Well now that I have checked to see what aerial coverage exists in Canterbury Maps I have been fortunate to discover full coverage of Rakaia in 1974. I am now considering mapping the rail yards as the quality of this is very good. Burnham and Rolleston were also well covered in the same run of aerial photography. There is actually still a lot of work to do with the aerial coverage around the Christchurch area. At the moment I am still continuing to work my way south and not actually sure when I will do these areas.

There has been a lot of debate today about the Onehunga Branch because of the dropping of a proposed extension to Auckland Airport. This brings into focus the truncation of the branch when it ceased to be a freight line to the port. I will have a look at historic Auckland aerial photography to see if there is enough to draw the full Onehunga Port yard as quite a lot of tracks are still visible on the wharves there.

With a bit more work some aerial footage of Palmerston North in 1945 has also turned up and shows quite a bit of detail of the old central railway route so that is another thing to look forward to in future.