The railway between St Aubin and Corbiere was completed and opened in 1884 By the 1920s, private cars and public buses began to threaten the future of the railways.
In 1936 the station at St Aubin suffered a serious fire, which also destroyed much of the rolling stock, and soon afterwards the Jersey Railway ceased operating. During the Occupation the St Helier-Corbiere link was reopened by the Germans as a military railway, but it was closed finally after the end of the war in 1945. However, after the rails had been torn up, the old train route from St Aubin to Corbiere was retained for pedestrians and a programme of planting was begun at the sides of the track.
Islanders and visitors have long appreciated the tranquillity and safety of what became known as the Railway Walk. Those who make the gentle four-mile climb all the way from St Aubin to the western terminus above Corbiere are treated to conditions which change quite dramatically along the way. From St Aubin to Pont Marquet the walkside flora is varied and often faintly exotic as the track makes its way through the deep valleys that the railway engineers were obliged to follow. From Pont Marquet onwards much of the walk is bordered by conifers, although there are frequent glimpses of the Blanches Banques dunes, La Moye golf course, the sweep of St Ouen’s Bay and the gorse-rich heathland on the approach to Corbiere. As a bonus, lucky walkers may also catch a glimpse of a red squirrel or two.
La Table des Marthes, a giant slab of granite near the Corbiere end of the line which, it is said, was once used as a place for signing contracts. And also a cache here http://coord.info/GC1Y74N Apart from a few road crossings, the whole stretch keeps walkers, runners and cyclists well away from traffic, noise and the bustle of modern life. There are many caches along the route from St Aubin to Corbiere, traditional, multi, puzzle and now a letterbox.
The stamp and ink are NOT swaps. Please leave in the cache in the seperate bag.
Happy caching