Test Track Traditional Cache
Black Five: Quick visit confirms the cache has been looted. The current status of the track is that electrified third rail is being built further down at Old Dalby to test TFL tube trains. The catenary on the northern section where the cache site is has been de energised and the signalling removed. The disused yard is now rubbish strewn and subject to fly tipping so as there is now not much to see, I'm disabling the cache. Thanks to all who visited.
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Size: 
(small)
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The cache is a plastic food container to be found close to the viewing platform.Parking is available in the car park of the adjacent Pullman Inn & Restaurant,converted from the buildings of Widmerpool Station which closed in 1949.The Inn is open 7 days a week.
The Nottingham to Melton Railway Line opened to passengers on Feb 2nd 1880 and formed the main route to London until closed by the Beeching Report. The last scheduled passenger express to use the line was probably the 1755 St Pancras - Sheffield express on Saturday 29th April 1967 although freight continued for another 18 months. In August 1967 the BR Research Department expressed an interest in taking over the Nottingham & Melton Line as a dedicated section of 90 mph main line on which they could test the proposed Advanced Passenger Train. The British Rail Test Track was to stop just short of Edwalton for several reasons. To have gone any further north would have taken the Test Track into a built-up area and into an area suffering from subsidence. The line was finally closed as a through route on Monday November 4th 1968 The remainder of the line into Nottingham from Edwalton was abandoned and the tracks removed in Jan 1969. The remaining line continued as a test track for many years and was the scene of the famous nuclear flask destruction trial at Old Dalby. After Rail Privatisation In December 1996 control of the Test Track passed to Serco Railtest on a 25 year lease from the British Rail Property Board and two years later to Alstom.Following the announcement by Virgin Trains to buy pendolinos from Italy, it was announced that the run-down Test Track would be equipped with 25KV overhead electrification to test the £2m units and prove the safety case. The whole project would cost £24m and the target was to have all 53 Pendolinos accepted after proving on the Alstom Test Track by summer 2004. The future of this high tech test track is now uncertain as there is currently no further use for it and it is rumoured that Alstom will close the line altogether.However the latest info at Nov 2006 is that the London Underground Infrastructure Company Metronet is interested in leasing the line to test new Metropolitan Line trains.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
haqre gur cvyr bs fgbarf