The Hatfield & St. Albans Railway was built with the support
of the GNR and opened on 16th October 1865. It carried both
passengers and freight, but was closed to passengers on 1st October
1951, by the infamous Dr. Beeching. A little freight traffic
continued on the line until 1969.
The station at Hill End Halt was opened on 1st May 1899 to serve
the new Hertfordshire County Mental Hospital. Passengers had to
request the guard to stop and when it was first opened there were
several “local jokes” about the station. There was a
siding that ran south into the hospital for delivering coal and
provisions. During the Second World War the railway was used to
transport wounded soldiers and civilians injured during the Blitz
to the hospital for treatment. The old hospital Chapel has been
restored and is now an Arts centre and the home of the Trestle
Theatre Company.
On the other side of the hospital grounds is another cache
“Hospital Case! GC15ZV2” by the Fantastic 4
(2+2) – It’s not too far away and it only needs a small
diversion from The Alban Way to
find it.
The published coordinates are for the platform of the old
station at Hill End Halt. However, this is a Puzzle cache and you
need to solve the puzzle in order to work out the final coordinates
for the actual cache. The container is a small Tupperware box,
wrapped in black plastic. It is located close to the busy path,
therefore please be careful when you examine the cache site to sort
through the goodies, exchange bugs, fill in log, take pictures etc.
When you replace the cache please ensure that it is well hidden as
dozens of muggles walk past every day!
The Alban Way
Puzzle
| 1 - A fast train |
D2-E2-F2-G2-H2-I2-J2 |
| 2 - He built the Stockton to Darlington steam
railway in 1825 |
A4-B4-C4-D4-E4-F4-G4-H4-I4-J4 |
| 3 - The first steam locomotive to achieve a
verified speed of 100 mph was the - - - - - - Scotsman in 1934 |
F6-G6-H6-I6-J6-K6 |
| 4 - Britains largest rail freight company |
A2-A3-A4 |
| 5 - A very fast French train |
B4-B5-B6 |
| 6 - One of the great British railway engineers of
the 19th century |
G1-G2-G3-G4-G5-G6 |
| 7 - Station (Abbreviation) |
J2-J3-J4 |
By now you should have all the information
you need to work out the final hiding place for this
cache!
The final co-ordinates for the cache are -
N51 44.(G4-I6-J4-A2)(A4-I6-E2)(I4-J6-D2)
W000
17.(F6-I4-G3-G2)(B4-E4-G2-H2-G5)(J4-I6-J6-C4)
I just keep going round in
circles!
The Alban Way is part of
National Cycle Route no. 61 between Hatfield and St. Albans and is
6½ miles long (Please check out the
Alban Way website and the very interesting Subterranea Britannica website)
The Alban Way Cache Series is
made up from 6 standard caches of various types along the old
railway line and a Bonus cache. To find the Bonus cache you will
have to visit all six standard caches and collect a clue for the
final coordinates of the Bonus cache. To post a log for the final
cache you must have logged all the standard caches – any logs
not meeting this requirement will be deleted!
This series of caches was inspired
by The Berko Monkey’s wonderful ‘Nicky
Line’ and the caches along ‘The Flitch
Way’.
The bonus cache has now been
published - so remember to record the clue – in this cache
it’s on the underside of the cache lid!
"There comes a time in
every rightly constructed boy's life when he has a raging desire to
go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure."
Mark Twain