Thanks Micha, here we go:

<blockquote class="quote light-black dark-border-color"><div class="quote light-border-color">
<div class="quote-author" style="font-weight: bold;">Micha Silver wrote:</div>
<div class="quote-message">
How many shapefiles did you have in the GRASSDATA directory? ....
</div>
</div></blockquote>


I had the two shapefiles, Contour and Track, but I got your message loud and clear about creating separate vectors, which I did and displayed as follows:

v.in.ogr -o dsn=/home/george/GRASSDATA/Contour.shp output=contours min_area=0.0001 type=line snap=-1 --overwrite 

v.in.ogr -o dsn=/home/george/GRASSDATA/Track_cl.shp output=tracks min_area=0.0001 type=line snap=-1 --overwrite 

d.vect map=contours@test02 color=0:0:0 lcolor=0:0:0 fcolor=170:170:170 display=shape type=point,line,boundary,area icon=basic/circle size=5 layer=1 lsize=8 xref=left yref=center llayer=1

d.vect map=tracks@test02 color=255:0:0 lcolor=0:0:0 fcolor=170:170:170 display=shape type=point,line,boundary,area icon=basic/circle size=5 width=3 layer=1 lsize=8 xref=left yref=center llayer=1
No problems so far, all displayed correctly.

<blockquote class="quote light-black dark-border-color"><div class="quote light-border-color">
<div class="quote-author" style="font-weight: bold;">Micha Silver wrote:</div>
<div class="quote-message">
At this point I'd check to make sure the elevation data came thru: 
</div>
</div></blockquote>

v.info -c contours@test02
Displaying column types/names for database connection of layer 1:
INTEGER|cat
DOUBLE PRECISION|ID
CHARACTER|CRT_DATE
CHARACTER|MOD_DATE
DOUBLE PRECISION|ELEVATION
CHARACTER|DESIGNATED
CHARACTER|NAT_FORM
CHARACTER|DEFINITION

v.info -c tracks@test02
Displaying column types/names for database connection of layer 1:
INTEGER|cat
DOUBLE PRECISION|ID
CHARACTER|NAME
CHARACTER|CRT_DATE
CHARACTER|MOD_DATE
CHARACTER|TRACK_USE
CHARACTER|TRACK_TYPE
CHARACTER|TRK_STATUS
DOUBLE PRECISION|area
DOUBLE PRECISION|len

v.db.select map=contours@test02 layer=1 column=ELEVATION fs=| 
ELEVATION
1180
1220
1200
etc...
etc...

So far all is as it should be (I think..)

Convert vector to raster: (no problems reported)
v.to.rast input=contours@test02 output=contours_rast use=attr type=line layer=1 column=ELEVATION value=1 rows=100000 --overwrite 
 (... Converted points/lines: 630 of 630)
----
Display raster map (PROBLEM:only displays large, brightly coloured
rectangles, no contours
d.rast map=contour_rast@test02 -o
----
<quote author="Micha Silver">
How did you set up the Location/Mapset ? You might have a problem with
the resolution. 
What do you get from: 
r.info testrastmap 
g.region -p 
/quote>

I set the Location in GRASS's opening welcome screen, using the Contour.shp file to provide the boundaries. Here is the result:

r.info contours_rast
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Layer:    contours_rast                  Date: Thu Dec  4 08:50:19 2008    |
 | Mapset:   test02                         Login of Creator: george          |
 | Location: test02                                                           |
 | DataBase: /home/george/GRASSDATA                                           |
 | Title:    Labels ( contours_rast )                                         |
 | Timestamp: none                                                            |
 |----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 |                                                                            |
 |   Type of Map:  raster               Number of Categories: 0               |
 |   Data Type:    DCELL                                                      |
 |   Rows:         20                                                         |
 |   Columns:      20                                                         |
 |   Total Cells:  400                                                        |
 |        Projection: x,y                                                     |
 |            N:  6020724.5    S: 6013982.586   Res: 337.0957                 |
 |            E: 2481099.136    W: 2467034.878   Res: 703.2129                |
 |   Range of data:    min = 520.000000  max = 1840.000000                    |
 |                                                                            |
 |   Data Source:                                                             |
 |    Vector Map: contours@test02 in mapset test02                            |
 |    Original scale from vector map: 1:1                                     |
 |                                                                            |
 |   Data Description:                                                        |
 |    generated by v.to.rast                                                  |
 |                                                                            |
 |   Comments:                                                                |
 |    v.to.rast input="contours@test02" output="contours_rast" use="attr" \   |
 |    type="line" layer=1 column="ELEVATION" value=1 rows=100000              |
 |                                                                            |
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
GRASS 6.3.0 (test02):~ > g.region -p
projection: 0 (x,y)
zone:       0
north:      6020724.5
south:      6013982.586
west:       2467034.878
east:       2481099.136
nsres:      337.0957
ewres:      703.2129
rows:       20
cols:       20
cells:      400

I hope all this helps. Your help so far has been invaluable, thanks a lot.

PS I tried to play around with resolution in the Region dialog but the display never changed from the same chunky coloured squares.
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