Old D&S Rwy (MP 53.4): Erwin Jct Traditional Cache
RR-Bob: No longer geocaching. Cache is still in place if someone wants to take it over.
Old D&S Rwy (MP 53.4): Erwin Jct
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Imagine it's 1929 and you're the engineer in a new Baldwin 2-10-0
steam locomotive climbing up onto the ladder to the cab after
you’ve switched the track heading to either Dunn or Erwin.
Picture yourself in the cab reaching up to ring the bell with one
hand and accelerating the new iron steam engine with the other to
chug the last few miles on your train order. This cache hunt is
designed bring a little of that exhilaration and physical stamina
to bear. Not for the weak of mind or body.
This cache celebrates the history and legacy of the old Durham
& Southern Railway which operated on the track bed passing
along this stretch of rural land during most of the 20th century.
Initially chartered as the Cape Fear & Northern Railroad in
1892, construction of the Durham & Southern Railway between
Durham and Dunn began in earnest in 1898 and was completed in
1903.
Along the line, the towns of Angier and Coats were incorporated
during the five-year construction project. The railway took on
it’s more well-known name in 1906. Railroad operations
continued along the 59-mile line, serving the cities of Durham,
Carpenter, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Angier, Coats, Erwin
(named Duke until 1926) and Dunn, until 1981, when it was acquired
by the Seaboard Coast Line, later CSX.
In 1987 CSX sold the Dunn-Erwin segment to the Aberdeen &
Rockfish Railroad. When the Erwin Cotton Mills were closed in 2000,
the Dunn-Erwin line was abandoned, and later turned into the
present 5.3-mile rail-trail.
The cache is located at the Wye in the rail line at what used to be
known as Erwin Junction (at the old D&S milepost 53.4), where
the track split, one going south for two miles to the Erwin Mills
and the other going east three and a half miles to the Dunn Depot,
D&S engine shop, and the busy double track of the Atlantic
Coast Line.
This may be a challenging cache for some. It will require an
extended walk or moderate bike ride to get from one of the two
suggested parking locations to the cache (about two miles). Nearest
legal parking in Erwin and Dunn are identified by parking
waypoints.
I have to offer a note of thanks to Rob Rousseau who assembled and
documented a well-researched, in-depth and graphically-presented
history of the Durhan & Southern Railway at this link
from where much of my information about the railway originated.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sebz gur rqtr bs gur byq envyorq arne gur envy-genvy oneevre, bssfrg (nf qrgrezvarq ol nggvghqr naq nygvghqr) vf ebhtuyl nobhg 45 qrterrf.
Treasures
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