S&DJR Series - Shillingstone Signalling bits Traditional Cache
Sillywhippet: This one isn't accessible anymore due to laying new track. Not sure if it will be found again... as it looks like it could be under ballast.
S&DJR Series - Shillingstone Signalling bits
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Signalling infrastructure remains just south of the station site
Metal base plates and even some old signal wire still in place next to the track bed. Advice from guys at the station project is that it was probably related to signal wires being routed under the tracks or point rodding.
The station was opened on 31 August 1863 by the Somerset and Dorset Railway, although planned and designed by one of its two predecessors, the Dorset Central Railway. Initial train services were provided by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR). In 1875, the Midland Railway and the LSWR together took over a joint lease of the line, forming the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
At the 'Grouping' of 1923, the Somerset & Dorset Railway Company was dissolved, the lease terminated, and the line and stations became the joint property of the Southern Railway and the London Midland and Scottish Railway companies.
Shillingstone station became part of the Southern Region of British Railways when the railways were nationalised in 1948. The regional boundaries later changed several times and the station was subsequently transferred to the Western Region, the final (January 1963) boundary being somewhere between Shillingstone and Blandford.
After a prolonged run-down of services, including the closure of freight and goods services on 5 April 1965, the station was closed, along with the remaining former S&DJR lines, on 7 March 1966, as a result of the Beeching Axe. The station was fully staffed until closure. Track-lifting commenced in 1967, Shillingstone being tackled between March and May. The signal box and platform shelters were demolished at this time, and the last train through the station was the demolition train, hauled by a small diesel shunter.
Dorset County Council purchased the trackbed for a proposed Shillingstone by-pass. Various furniture manufacturing companies were sited in the station yard, over the years, occupying industrial buildings constructed in the late 1970s, some of them making partial use of the station building. By December 2002, the by-pass plan had been shelved and the station was unoccupied. Dorset County Council decided to dispose of the redundant station, and, after protracted negotiations, the North Dorset Railway Trust took over the lease in July 2005, with a view to re-open the station as a heritage railway attraction. Restoration work commenced in 2003 and has continued steadily since then (see "Shillingstone Station Project").
A length of trackbed around Shillingstone has been opened as a section of the North Dorset Trailway, providing an easy-access route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders. At Shillingstone station the trailway is routed up and along the down platform, providing a clear view of the restored buildings.
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FTF- Tanwillo
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Va ebbgf bs zhygv gehaxrq gerr oruvaq zrgnyjbex
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