One of the most significant reasons for this is that I do not have up to date content for a significant number of volumes of the maps and it’s been a consideration on migrating to a new platform whether to bring across the old content completed in some cases up to seven years ago or work towards updating all the content as rapidly as possible and publish that. In many cases with the old content there are lots of fairly obvious mistakes that need to be fixed up and it only takes a little effort to add in a few extra details here and there.

It means in a practical sense there will be lots of time spent downloading aerial photography of the entire country and integrating it into the volume which has been a major time consuming exercise but these days I do have that down to a fine art.

Volume 12 will be completed to a Comprehensive level for at least the Otago Central line, as has been a key priority for the last couple of years. All other volumes will be completed to a Basic or Intermediate level but there may be parts that are comprehensive within them, as I may draw maps for particular stations depending on the interest level from the wider NZ rail community.

It will be interesting to work on the maps in Northland that haven’t been updated in six years, or the ones for Auckland, the East Coast Main Trunk, or anywhere, and be able to update those maps quickly when there are known changes that have taken place, an example is the recent realignment of a hundred metres of track in Otaki due to a highway project.