This cache is a redo of the original "Model Railroading 102" cache that I must admit was a little bit evil but I did warn you not to read the hint!
Well I must be going going soft in my old age so this one should be an easy find :)
(unless you read the hint!)
This is the second cache in the "Model Railroading" series. If you have trouble finding this one you may want to do "Model Railroading 101" first.
Okay, first a little history lesson:
“Does the statement, "We've always done it that way" sound familiar to you?
The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the U.S. Railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! But why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing? Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long-distance roads in England, because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads? Imperial Rome built the first long-distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since. And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
The United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is apparently derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. And bureaucracies live forever. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse's behind came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses! “ by Chuck Missler
So if we accept that the U.S. standard railroad gauge is 4 feet, 8.5 inches then in H0 scale the rails would be about 16.5 mm; this ratio works out to about 1:87.086. If you find this all hard to understand just picture that a small bison tube placed in a HO scale scene would represent a cache container over 6 feet tall.
When you start your walk down the Mason rail trail to go after this cache, if you have a keen sense for spatial relationship you may feel a little smaller as the rails here are closer to 7 feet wide at the start. As you approach the cache the rails return to their normal width and so ends your surrealistic journey.
If you continued about 1.5 miles south down to the bridge that crosses over the Squannacook River you will see a strange set of rails pictured below.
I have no explanation for this, I’ve asked and received answers like vandals trying to burn the bridge down and it ended up twisting the rails but I'm pretty sure it was a spaceship landing or something.
Well it doesn’t end here, there is still plenty of rail trail left for caches to be place through Townsend and beyond….
Don't forget to bring a pen! In order to get credit for this course you must find the cache and sign the log otherwise it may lead to a failing grade and you will have to take the course over again!