Forgotten Landmark Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This cache should not be too difficult to find, and no tools are needed.
Now a farm implement dealership, this site was once a roundhouse where trains were serviced.
Radville was a divisional point on the CNR line between Brandon and Lethbridge. The roundhouse employed dozens of men who worked eight-hour shifts round the clock. The roundhouse was torn down in the '60s, and now only the cement foundations remain. Radville was at one time the most important divisional point on the CNR Brandon-Lethbridge line. In the days of steam engines, trains had to be serviced along their routes, and Radville’s ten small roundhouse provided the only site for train repair between Winnipeg and Lethbridge on the CNR line.
A “roundhouse”, so named for its shape, contained a turntable on a track. Train engines were driven onto the track, then the turntable turned it around in the building for the various repairs it needed. The CNR Roundhouse employed many men in Radville throughout the years. There were three eight-hour shifts a day, meaning the roundhouse was running ‘round the clock. Radville residents would have been familiar with the sound of the whistle indicating a shift change at the roundhouse.
Trains were very important in Radville’s past. The survival of nearly all prairie towns depended on the arrival of the railroad, and Radville was no exception. However, Radville became a thriving and well-known town in Saskatchewan because of the CNR roundhouse. It attracted many men looking for employment, and this in turn stimulated the development of businesses and services in the town. By 1913, a mere few years after the first train chugged into Radville, the town’s population was booming.
The men who worked for the CNR were very involved in Radville social life, particularly in athletics. They would also hold balls every year – a chance for Radvillites to dress their best for a night out on the town. This legacy of the CNR in Radville is still visible in Radville’s hockey teams. They are called the Nationals, or “Nats” for short after the Canadian National Railway, and their jerseys sport the logo of a train.
By the 1950s, disel engines were becoming much more common. Diesel powered trains did not require as many repairs, and roundhouses across North America began to decline. By 1960, Radville’s roundhouse was no longer in use. For several years, the building was used for grain storage until it was finally torn down in the 1960s. The remnants of the cement foundations you can see near this cache are all that remain of what was once one of the most important buildings in Radville. Residents of Radville in the first five decades of its existence would likely be shocked if they were told that in the future, there would be no roundhouse, indeed, no trains of any kind in Radville anymore. The loss of the roundhouse was the signal of the end of an era in Radville, though not, as many feared, the end of the town itself.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Lbh fubhyq rnfvyl or noyr gb frr gur bhgyvar bs gur ebhaqubhfr sbhaqngvba juvpu vf pheirq. Ubjrire, gb svaq guvf pnpur lbh arrq gb svaq n perivpr va n cvrpr bs przrag abg nggnpurq gb guvf ynetre cvrpr bs sbhaqngvba.