The PNGL map revision project is currently making good progress and has been the subject of a lot of work over the past few days.

I am now in the process of downloading the base aerial photography for the entire route from Napier to Gisborne. This will be followed at a later date by obtaining the same imagery for Palmerston North to Napier so that the entirety of Volume 5 can be completed and put into a PDF, as well as the other formats.

As it turns out, there is historical aerial imagery of just about every station along the route, so I expect to be able to add full station layouts all the way through.

This kind of detailing is not something I will do for every line, but it is a kind of goal to be able to do this as much as possible, without it consuming so much time that it takes forever to complete map revisions. With the additional resources I now have at my disposal I expect to be able to speed up some of the mosaic production and therefore push things along a bit more.

The overall timeframe is subservient to the Otago Central one, however I expect by the end of this year I will have all the aerial imagery I need (including mosaics) and be working on the maps on a regular basis. Once the mosaics etc are completed then drawing layouts off them is relatively quick and easy.

After NGL it is PNL and then the Moutohora and Ngatapa lines will have to be added for a complete Volume 5 and that will take a fair chunk of 2019 I would think. 

But I definitely hope to get Volume 12 complete right alongside Volume 5 and there is a lot of Volume 12 work also to be completed so let’s say I plan on both volumes completed within the next 12 months.

Beach Loop 1986 in the first photo, and in the second, last year.