Cambridge Station was opened in 1845. The station building has a long classical façade and is a Grade II listed structure . The long platform (which makes up platforms 1 and 4) is typical of the Victorian period but the unusual thing was that (apart from a brief period in the mid-19th century) it was not joined by another through platform until 7 and 8 were added in 2011!
Measuring 514 yards (or 470 m), Cambridge 's platforms 1 & 4 are the third longest railway platform in the UK on the main railway network, after Colchester and Gloucester. It has a scissors crossover in the middle to allow trains from either direction to pass those already stopped there.
Cambridge station is the busiest railway station in the East of England, used by over 10 million passengers for the first time in 2014–15. Several routes start at the station including the West Anglia Main Line to London Liverpool Street, the Fen Line to King's Lynn, the Breckland Line to Norwich, services to Ipswich on the Ipswich to Ely Line, and the Cambridge Line, heading southwards and following an alternate route, to London King's Cross, via Hitchin.
Up until 1923 the London and North Western Railway ran a cross-country 'Varsity Line' to Oxford. This 1914 map shows the lines in and around Cambridge (right)
Between 1884 and 1966, the Cambridge to Mildenhall line ran through 9 stations and 3 halts, all now gone except Cambridge, but there are twelve SideTracked caches on this 'line' which can be collected!
For more information on SideTracked Caches please visit www.SideTrackedSeries.co.uk
