So we have started producing the maps for Wellington to Ngauranga, which is the first 4 km approx of the NIMT and Wairarapa Line combined, as they run parallel from Wellington Junction (1.92 km) to Ngauranga before separating. After that we will just be looking at the Wairarapa Line.
So currently there are nine distinct sets of maps for the first 2.55 km to Kaiwharawhara, comprising a total of 72 maps altogether or an average of 8 per set, one diagram and up to 7 aerials. These vary a bit as there are 1900 era scanned diagrams for some of them and not others, and 1971 aerial maps for some but not others (we put in an extra 1971 image for the rail ferry terminal and surrounding area because the second ferry berth was under construction at the time).
These are all in a Facebook album on the NZ Rail Maps page. These are also the final maps for this part of the Wairarapa Line. We intend to have a more intense look at Wellington for Volume 2 covering the NIMT, but the depth of coverage we have for now is sufficient for the Wairarapa Line because Wellington Station is primarily the NIMT station and its Wairarapa Line purpose is secondary. The NIMT serves both passengers and freight, whilst the predominance of traffic on the Wairarapa Line is passenger, with only a small amount of freight as far as Masterton.
So these maps have been drawn in enough detail for Volume 6 and will not be revisited, even if there is more time we could spend on them and more detail we could put in.
When the Volume 5 maps were done they were actually drawn over about a 3 week period in total, that is the range of dates that will be found on the individual maps themselves. This time around we have waited until we had all the tiles for each area completed before starting to produce the tiles. This means we aren’t planning to go back and revise the tiles like we did on Volume 5. As each set of tiles comes out, they will be final, but it means that whereas we worked hard to get the first set of maps produced in a short period, then we had to go back and replace quite a number later with revisions, including style changes. This time around, as we say, each set is final, so they only get done once, unless some major error is found, but the actual production period will be spread out a bit more. We do hope to have them all done within a week as scheduled but there is still so much to do like drawing yard layouts for every station along the route which all have to be completed before producing the tiles for that part of the line.
Here is the set of diagrams for the first part from Wellington to Kaiwharawhara. It took about four hours to produce this first set with a few issues and extra details to draw in as we went along. Station yards are always going to take longer than open country so that is just the nature of what we are doing.
