New Zealand Rail Maps Project
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North Auckland Line [0U]: Weekly Progress Report – Week 35, 2020
Well last week we took things a bit more slowly and so we got only a little bit of maps work done. Whilst we are still just as busy with other stuff this week, better use of our time means a lot more mapping will be completed over the coming days. Currently, mosaics are being…
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North Auckland Line [0T]: Weekly Progress Report – Week 34, 2020
So the maps are now completed to Waiotira, which is 179 km from Westfield and at the junction of the Dargaville Branch from the NAL. In the last three weeks we drew the maps from Helensville, a track mileage of around 115 km which is quite a good achievement, but not as fast as we…
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NZ Rail Maps Project Development Report [2020I]: Web Site Development – August 2020
As it is generally known, we have a web site at https://blog.nzrailwebmaps.nz. The website is in its early stages of development, and we have still to determine various parameters for it. We are, however, expecting to carry out the following content development options: Add volume galleries of the full set of maps for all of…
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NZ Rail Maps Project Development Report [2020H]: Development Schedule Latest Revision
Over time we have looked into different map development schedules. We first attempted about two years ago to prioritise producing a Basic version of all 12 volumes as a high priority to be completed within months. That however has been re-examined a few times. We have looked at different compromises between getting the maps finished…
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North Auckland Line [0S]: Weekly Progress Report – Week 33, 2020
Since our last report we have advanced the base maps to Kaiwaka at about 140 km from Auckland, which is practically half the entire distance from Westfield to Otiria. This represents good progress under our current rate of resourcing for map production. At the time of our last post we had just completed maps up…
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Future Prospects For Taieri Gorge Railway: Middlemarch Based Rail Heritage?
As we all know, the Taieri Gorge Railway (the Otago Central Branch from Wingatui to Middlemarch) was saved for preservation by public fundraising with the addition of ratepayer funds from Dunedin City Council. The entire route is within the boundaries of Dunedin City since the local government restructuring of 1989 when smaller counties were amalgamated…
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Unpalatable Truth: Shipping More Efficient Than Rail
On July 30, 2020, The Australian newspaper published an article lamenting the rundown of the rail freight network over there, due to intense competition from road and sea haulage. Whilst road transport of freight is not cost competitive in large quantities and long distances, it works well when only a small volume is to be…
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Dunedin City Council Reneges On Mothballing of Dunedin Railways, Now Pushing Ahead With Winding Up.
As we all know, a few months ago Dunedin Railways was closed down, but the Dunedin City Council voted to mothball it rather than wind it up completely. This, however, seems to have been just a ploy, as DCC is now calling for expressions of interest for people who want to buy the company’s assets.…
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North Auckland Line [0S]: Weekly Progress Report – Week 31, 2020
This week we completed maps to Helensville and posted maps on the group list of the Helensville station, which was a major freight yard between Waitakere and Wellsford on the North Auckland Line (65.82 km from Westfield). This was also the site of an engine depot until about the late 1960s, probably when steam locomotives…
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Wairoa to Gisborne Rail Line: Can the line be re-opened economically?
The ongoing saga of the Gisborne Line has occupied many column centimetres in Gisborne and elsewhere over a lengthy period. The problem is that the Gisborne Line, particularly in the section over the Whareratas near Gisborne, has been very difficult and extremely expensive to maintain. The reopening of the line has been the subject of…