In the past week the work on NZ Rail Maps has mainly been in the Midland Line project which is scheduled for completion by the end of the month. After a bit of slack time, work resumed again in full force towards the end of last week and is pushing ahead rapidly. The current work being brought to completion is:

• Rapahoe / Rewanui Branches historical coverage
• Hokitika Branch historical coverage
• Main line stations between Otira and Greymouth to finish.
• Greymouth yard and sidings to be drawn along with numerous other smaller stations.
• Waiting for some more aerial photos to complete historical coverage of the Ross Branch and some areas around Greymouth.

A field trip to Otira was proposed as a separate day’s outing before going up again in August for the Midland Line centenary. However this is not going to happen as of now and opportunities to combine the two activities at least for the part of the Midland Line beyond Springfield will be considered. The rest of the Midland Line can be combined into a central/north Canterbury field trip at a later date.

In addition to the above, work has been done on combining smaller projects for the Main North Line into two large ones, the first one combines the main line from Kaiapoi to Greta and the Oxford, Eyreton and Waiau Branches. The second covers from Ethelton to Picton. The section from Addington to Kainga is considered to be part of the Christchurch suburban area and is combined with Christchurch-Addington, still in Volume 10. The current request at Linz for aerial photos from the Crown Aerial Film Archive includes a pair of low resolution 2003 colour aerials of the Avondale-Southdown rail corridor to enable its historical route, now followed by SH20, to be mapped at a future time.