MNL and MSL, a passenger station, a freight yard, and many industrial sidings. These days it is much altered but still hosts a rolling stock repair depot, the main passenger station for all long distance rail passenger services, and the altered MNL junction. All the sidings however have now disappeared.

So Addington will be a very interesting site to detail. I expect to cover all of the major sites in Christchurch this way. I did most of them previously using Canterbury Maps and Google Earth but I am doing them again because of being able to use the historic Retrolens imagery as the background for many maps.

I may as well look at other sites I can use Retrolens coverage for. One has to be circumspect because of the amount of time it takes to assemble these mosaics. Certainly the production of them for almost every station on the Otago Central Railway is unlikely to be repeated everywhere. Depending on what is available I would expect to see them for almost every station from Christchurch to Waipara and Christchurch to Rolleston. Further south or north will be more limited. Obviously Picton has been done already. I may possibly do every station on the Waiau Branch, but I am unsure about other branch lines. 

MNL going north from Christchurch will be selected from: Papanui, Belfast, Kaiapoi, Eyreton Junction, Rangiora, Ashley, Balcairn, Amberley, Waipara, Scargill, Tormore, Nonoti, Mina, Spotswood, Parnassus, Ferniehurst, Claverley, Oaro, Kaikoura, Hapuku, Clarence, Parikawa, Kekerengu, Wharanui, Mirza, Ward, Taimate, Grassmere, Blind River, Seddon, Dashwood, Vernon, Riverlands, Blenheim, Spring Creek, Tuamarina. A few smaller locations in this list are connected with track realignments.

MSL: Every station to Rolleston then selected from Burnham, Dunsandel, Bankside, Rakaia, Fairfield, Ashburton, Tinwald, Hinds, Rangitata, Orari, Temuka, Seadown, Washdyke, Timaru, Pareora, Studholme, Glenavy, Waitaki, Pukeuri, Oamaru, Waiareka, Hillgrove, Bushey, Palmerston, Merton, Puketeraki, Waitati. The whole Dunedin-Mosgiel area, and then carrying on further south, Owhiro, Allanton, Milburn, Milton, Clarksville, Stirling, Balclutha, Kuriwao, Clinton, Waipahi, McNab, Gore, Mataura, Edendale, and Invercargill.

Midland Line: Selected from Darfield, Sheffield, Springfield, Staircase, Avoca, Craigieburn, Cass, Waimak Bridge, Cora Lynn, Arthurs Pass, Otira, Jacksons, Rotomanu, Ruru, Moana, Kokiri, Stillwater etc. However Retrolens imagery is not available outside Canterbury limiting us to what can be gained from existing Linz coverage. As it happens I have already traced much of what currently exists on the West Coast lines, and also done most of Christchurch-Timaru the same way.