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Sidetracked - Starcross Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

Snells Pace: Another cacher wants to put a cache nearby. So I'm freeing up the area for them. Time to say bye-bye to this one.

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Hidden : 3/5/2008
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

About SideTracked We have Motorway Mayhem. We have A-Road Anarchy (cos there aren’t many Motorways in Wales!). But what about public transport users? SideTracked Caches are intended to provide quick Cache-and-dashes at Train Stations.
This one you can reach by train, car or boat!!!

Starcross railway station is a small station on the London to Penzance Line in the village of Starcross, Devon. It is on the shore of the River Exe estuary and is linked to a pier used by the ferry to Exmouth on the other side of the estuary. One of the South Devon Railway engine houses, which formerly powered the trains on this line, is situated alongside the station.

The station was opened by the South Devon Railway on 30 May 1846. It only had a single platform at this time, the second one being added in November 1848. It was provided with a train shed until 1906 when the station was rebuilt.

Trains were worked by atmospheric power from 13 September 1847 until 9 September 1848. The engine house was subsequently used as a Methodist chapel, a youth club, a coal store, a museum of the atmospheric railway and is currently the home of the Starcross Fishing and Cruising Club.

The South Devon Railway was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who proposed to move the trains by atmospheric power. A pipe was laid between the rails with a continuous slot along the top that was sealed by a leather flap. Each train had a piston carriage at the front, beneath was slung a piston which ran in the tube. Stationary engines sucked the air out of the tube in front of the piston and the atmospheric pressure in the pipe behind forced the piston forward, pushing the whole train along.

At stations a smaller pipe was laid alongside the track and a piston in this was connected to the train by a rope to start it moving. On arrival at the next station it was down to the driver to bring the train to a stand using its brakes. Engine houses (like the one across the track from the cache) were situated at every station except for Exeter St Thomas where the driver had to hold the train against the atmospheric pressure with the brakes.

The buildings that housed the boilers and engines were built in a decorative Italianate style with square chimneys.

Public goods traffic was withdrawn from 6 September 1965 and coal traffic ceased on 4 December 1967. The station became unstaffed on 3 May 1971 and the old station building was finally demolished in 1981. The footbridge, which had been erected in 1895, was replaced by the present structure in 1999.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Ng gur raq bs gur srapr, haqre fgbarf.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)