It is quite a while since we wrote anything about the Wairarapa Line. In 2016 we posted that a map set had been completed, this was prior to bringing in the use of aerial photography. More than a year ago we had been redrawing the maps with aerial photography for the Wellington suburban area and then went on to other things.
The Volume 6 maps will be the next volume to be updated to Basic level after completing Volume 5. This has already been worked on at Woodville where the Wairarapa Line joins onto the Palmerston North Gisborne Line. So the first steps needed to create the Volume 6 project have been undertaken as a part of Volume 5.
The main line corridor in this case is just 170 km. Most of the branches and deviations are around the Wellington area and have already been worked on. So getting Volume 6 completed is not a big task. We will see how much historical aerial content we can add, as there is quite an amount that has already been worked on around Wellington. As there are only a few major stations on the line outside Wellington and excluding Woodville which is already covered by the Volume 5 project, there will probably be opportunities to add the major yards.
Just looking at the file list, we already have historical mosaic projects that have been previously created for the Gracefield Branch, Haywards to Silverstream, Hutt Park, Kaitoke to Summit, Naenae to Taita, the old Rimutakas route, Taita to Haywards, Taita to Pomare, Upper Hutt to Kaitoke, Waterloo to Wingate, Woburn to Waterloo and Woodside to Greytown. The ones that can probably be added if time allows could include some of the following: Featherston, Carterton, Masterton, Waingawa, Eketahuna, Mauriceville, Pahiatua and Ngawapurua. That is a pretty long list and we certainly won't be able to include all those areas, just that these are the list from which to choose the areas that are most useful to create historical maps of.
