PoP - Long-Gone Whistle Stop Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

RayQix: Time to put this one to bed.

Thanks for all the Finds over the years.

If I can redo something here in the future, I will.

For now... happy caching.

More
Hidden : 3/10/2011
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

Congratulations to barrz123 on the FTF!

The PoP-Series are Places, Things, or Activities i've enjoyed either "Past or Present". In this case, it is most definitely both.

This cache is along the Leamington Greenway that once was the Railway right-of-way years ago, along with many of the now-transformed pathways that were also Railways.







The MCR/CN Station nearby, 1995 photo
The Canadian National Railway Station at Leamington was built in 1887. Its long narrow proportions and simple single-storey pitched roof form are characteristic of small 19th-century wood railway stations but almost unique today. It is located beside the CN track where it is visible from Talbot Street

This station was designed in the offices of the Canada Southern Railway (CSR) and built in 1887 when the CSR constructed a Leamington & St. Clair branch line from its main southwestern Ontario route between Detroit and Buffalo.

The building is associated with two overlapping themes in Canadian railway history: the complicated history of ownership of the various rail lines constructed in southwestern Ontario during the second half of the 19th century; and the impact of these railways on local development. Railway development in southwestern Ontario was driven by geography. The route through this area was the shortest path linking upper New York State and the eastern seaboard with Michigan and the west. To feed its network, the CSR constructed the Leamington & St. Clair Railway, connecting the Port of Leamington directly to export markets, causing rapid development of local industry and agriculture and culminating in the arrival of the H.J. Heinz Company in 1911. This secondary station represents that development.

The Leamington station is one of the last remaining examples of modest wood-framed railway stations constructed by the CSR in Ontario and Michigan from the 1870s to the 1890s, and is remarkably intact. It exhibits many of the functional features which would later be recommended by pattern books of station design.

The station was situated beside the tracks and near Talbot Street, which remains the main artery into Leamington from Windsor. Canadian National Railways have used it as a storage structure for track maintenance activities. The building and its setting permit an understanding of the importance of this relationship at the time of the station's construction, as well as the importance of the station to the early growth of Leamington.

The heritage value of the Leamington station resides in its rigorous proportions, simple design, decorative wood detailing, and site relationships.
The "Past-or-Present" connection:

Back in the early 1970's, the tracks here were still active and carried much of the freight from the local businesses out to the main line that ran from Windsor to other places far-away.

One day there was a Diesel engine sitting here, waiting for "something" (I don't know exactly what) and I begged my grandmother if we could stop and see it, if only for a few minutes.

My love of Trains has been part of me for as long as I can recall, and well, the excitement of seeing one up-close-and-personal was just too-much to not ask.

A moment later, we stopped and walked over towards the train. To my surprise, one of the Engineers asked if I wanted to see the train from the inside and come-up into the cab where they controlled the train!

I was overjoyed and excited beyond belief. Being a 5- to 6-year-old boy, in-love with anything train-related, this would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience....and it was.
I even got to blow the train horn! :)

I have remembered that day for many, many years. It's been almost 40-years now...and the memory is still very, very vivid.

I'm sorry to see the trains no longer come through here, but i still love them to this day.

Nowadays, my love of Geocaching has brought this memory to light again...and i'm happy to be able to share and include it with this Cache.

If you're quiet....and there isn't too much traffic along Talbot... you may still hear the faint whistle of the locomotive.... ;)

Enjoy the hunt....as much as I've enjoyed the hide. :)

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Qba'g or ba gur Srapr nobhg vg...orpnhfr vg'f abg gurer. :)

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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