One of a series of simple, easy to find, caches at railway stations in and around Nelson.
Welcome aboard New Zealand Railways service to Gowan Bridge! Last stop Wairoa, next stop Wakefield.
Spring Grove is named for the series of springs in the middle of the settlement. Although I know one local resident who reported that the stream would often dry up in summer. Maybe the springs were tiny. Or further away.
Spring Grove was a unmanned flag station (ie trains only stop on request). It did had a siding - a section of track joined to the main line at one end, rather than a loop which is joined at both ends, and so waiting trucks had to be pushed out by hand, by the engine driver, fireman and guard. The delays that this produced, and additional delays due to the occasional stops for Bunny's sheep that sometimes broke through the fences onto the rail line (at least Bunny checked on them before every train), or listening to the end of one of Bunny's war stories, is just some of the many examples that led to the timetable being a little irregular, one of the many reasons that passenger numbers dropped when private cars became available. More on this when we get to discussing the closing of the line.
Alas the locals are not keen to see a geocache here. So instead, come and visit the station. The passenger platform still exists, and the area is now a little park. There is a mining cart at the page coordinates, which is rather incongruous - there was no mining anywhere near here.
Look for six words and their adjacent post at the entrance to this little park. Then go find the cache.
Which can be found at S 41° 22.ABC E 173° 05.DEF, where
A = Number of letters 3rd word
B = Number of letters, 5th word
C = Number of letters 6th word, plus one
D = Number of letters 1st word
E = Number of letters 3rd word on post
F = Number of letters 1st word on post
Σ(A-F) = 34
The cache can be found where the railroad, which was running beside the main road for a spell, crosses the road and heads into the paddocks to make a straight run to Spring Grove Station.
Spring Grove station, newly refurbished. November 16, 2003
Now located on the little railroad as you approach Nelson CBD
More stations will be added to this series as space becomes available.
References:
Voller, L: "Rails to Nowhere: The History of the Nelson Railway", published by the Nikau Press 1991
O'Donnell, B: "When Nelson had a Railway", published by the Schematics 2005
Scoble, J: "Names and Opening and Closing Dates of Railway Stations", published by the Rail Heritage Trust of New Zealand, 2010.