We have now completed the 1969/1970 mosaics for the entire line from Wellington to Upper Hutt. We still have to take a look at the 1930s/1940s mosaics for the old western line from Melling to Haywards which will be our next task.
Also we will be starting work shortly on the section from Upper Hutt to Featherston. This section incorporates both the original route over the Rimutakas and the current route via the Rimutaka Tunnel.
The expectation continues to be that it will take well into next week to complete both of these as well as the three major stations north of Upper Hutt. However some mapping can start before then provided we have extracted historical tiles from the completed Gimp projects. Right now we are doing this parallel to the mosaic work and the first station we are actually working on is Upper Hutt itself.
Upper Hutt is where the two routes diverged, with the old route climbing above the present on gradients of 1 in 35, and then crossing over it on a temporary bridge that was built during deviation works. Bridge 35 over Park St was not built until some time after 1970, consequently there was a level crossing at King St at this time.
