New Zealand Rail Maps

Category: Main South Line

  • Rolleston’s Stations

    Rolleston is a junction station where the Midland Line to Greymouth branches off from the Main South Line that runs south from Lyttelton to Invercargill. The first station at Rolleston was part of the broad-gauge Great Southern Line, built by Canterbury Provincial Railways, and opened in 1866. It was situated within the triangle formed by…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – June 2022

    During June, the rail maps project slowed down somewhat as resources were put into creating a series of historical maps for Christchurch City for the purposes of other allied blogs, including Transport Safety Blog and Christchurch Transport Blog. This work is ongoing at the time of writing this, but in the last week of the…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – May 2022

    During the past month the Project has focused, following the mid-April field trip, on completing Volume 11 maps for the Main South Line corridor from Lyttelton to Oamaru and all branch lines thereof. Subject to the adjustment of boundaries referred to in last month’s report, Volume 11 will now start just south of Rolleston, or…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – April 2022

    Welcome to the New Zealand Rail Maps project development report for April 2022. This month the project has supported the launch of the new Transport Safety Blog NZ site. Whilst this is not directly related to the NZRM project, it is hosted on the same platform and shares common resourcing. It will focus partly on…

  • NZRM GPS Projects

    One of the greatest technological advances of the last 50 years in mapping has been the advent of GPS, the Global Positioning System originated by the US government in 1973. The first GPS satellite was launched in 1978 and since then, the GPS system has offered major benefits for navigation especially with the present day…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – March 2022

    Good evening and welcome to the project development report for March 2022. As noted last month, the current focus for the maps is in Volume 11. Maps are now complete for Ashburton, Fairton, Tinwald, and all the stations on the Springburn / Mount Somers Branch. Work will shift from here to completing the Methven Branch,…

  • NZRM Volume 11: Working Timetable Distances

    It has been determined that it is useful and appropriate for NZ Rail Maps to use miles and chains as a measurement unit for the purposes of maps produced in the project. All imperial distances for Volume 11, which covers the Main South Line from Lyttelton to Wingatui and all of its branches, will now…

  • NZRM Volume 11: Springburn Branch Bridges

    The Springburn Branch was the branch line that ran from Tinwald (immediately south of Ashburton, 92 km MSL) to Springburn (27 miles). The line was also known as the Mount Somers Branch between 1886 and 1889, when the extension from Mount Somers to Springburn was opened, and between 1957 and 1967, the period from when…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – February 2022

    Good evening and welcome to the project development report for February 2022. This month the project focus has shifted to Volumes 10 and 11, with Volume 11 getting the most attention this month. This has been done in order to complete research on branch railways around the Canterbury Region in order to inform a proposed…

  • New Zealand Rail Maps Project Development Report – September 2021

    Good morning and welcome to the project development report for September 2021. In the past month, the main focus has shifted to the North Island Main Trunk volume, Volume 2. When this is completed it is expected to become the first volume that will appear on the NZ Rail Maps Volumes site. The Volumes site…