Small container. BYOP.
The line crossed the Taieri River and continued its straight line to the vicinity of this cache. It then crossed the Allanton Road before continuing straight ahead, on the left side of the road heading to Outram, to its end in the township. The Shands station was located here and it was a bit more developed than the other intermediate stations on the line. It had an 18-wagon capacity crossing loop and a six-wagon capacity back shunt that accessed a stock loading pen. There was also a loading bank and a large barn-like building on site. This station was probably more developed than the others because there was a plan to extend another line from here to Berwick then along the shores of Lakes Waipori and Waihola to Clarendon, further south. It never eventuated. There is an excellent 1943 photograph of the Shands station accompanying Reid’s 2006 article.
Locals tell me that the curving farm road beyond the gate on Allanton Road that carries a large “Private Road- No Entry” sign is the roadbed of the old railway. From the cache you can see this gate near a stand of cabbage trees on Allanton Road. As with a couple of the earlier caches in the series, a satellite view of the cache site area via Google Earth is very instructive.
Right beside the cache are old concrete foundations that belong to the barn-like structure that stood at the end of the back-shunt. This is clearly shown in the photograph mentioned above.
Sources:
Exploring New Zealand’s Ghost Railways, David Leitch & Brian Scott, 1995
“Rails to West Taieri”, New Zealand Railfan, September 2006 issue.