Woodside Station Traditional Cache
LeRoc: Sadly, I am archiving this cache due to having less time (through work commitments) in order to maintain it. Sorry guys…LeRoc
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Woodside station was a grandiose building, with two semi cylindrical roofs covering much of the platforms. However, given the size of the station, it only had five short (but wide) platforms, as much of the space was taken up by middle tracks and a roadway.
The station building was known to local rail users as "the wrong way round", because for the majority of the station's life, its original rear entrance was used as the main booking hall, whereas Woodside's 'front' entrance was mainly used for handling parcels. This entrance, covered in a porte-cochere to allow travelling gentry to avoid inclement weather, faced the graving dock on the south side of the station. It had been intended that passengers disembarking from the nearby ferry terminal of the same name would use this entrance. Unfortunately, the ferry companies were slow at co-operating and when the tram terminus opened in front of the ferry terminal in the early 1900s, the decision was made to keep the small 'back' entrance a permanent fixture. This was very unfortunate, as passengers arriving at the station never got to see the huge sandstone fireplaces, decorative brick work and massive timber roof trusses holding up the roof of the intended booking hall.
Closure: By early 1967, there were still six through trains on weekdays between Birkenhead Woodside and London Paddington. In March of that year, the route was effectively curtailed at Wolverhampton, as a result of the introduction of electric trains on the West Coast Main Line. At the same time, the last steam service from the station took place, in the withdrawal of through services to Birmingham.
Only the hourly diesel train service to Chester and trains to Helsby remained to use the station. The station closed to passengers on 5 November 1967 and was demolished within a couple of years. The diesel Chester route was cut back to Rock Ferry on the stations closure. The Chester route by 1993 had in been incorporated into Merseyrail
Today, the only evidence of Woodside's existence is a part of the station wall, a road bridge and the tunnel, which lay at the station throat. The gates of the station were reused at a house in Gayton. The rest of the land is now used as a bus park and the site Woodside Business Park. The half mile tunnel's access is not impeded giving provision for trams, or other forms of transport, if the future need is there.
The cache you are looking for is somewhere on that surviving road bridge facing the bricked-up tunnel. It is a magnetised 35mm film canister.
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