G'day OddRails,
Indeed, your post is somewhat late - I completed this project for my 'client' about a month or so back, now, despite all the hassles I was having. In the end, if I couldn't use Google Earth to allow me to accurately georeference any of the really important Valuation maps (such as the ones that covered major city areas), I used their 'older' maps to create *.kmz files of where they showed the old railways had been (using the 'scars' left behind in the landscape) for those places where the "Old Railroad Grade" was not already shown on the topographic maps my 'client' requested I should use. Despite this 'cheat', the project was still a major headache but both my client and myself are more than happy with the end result.
By the way, Dave, there are most definitely only 66 feet in a Chain, I am certainly old enough to remember that from my school days (actually, I remember it as being 22 Yards to the Chain - which we here, down under, can never forget, as it is the designated length of a standard Cricket pitch - and with 3 feet per yard...) but there are 100 Links in a Chain - perhaps that is where you are being confused. I can also see where you might be being confused, by a mere coincidence, with your maps and the fact that there are 5, 280 feet in a Mile. The distances shown in 'my' Valuation maps is consistently 52 Chains, 80 Links, from map to map and that is, without doubt or contradiction, only 3,484.8 feet - 5,280, Links, which, granted, is the same distance, is most definitely not 1 Mile.
Jerker {:)}
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