User talk:Matthew25187

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Welcome!

Hello, Matthew25187, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question and then place {{helpme}} before the question on your talk page. Again, welcome!  - Darwinek 10:08, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] NZR articles

Hi there,

As one of the main New Zealand railway editors on Wikipedia, I'd just like to take this chance to welcome you to the site. I've seen your work on the Wairarapa-related articles you have recently created and I'm quite impressed. I'd been meaning to get around to making those pages, especially Greytown Branch, for quite some time now (the Wairarapa was my second home as a young child), but I haven't had the time and you did a better, more comprehensive job than I would've done anyway. The pictures are a particularly nice touch; for ages, I've been trying to get more NZR pictures on here, but it's a bit tough for me personally as I'm based in Australia nowadays.

You may be interested in joining the NZR WikiProject; it's a bit of a fledgling project at the moment, but it's finding its feet as a means to co-ordinate NZR-related edits. We have a Manual of Style that I recommend you read, currently located on my user space at User:Axver/NZRMoS but soon to be moved to the NZR WikiProject. If you have any comments on how the Manual of Style may be improved, please leave me a comment at my talk page. In fact, if you have any comments or questions at all, drop me a line. There's still lots to be done on NZR articles, both in creation of new ones and expansion of existing ones.

Again, welcome! Keep up the great work. It's nice to see another NZR editor on Wikipedia. - Axver 11:55, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Request for input

Hey, you seem to be more familiar with the details of Christchurch's railways than I am, so I was wondering if you could provide some input at Talk:Main South Line regarding an article on the Christchurch-Lyttelton section. It would be much appreciated. Thanks! - Axver 03:00, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A bit of info

Hey, this is just a follow-up to the discussion we had on Talk:Main South Line. You mentioned that you'd heard of the MSL being double-tracked at least as far as Templeton for the benefit of commuter services, but you seemed less than 100% certain on this. This evening, I've been perusing the 1957 NZR Geographical Mileage Table and found some information on that. You may already be aware of it, but I thought I'd post it here on your talk page in case you're not. It states that on 7 June 1909, double trackage was opened Addington-Rolleston, a distance of approximately 12 miles 31 chains. It was evidently still double tracked in 1957 as no mention is made of this reverting to single track. - Axver 14:56, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

OK, thanks for that. Having done some browsing myself, I found the reference I remembered in the April 2007 CRS club newsletter:

Templeton had most features of a typical station in the early years of New Zealand railways. In addition to the station building which was on an island platform between the two main lines, there was the signal box, stockyards and two railway houses. All of this has now been removed, there is a single railway track...

The signal box building was donated to the society in 1968 and was removed in December of that year...

-- Matthew25187 03:11, 22 October 2007 (UTC)
Ah, right. Are you at all planning to do individual articles on the former railway stations around Christchurch, or isn't there any more info available than what's already in the list? I'm thinking about chipping in to add articles for those active stations in Wellington that don't have articles yet, but I'm not sure I really have enough info. I should at least be able to cobble something together for Paraparaumu and Paekakariki, as I grew up around there. Also, I'm quite interested in what you can find re: Wainuiomata. Shall I go ahead and make the article now or shall we wait until you've had a chance to check the archives?
By the way, nice work on the Nelson proposals article. I'll get around to the Cape Foulwind Branch soon, though probably not this week thanks to university, unless I find myself procrastinating. It'll be good to have the South Island done to at least a basic standard. - Axver 04:22, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
I had another look at my Railway and Tramway Atlas and noticed that it does note that the section of the Main South Line from Islington to Rolleston was doubled by 1909-06-07 and singled again by 1991-04-04.
Unfortunately, I have pretty much exhausted the published sources at my disposal for info on Christchurch stations (though there may still be some useful info in Canterbury Provincial Railways). However, having recently browsed the online Archives New Zealand catalogue (Archway), they do seem to hold files on most of the former Christchurch stations at their Christchurch office which may prove to be useful for such articles once I have checked what information they contain. The Wellington office also holds files on many of the Wellington area stations which, again, may prove to be useful for writing relevant articles. The problem is that in order to view the files to determine if they are useful before paying for a copy of them, it is necessary to present yourself to the relevant office to view them on-site. As I no longer live in the Wellington region, it is not so convenient for me to do so.
As for the Wainuiomata article, I'd hold off on that for now. Though the files I noticed looked very promising in the catalogue, I'll have to see them for myself to know if they'll be useful for the article. And, it'd be nice to be able to cite some sources when the article is posted! Three files in particular held by Archives New Zealand at their Wellington office caught my attention:
  • Proposed Railway from Woburn to Wainuiomata; 1928 - 1975; New Zealand Government Railways Department, General Manager's Office
  • Railways - Hutt Valley Extension - Park Avenue Overbridge; 1945 - 1955; Ministry of Works and Development Residual Management Unit, Head Office
  • Construction of Park Avenue overbridge: Hutt Valley Railway Extension. Wilkins and Davies Construction Co Ltd £37,947; 1953 - 1953; Public Works Department
I should thank David Castle of Valleysignals for pointing out what a wealth of information can be found at the Archives. -- Matthew25187 06:11, 29 October 2007 (UTC)
You'd think it would have occurred to me earlier to check the Quail Map to see if it had any details on the double trackage! Can't believe I didn't. I hate these regressive moves towards single tracking, but what do you really expect from the NZ railway network? You may be interested in an article I did last night while I was procrastinating, on the proposed Marsden Point Branch. We'll be lucky if that thing's built in the next three decades!
Some days I wish I still lived in Wellington, and after seeing the wealth of information contained in the archives, today is one of those days. What's especially frustrating for me is that I'll probably visit New Zealand at least twice next year but won't have a chance either time to visit the archives. Ah well, at least I should be able to get some photos to illustrate some of the railway articles, especially the now-closed lines. They really do look a little bare at the moment. That said, I know the Alexander Turnbull Library has a stack of photos available for online viewing and I believe the copyright will have lapsed on many of the old railway pictures, so we could use those.
In any case, those files you've identified look pretty promising, especially the first one. I look forward to what you discover and I'll hold off on making the article. I actually have a sneaking suspicion that my draft was cobbled together from bits and pieces of information David Castle posted on one of the NZ railways Yahoo Groups. I might do a search and see if he posted precise reference details. - Axver 01:57, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New NZ Railway category

Hi Matthew - just contacting you and a couple of other editors I know of who work on NZR articles to let you know that I've just created Cat:Railway stations in New Zealand, to parallel similar categories for other countries. Haven't really begun to populate it yet (any help you could give there would be useful), but basically I'm just letting you know it's there and can be used. Cheers, Grutness...wha? 23:12, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Welcome to WikiProject Trains

Hello and welcome to the Trains WikiProject! Thank you for adding your name to our project membership list. Our goal is to build the most comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. As a project member, you may add the project membership userbox to your user page if you wish.

If you haven't done so already, please add our main project page to your watchlist and take some time to review the Trains project manual of style where we have collected guidelines and suggestions on notability and style for a consistent representation of rail transport related material. If you're curious about where to start, we've gathered a few suggestions in the Trains project to do list. If you'd like to specialize in a particular area of study within rail transport, take a look at the current Trains project task forces.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask on the project talk page or on my talk page. Again, welcome and happy editing! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Slambo (talk • contribs) 11:48, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Naming conventions

Hi Matthew, I just thought I'd bring your attention to a discussion relating to the NZR Manual of Style, especially as it will affect the titles of a couple of articles you created. It's a pretty minor (and probably pedantical!) grammatical issue about whether article titles should be disambiguated with brackets or commas, but I'd like some input rather than making any unilateral changes myself. Please see Wikipedia talk:WikiProject NZR/Manual of style for the discussion. Thanks! - Axver (talk) 01:20, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Wainuiomata railway proposals

Glad to hear you've got copies of the files. My proposed article is still in my sandbox, so feel free to edit it there. I'll try to dig up some extra details and help out too. I just acquired a copy of the 1930 Report of the New Zealand Railways Commission, so I'll have to flick through it and see if anything is mentioned there about a Wainuiomata proposal. - Axver (talk) 01:02, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DYK: Kaimai Tunnel

Hi. I've nominated Kaimai Tunnel, an article you worked on, for consideration to appear on the Main Page as part of Wikipedia:Did you know. You can see the hook for the article at Template talk:Did you know#Articles created/expanded on February 3, where you can improve it if you see fit. Thanks, PFHLai (talk) 23:40, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Kaimai Tunnel

Updated DYK query On 8 February 2008, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Kaimai Tunnel, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--BorgQueen (talk) 18:22, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] WP:AUK

WikiProject Auckland This is an invitation to WikiProject Auckland, a WikiProject which aims to develop and expand Wikipedia's articles on Auckland. Please feel free to join us.

Taifarious1 09:52, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Wainuiomata Railway Proposals

I think the article is almost ready. My only major concern is the lack of in-line citations besides one that I did. I don't think I have any significant new information to add; your work has been quite excellent. - Axver (talk) 01:36, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

The main reason I have been reticent to add inline citations for information I have gleaned from Archives New Zealand files is the difficulty in deciding just how to cite the source. In other articles where I have obtained the information from such a file, I have usually just cited the file itself as a general source of information. When dealing with the documents in these files, there are no chapters, page numbers or, often, authors or other unique identifiers. Also, given the size of some of the files and the "disorganised" manner in which they have been compiled, a reference to a document within a file will often be of little help in more quickly locating the document in question if one did have access to the file. -- Matthew25187 (talk) 07:09, 4 April 2008 (UTC)