The first reference map samples of the new GIS based maps have been produced in the NZ Rail Maps project and uploaded into my Skydrive area. I have a couple of Live accounts with a Skydrive each, and this particular one has 25 GB available. We will have to see how that works out space wise. I have opted to leave the old Trainweb site intact as a historical archive for anyone who wants the KML versions, but they will not be updated as it is too much work, therefore they are becoming dated.
Here are the two maps that cover the HIL:
The full map complete with data table and key can be downloaded from the NZ Rail Maps Skydrive as linked above, in both docx and pdf versions. Office 2013 which I am using supports automatic saving to Skydrive, so the latest version will always be there.
When I dug around on the web I found these two articles on a modelling site:
Of course, that is one of my photos in one of the articles. I’ll put that in below.
Here is the schematic from the other article:
Being a schematic it isn’t to scale. My next line will be to see if I can get someone to turn it into a map, if they want to contribute it to my map. By the looks of it the sidings were considerably more extensive than what I have drawn. Obviously my ones were based on what can be traced today from GE, and I don’t actually know how many of those sidings are still in use.
Here are some photos from my collections:
Also taken from HJ Road crossing but looking the other way, we can see at least a couple of sidings and other bits and pieces. Including what appears to be a kilometre post, probably 2 km.
Looking in the same direction from somewhere further south, the Watties siding would appear to be in the distance beyond the 2.5 km peg.
This is taken from Springs Road where the rails ended (the removal of the bridge enforced this) and clearly shows the shelter over the line at the back of Polarcold’s premises. When this photo was taken in 1998 the local landowners were pushing for the track to be lifted and the land sold to them. The change of government the following year appears to have stopped this in its tracks, and today, 14 years later, all the track is still there. The major difference today is the cycleway along the far side of the tracks.
So here’s the last photo for this article. This is looking down into Prebbleton under the bridge. As you can see the tracksets have been lifted and stacked to prevent anything from leaving the yard. The reason this was done was that the yard was then occupied by Rodger Redward’s Southern Rail project, and they had acquired a reputation for doing joyrides up and down the line, which was not permitted outside station limits of the yard. Due to the fact that SR had defaulted on their rental payments, sometime around 1988-89 (may have been just after Ferrymead 125) the tracks were put back in place and then everything on the rails was towed to Linwood Loco for disposal. As it happened, Redward bought some stuff back and moved it to another site, the old Andersons Foundry at Woolston, where it sat until he finally left Christchurch a few years later – at which time a friend of mine got the job of sending the stuff to various museums around the South Island (other than Canterbury).
Next time around I’ll have some photos from my trip up the line last Saturday – the last article on the Selwyn River bridge showed just some of these.
