MNR: Lezayre and Ramsey Letterbox Hybrid

This cache has been archived.

Caaghyr's Crew: Archiving to replace with a traditional, the stamp is long gone and we have no experience of letterboxing, except finding a couple by chance while seeking geocaches. All that will change is the icon!

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Hidden : 3/14/2009
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Cache is no longer a Letterbox, as the old box disappeared, and the new owner has no experience of letterboxing. If any cachers/letterboxers wish to assist, we would be delighted to enable letterboxing again here.

Lezayre and Ramsey MNR Stations
Lezayre station building was situated on the west side of the road from Glenduff to Garey. Typically, there was no raised platform but just built-up ballast.
Between 1884 and 1926 there was a siding on the north side of the line. From 1908, the station was downgraded to a request stop, and it was removed from the timetables in 1950. In 1958 the station was officially closed, even though tickets were still sold until 1961.
The station building still exists as a private residence. Part of the old canopy is still visible.

The main building at Ramsey Station was the headquarters of the Manx Northern Railway. There was also a carriage shed, a locomotive shed/workshop, an ore shed, a cattle dock and two water towers. The brick-rendered main building also had one long platform.
The station closed in 1968 and was later demolished to make room for a supermarket and car park.

There is a Wikipedia article with more information.
About the cache
The location indicated by the coordinates is not near the old Lezayre or Ramsey stations, but of a location along the old MNR railway line (not too far from Lezayre). It's out of sequence too, but I felt that these important stations should be represented in the series. The former Lezayre station building is at N 54° 19.515 W 004° 25.785, a short walk from the end of the MNR Trail. If you want to visit the site of Ramsey station, the coordinates are N 54° 19.515 W 004° 25.785. At least you'll be able to do some shopping there.

If you're walking from the south, you are approaching the end of the trail. The cache should be an easy find on the south side of the track.
There is a cache near most of the old Manx Northern Railway stations and halts, making a total of 12 caches. In addition, two caches have been hidden between stations to represent a train in each direction (Northbound towards Ramsey and Southbound towards St. John's). The containers are generally small waterproof boxes, big enough for a logbook, pencil, a couple of geocoins and some small swaps. The caches at each end are a bit bigger, and the two "train" caches are average-size microcaches.

The caches should all be easy finds, as the emphasis is on walking the trail rather than spending a lot of time searching about. But to keep you on your toes, one of the small caches contains a laminated card, which gives the location of a Mystery (bonus) cache. You might have to make a return journey to log this one, but make sure you don't miss the card!

There is an excellent public footpath following the old trackbed all the way from St. John's to Sulby Bridge. Beyond that there's a short walk to Lezayre Station, but then it's a walk along roads to Ramsey. As the public footpath ends at Sulby Bridge, the stations beyond this do not have caches but you're welcome to visit the sites if you're interested.

A bus service (No. 5) provides transport (hourly at times) all the way from Douglas, via St. John's, Kirk Michael and Ballaugh, to Sulby and Ramsey. Timetable here.
A suggestion would be to park at St. John's, then walk all or part of the trail, returning by bus.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Onfr bs fznyy bnx.

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)


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