Mixed Services (Waikato) Traditional Cache
kyb3r: Although this cache has been sucessful, this isn't an area I'd like to bring people to. This is not the Cambridge we want people to see, and it's beyond clean up and keeps getting worse, which is a pity. :(
Maybe we can get the council to do something about it.
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Size: 
(small)
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Situated at the site of the long removed Cambridge railway yard.
This area is a bit of a mess, and I apologize for that, but this is
intended for a bit of a history lesson of the local area.
The following excerpt is from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Branch
The Cambridge railway yard was located on a tract of land between
Queen Street and Lake Te Ko-outu and crossed at its entrance by
Lake Street. Railway infrastructure originally included a Class 3
station building, goods shed and crane, locomotive shed, turntable
and stockyards. The rail yard consisted of main line, crossing
loop, four sidings, goods shed siding, backshunt, turntable and
locomotive depot, stockyard and private sidings.Cambridge yard was
protected by both 'Home' and 'Distant' semaphore signals controlled
via gainstock levers located at the station building. Four NZR
built railway staff houses were also located on Queen Street
bordering the railyards.
The locomotive depot was removed at some point during the 1920s but
the turntable remained and was occasionally used until the early
1970's when it was dismantled and filled in. During the 1940's
construction of the Karapiro Dam and Hydro scheme (9km east of
Cambridge) necessitated the construction of a new siding and Public
Works building in the yard site.
Heavy materials, machinery, steel and cement used in the
construction of the dam were railed direct to Cambridge and then
transported further by truck to Karapiro. This new siding left the
Main just within the Home Signal boundary and passed along the
outer limits parallel to the yard to the large Public Works
warehouse.Various private sidings were also used for the carriage
of sawn timber, wood and wool products by local industries.
The station yard employed a mixture of 'Wynn-Williams'
spring-loaded points, lockable switch points, ground-throw turnouts
and also had trap-points/de-railers located on and protecting both
the Public Works Siding, Crossing Loop and Number One Siding.The
old station building was sold and broken up in 1973 and an overhead
crane was erected in its place to handle container traffic from
Weddell Crown Aotearoa freezing works in Leamington. With the
removal of the station building administration was subsequently
moved and conducted from an office added to the Goods Shed. As a
result both the 'Home' and 'Distant' signals were fixed in the stop
position. In the late 1970's following the removal of the
stockyards the stockyard site was used for the washing and drying
of N.Z.R tarpaulins on purpose built drying racks.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Pbapergr cvyr.
Treasures
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