Mote Park Miniture Railway
The Blurb...
The Society was originally founded in 1929 as a Meccano club by the founder Mr. Wicks for his two sons who were interested in construction sets at the time. Other members joined and the interest soon spread to railway modelling.
After the war, some of the previous members in the area got together and decided to continue the Society. It was at this time that the name was changed to 'The Maidstone Model Engineering Society' to reflect the wider interest of the members in other forms of modelling.
Regular meetings were held at home workshops as well as meeting at the Maidstone Technical School workshop. At this time a portable track was constructed and this was used at various local events in order to raise funds for the construction of a permanent track, which you see today.
The track in Mote Park was originally constructed by the members in 1949 and opened to the public in 1950. At that time the track was just an oval shape and had rails for 5", 31/2" and 21/2" gauge locomotives.
In 1961 the members extended the track to the present shape and length of 1826 feet. At that time the 21/2" gauge rail was removed.
Since the track extension there have been many improvements to the facilities, all provided by members of the Society with revenue raised from giving rides to the public on their railway. These include rebuilding the steaming bays and traverser to provide electricity to each bay and compressed air to every other bay, the building of the clubhouse, workshop and storage facilities, the station buildings and better access for unloading models.
The Cache bit... N51 and E000 are given,
To find this geocache you will need to navigate the perimeter of the railway and look for some items that hold information.
1. ***this part is now in the photos, bench was removed***.
At the furthest point from the 'station' (club house for the Society) is a place to rest that overlooks a large sweeping bend of the track. You could say this lady (middle name) clicked her heels to arrive here from her City. You will need the dates on the black plaque AB/CD/EF & HJ/KL/MN
2. Opposite the building is another brick structure, where the track passes over it. You will need the big date followed by the smaller one PQRS & TUVW
3. One for the kids - The track is held up by how many concrete stilts? (I was wondering whether to make this a letterbox and set the degrees of the final along this number)
(M - N) (D + E) (T + B) (J - D) (Q - V) (R - H) (L - 2) (A + 6) (B + P) (N + C)