A fun cache.
New(ish) pedestrian area adjacent to the very impressive frontage of Exeter Central Station - in contrast to the vehicular access of the background image.
Exeter Queen Street station was opened to public traffic on the 19th July 1860. It was constructed originally as the terminus of a single-track line built by the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR), which formed a westwards extension of the Salisbury & Yeovil Railway (opened on the 1st June the same year), but it was destined in due course to become a major through station on the L&SWR main line to the West Country.
It is reputed that Queen Street station was built in the moat of Rougemont Castle, which is located south of the railway. The railway approaches the station from the east through Black Boy Tunnel (263 yards long) then passes under the Well Street, Pennsylvania Road, Howell Road and New North Road bridges before entering the station itself. On 1st February 1862 a westwards extension of the line was opened to join with the Great Western Railway (GWR) at Exeter St Davids station - this passes under Queen Street itself (which bridges the line immediately west of the platforms) and then descends a steep descent of 1 in 37 through the 184 yards of St Davids Tunnel. This extension gave the L&SWR access across GWR lines to Cowley Bridge Junction and thence onwards via Crediton to Barnstaple and Bideford. The station became an interchange in 1861 with the opening of a branch to Exmouth, which left the main line about half a mile to the east at a new Exmouth Junction just east of Black Boy tunnel. To the east the line was doubled as far as Broad Clyst in 1864 and throughout to Salisbury by July 1870.
At first the station had only a single main platform and a bay road, both on the down side and covered by a two-road train shed, but in 1874 an up platform and up bay were added together with two through roads. The train shed was extended to cover the new lines and became renowned for being smoke-filled, due to the practice of changing locomotives on services in both directions there which resulted in a considerable amount of engine standing and movements under the canopy. At opening the pedestrian entrances to the station were from the north and south sides and not from the road bridges to the west and east as later. As was common practice at major stations at that time there was a ticket collecting platform on the station approaches and this was situated on the down side just east of the Howell Road over-bridge.
Plenty of seating close by to extract and sign the log. Please replace as found.
This cache meets GAGB urban cache guidelines.
Congratulations dunk01392 for being the FTF.