Brampton Town Station - Dandy Line Traditional Cache
the-muggler: its a gonna.....
Brampton Town Station - Dandy Line
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
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This would be a SideTracked cache if geocaching was around 150 years ago! Its on the public footpath accessed from the appropriately named Station Road where there is easy parking. Its only a short stroll, but the start of the path is steep and muddy at times....The footpath is along the old route of the Dandy Line linking the original Brampton Station to the mainline railway between Carlisle and Newcastle.
Long before the current Brampton Station was built, the original station was opened in 1799, with much celebration and a 'quantity of ale being given to the populace' according to the newspaper at the time. This first station at Coal Staithes, just to the north side of Station Road, where the Sands Garage now is, was at the end of what was then called a wooden wagon-way, built to bring coal from the Earl of Carlisle's mines around Tindale to Brampton. The route was slightly to the north of the current Dandy Line, and horses used to pull the wagons.
30 years later, Milton Station was built to serve Brampton on the new Carlisle to Newcastle route, and a new railway line was built from Brampton Town Station to link with it, called the Dandy Line, opened in 1836, using single horse pulled carriages. Along with the use of Stephenson's Rocket engine in the area, and the 'taking of coals to Newcastle' from the mines, the Dandy Line has a rich history....
Right at the beginning of the footpath, the remains of the old bridge can be seen, which used to cross the road. This was taken down in World War 2 with the metal girders being melted down to make tanks! But the Dandy Line had long since closed by then. When it first opened, it cost 3d to ride the 20 minutes in a usually very crowded single and basic carriage. By 1881, steam engines pulled better quality carriages along the line to what was then called Brampton Junction, on the mainline. The Dandy Line was temporarily closed during World War 1, but only briefly re-opened before being closed completely in 1924, which marked the end of Brampton Town Station, and Brampton Junction becoming the only station to serve the town, and being renamed simply 'Brampton' station, sitting quite disconnected to the town today.
The cache is along the footpath, no need to leave the path at all, and no tree climbing involved, but you might have to be imaginative to grab it......
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ovfba hc n gerr
Treasures
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