Moe's Cavern (simplified) Traditional Cache
Moe's Cavern (simplified)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(micro)
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Drive-by cache located as close as possible to the site of where a former railway linked High Royds Hospital to the Wharfedale Line. I have simplified the cache since I think that drive bys should be found quickly (mainly to avoid arguments with non caching passengers. from experience...).
Because the previous location became overgrown, I have moved the cache about 5m towards the graveyard entrance. From the cache location you can see the top of the arch of the bridge under the A65, which is no longer there ("The Cavern").
Background
The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum Menston as it was then known, became High Royds in 1963. One of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of it's kind to be still functioning when it closed in 2003.
1883 saw the building of a single track branch connecting the Menston Asylum as it was then known,to the Midland Railway at a point between the bridges at Cooper’s Lane and Buckle Lane south of Menston Station
In the mid 1930s, the Hospital Board declined to meet a demand for expenditure on the points and sidings adjoining the main line. As most supplies to the Hospital were then being brought in by road, the line was closed but not taken up. An electric loco-motive remained in its shed until the outbreak of war in 1939 when the railway reopened because of the shortage of road fuel. The question of expensive repairs was conveniently shelved. The line closed again in 1951. This time it was dismantled and sold for scrap.
The cutting has now been filled in but its course can be traced by the fences on each side. Near the main line the trackbed of the siding is overgrown by trees but two sets of gate posts remain. The tunnel under the main road remained and suggestions were put forward on several occasions that it be converted into a pedestrian subway. Nothing was ever been done until early 2008 when it was filled in as part of a new traffic scheme.
Other caches in the series:
A Kiss for Homer
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Maggie’s Got Gas
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Bart-Field Drive-By
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Big Chief Wiggum Cracks the Code
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Onfr bs gerr. Arne pbeare. Haqre ebpxf.