Vision

The vision for this Knowledge Base is very bold

Just like Wikipedia has become a go-to place for just about any general information, it is not beyond the realms of possibility to think that the Railway Knowledge Base for New Zealand could eventually become the first port of call for any information relating to any aspect of rail in New Zealand. The following graphic gives some idea of what I envisage, and the possibilities could include some or all of those, plus probably others.

As this wiki goes live, the focus is to a get the South Island Lines and Stations (Network Diagram) to a usable state (the green balloon). Following that, I will then push on with the North Island (June 2022?), while users get to understand the functionality available and hopefully contribute both material and ideas on how things would work better for them.

As development progresses, I will colour balloons green if the structure for that data to be held there is basically complete, orange if a start has been made on building the structure but it is not complete yet, and Yellow in at least an introductory page has been developed for that topic

Initially, there will just be two Network Diagrams, North and South Islands, showing all current and historical Lines and Stations. The plan however is to have several for each Island showing the network as it was (including closed Lines) at key points in railway history. Of necessity, the two initial ones show a somewhat artificial arrangement without the ability to visualise how things got to that state.

Considering the many other balloons on the diagram above, if anyone is keen to look at how another sections could be developed I am all for opening discussions and seeing where that leads.

One balloon that is not shown but is already partly included is rail publications. The aim here is to create a list of all available publications (which includes books and magazines) and eventually list facts that can be found in them, and details on photographs that have been published. The wiki can then become a means of searching for where information is without someone necessarily holding the physical publication.

There is already a good website available covering Rolling stock and I have no intention of hi-jacking that. The intention here is probably to be able to go well beyond what is available elsewhere but in a much more structured way. I will provide a link to that site but would be happy to explore ways of better integrating the two sites if there are advantages in that.

The Network Diagrams have links set up for thousands of pages that do not exist yet. Once the full Rolling Stock introductory pages get created, there will be thousands more links available The same principles will apply to Bridges, Tunnels, Houses etc. Each will eventually need a story, and stories rely on having data, so what is presented at the moment is only a small fraction of where things could lead if the interest is there. It is always rewarding to find out things from the world wide web that you have been searching for, have you thought about sharing information you know or hold, so that others too can find interesting things on the web?

I will be open to any ideas that come to mind, provided they do not clash with an overall plan that will progressively develop. If there is anyone out there keen to assist in helping define the longer term plan, please get in touch

Robert Storm

November 2021