Good evening. We have today completed the second to last step before the maps are ready to be published. We drew all of the historical yard layouts off mosaic tiles, from Cross Creek to Ngawapurua. In the process of doing this we discovered extra detail from 1941 at the Waingawa Freezing Works (siding layout changed) and added an extra set of mosaic tiles for this era at that site.

The remaining work will be completed all at the same time, as the maps are produced for publication. This consists of final labelling in two stages. We use S&I diagrams to identify any sidings that we haven’t marked, and we use aerial photos live from the Retrolens site, without making mosaics off them, to check the smaller stations that mosaics haven’t been drawn for, to confirm the placement of existing labels and identify any additional features to be labelled at the sites.

At the same time as final labelling is completed in each map view, the maps for that view are then produced, including the diagram and all eras of aerials. After running a script to set the correct sorting order, the maps are then ready to be uploaded for publication.

So that last stage will start tomorrow and it will take several days because every detail has to get one last check and it’s not uncommon for issues to crop up at that point that have to be addressed. At the same time a few more research articles will be published. With one more week in the schedule, we are confident of completing this on time and are totally committed to it.