The cache is
the second of two I have secreted along the rail route. If you've
walked here from my Southport Railway 1 (GC1VC40) cache you've been
rewarded with discovering one of the Gold Coast best kept
historical rail secrets at S 27° 57.921 E 153° 21.357!! If you have
started here it's best to park at S 27° 57.921 E 153° 21.357 (yes,
I know these two lat/longs are very similar!) and walk down the
trail. Take the left fork 200 meters in and descend down the hill.
At the bottom look left/East to discover some railway history, then
continue West to the cache.
The South Coast
line opened on Friday, 25th January 1889 with two express Southport
to Stanley Street (South Brisbane) steam trains, timetabled to run
daily. The last passenger train on the South Coast line left
Southport on the 30th June 1964. The line had been making a loss of
£250,000 per year for a number of years in the early 60's! I've
attached 2 photos...can yo imagine the steam train rattling through
the cutting twice a day!
If you continue
West from this cache you can enjoy a bush walk along the rail route
and loop out back to the car via the fence line adjacent to the
M1/Smith Street interchange and the Southern side of a residential
area and back onto Ashmore Road.
The cache has a
log book, pencil, a Travel Bug and toy car.
Southport to
Brisbane steam train at Southport Station (bottom of Scarborough
Street) circa 1960.