Last Stop Michelago Traditional Cache
winglen: This one has suffered over time and despite being protected from the weather, it is wet again. Time to archive. Toot toot
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Michelago is 57 rail kilometres from Canberra. Although now a quiet village just off the Monaro highway, it was once a sizable town and the start of the trip by stage coach to Cooma. This cache is hidden at the Michelago Railway Station, because I’m a railway enthusiast and love these historic tourist railways. When we first placed this cache there were still tourist trains operating at weekends, but sadly that has ended and the station is looking a little unloved.
We've now relocated the hide to its third GZ. Your can reach the cache easily by approaching the platform and walking north through a pedestrian gate for a short distance .
The line connecting Queanbeyan to Sydney was completed in September 1887 after more than four year's work just on the section from Goulburn, which needed significant work in the construction of Brooks Bank and Pine Range tunnels, and the Burbong and Queanbeyan bridges. During this time, work was also progressing on the line as far south as Michelago, which opeend only a few months later in December 1887.
For a short time from 1887, Michelago was the terminus for the line that was eventually extended to Cooma (May 1889) and on to Bombala (1921). Train travel to Cooma boomed in the 1950s and 1960s when hundreds of migrants and much material arrived by train for the Snowy Mountains Scheme. The line is now closed, with no prospect of ever re-opening as the track has been removed and the Monaro Highway re-engineered at two level crossings closer to Cooma.
There is some hope that the line may be converted to a rail trail, hopefully saving the magnificent old trestle bridges between Canberra and Cooma.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Abg zntargvp, nygubhtu zntargvp jbhyq frrz hfrshy sbe guvf uvqr. Ybbx ybj.