Palmerston North Gisborne Line [0V]: Volume 5 Progress Update 22

So here is the latest progress report on completing Volume 5, Palmerston North Gisborne Line, of NZ Rail Maps.

When we started to work on this late last year we set a deadline for completion which we thought would be the end of January. As we can see this is the first week of February and the maps are still not ready.

The really important thing to us is to stick to the schedule because we want all 12 volumes released to some level this year and whilst we are only a few days past deadline, we are really keen to get this volume released and move on to the next one.

Today we have been looking at maps of Napier trying to get some detail finished and added to the maps and it may well be asked why there isn't more of Napier mapped than just the main station, given how much time has been spent on Gisborne and a few other smaller stations.

The reality is that Gisborne has a special interest for us, but we realise also there would need to be more mapping done in the future in some of these other areas.

Whilst it would be very desirable to put in more of Napier, or for that matter Hastings, and while there are a lot of NZR surveys available, we have to push on and release this volume.

We have decided as of today that the maps are just going to be finished as they are right now, without any more delays. So no further changes will be made, not even with the extra historical tiles for Dannevirke or the other stations that were completed. There is to be some tidying up in a few areas and that's all. The rest of today will be spent on checking all of the maps that have been produced so far for any tidying up needed, and the existing maps will be refreshed if that is the case, but no new detail is going to be added from here on in, all work will be done with what we already have available in the GIS for production.

Palmerston North Gisborne Line [0U]: Volume 5 Progress Update 21

Today's big achievement has been to solve a software reliability issue which had caused the completion work to grind to nearly a halt and resulted in the work of creating the Ngatapa and Matawai-Wairata map sets to be stalled for a few days. We achieved this by using a virtual machine to install an older software version running on Debian 9. This means the project is now much more back on track, though it is still behind and will be about two weeks late by the time this volume is finally finished. This means possibly the subsequent volumes will have to be cut back in scope to resume the required pace of work, so Volume 6 might not get any additional Comprehensive coverage over that completed in the Wellington area, and Volume 4 over that completed in the Whanganui area. However if the pace of completing those two which are the next volumes in the schedule goes well, additional coverage could be provided for them.

Regardless of the delays and extensions to the Volume 5 production schedule, we still need a week of downtime as soon as Volume 5 is released. We have today completed the 2017 updates to maps between Gisborne and Makaraka using the 0.1 metre urban imagery to replace either 2012 0.125 imagery or 2017 0.3m imagery. This is the maximum extent to which we are updating 2012 0.125m imagery.

The other work completed today has been the new aerial images around Beach Loop (covering 1942, 1962 and 1986) and adding the boulder pit siding at Maraetaha. This completes the planned extent of updates between Westshore and Gisborne. This means we can now move rapidly down to Napier to complete some siding labelling around the Port but no additional aerial images will be added. From here on in, the focus is using the current aerial imagery (current or historic) that we already have and doing final checking for completeness against other data sources and no new historical imagery will be put into the maps.

Boulder Pit Siding near Maraetaha. The dates when it was in operation being unknown at this time.

Service Siding controlled by switchlock 22478 as shown in S&I DIagram No. 1276 of 1968. The number of service sidings in the area which were invariably of a short term nature (there is no trace of this one today, nor the one off switchlock 21845 between Paritu and Beach Loop) suggests a considerable number of them were built as track diversions to deal with washouts and slumps. This is another illustration of how difficult this section of the PNGL has been to keep open.

These maps around the extinct Tunnel 24 show two route changes: T24 itself, and another one made at the site of a current washout just a little south of the tunnel. The map shows as "Closed" the original route the line took in 1942, which at some later time was diverted. It seems highly likely the diversion line that was pushed on a curved route up the hill became the permanent route, allowing for what was probably a slump or washout below to be stabilised to protect the new embankment. As the 2017 imagery shows, there is a washout in this location that has undermined the current track.

Tunnel 24 original route and diversion. The aerial photo at the top was taken in 1942 during construction of the line and shows this tunnel as it was built at the time. It was only in use for around 13 years.

Beach Loop itself. The black and white aerial is from 1986. The track layout consists of a loop with a backshunt at the south end. The station was often in use for stabling work trains due to the intensive needs of maintenance in the area, and was also provided with water vats in the steam days. Beach Loop was originally called No.2 Crossing Loop and was never open for any type of public traffic. The earliest S&I diagram for the area is No.590 for Waikokopu-Gisborne issued 1943, but which we do not presently have access to. It is unclear if local signals of any type were provided at Beach Loop but in 1968 the points at either end off the main line were shown as frame lever points without switchlocks, which was consistent with the way that main line points were labelled on other stations in the area, which generally had an L light on the automatic signals at each end. Switchlocks at that time were limited to isolated sidings between stations (service sidings, boulder pit etc). This seems to have been the norm for stations in the Whareratas area until TWC was introduced and they were all changed to the type of points controls typically seen in such area (TW lever lock).

Palmerston North Gisborne Line [0T]: Volume 5 Progress Update 20

Since the last update we completed maps around Beach Loop. These include: 1942, the original route at T 24; 1962, a service siding around a washout at 225 miles; and 1986, the track layout at BL. Since then, we discovered the more of the S&I diagram No. 1276 which covers Paritu to Muriwai from 1968. The extra detail of interest is a service siding at 216.56 miles (Tikiwhata, or around 350 km, or about 0.5 km north of Wharerata Walkway Station), however aerial photos around that timeframe show no trace of it. There were probably many of these sidings over the years to fix problems such as slumps and washouts.

The features that will be able to be shown, apart from the 225 mile washout, include the Maraetaha boulder pit siding which was less than a mile north of the station. We will not do aerial photo maps of this one but just trace it roughly on the ground.

The major work completed today was to generate mapsets for Matawai-Wairata survey and the Ngatapa Branch. Progress on these was slowed considerably by software issues that have taken all day to overcome and within these sets you will still see an occasional gap in the aerial maps where for some reason the full set of tiles has not completely loaded off Linz's WMTS server.

So we have made progress albeit slow and whilst acknowledging being a bit behind on delivery, we are continuing to press on and still very much looking forward to getting down to Napier ASAP.