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Bournemouth History: Moordown Tram Depot Traditional Geocache

This cache has been archived.

Lost2011: Time to archive this series, leaving the most popular ones as stand alone caches. Thanks for all the finds.

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Hidden : 1/27/2014
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

This is my town. I live here. I love it.

This series of 10 stand alone caches, with a bonus at the end, will take you on a journey through Bournemouth, visiting a mix of urban and residential areas, and hopefully learning a little bit of history along the way. For the most part I have tried to make the caches accessible to all.

Following the support and kind comments I received from the "Bournemouth's Past" series, I posted on a social media site for thoughts and suggestions for another series about the town I love. I already had a few ideas left over after the first series, and I was certain my geocaching friends could help me with enough material to make another series, which they did in abundance! I couldn’t choose them all, and some locations weren’t suitable, but I hope you like the choices I have made. Many thanks my friends!

You can find the original "Bournemouth’s Past" series at the following link, which will take you to the most popular cache of the series, Jon Egging, and you will be able to find the other caches in the series from there.

In this "Bournemouth History" series, each cache has a number needed to locate the bonus cache, so you may wish to make notes as you go along.

Due to the urban nature of this series and the high probability of muggles, I have tried to make all the caches easy to find by providing detail in the hints, so please use the spoiler.



Until the beginning of the last century, getting from Winton to Bournemouth meant walking, cycling or riding in a horse drawn wagon. The big change came in 1902 with the introduction of trams.

A single tramline was constructed to run the length of Wimborne Road down into Bournemouth. A tram depot was established at the Moordown Terminus in May 1906.

Services were frequent. They were noisy and slow, but you normally didn't have to wait more than 16 minutes for a tram. Electric power for the trams was provided by the Borough Council's own power station in Southcote Road. It had four coal fired steam generators.



There were no tram services on Sundays until 1913. The decision to introduce them followed controversy and a local referendum - and even then the service did not start until 2pm in the afternoon. Sunday morning trams did not appear until 1926.



Many tram drivers refused to work during the 1926 General Strike and their jobs were done by volunteer amateur drivers. This resulted in several lamp posts being knocked down, including one in Wimborne Road.

The last new trams were delivered in 1926. The tram service ran until 1935 when it in turn was replaced by trolleybuses . Many of the redundant trams were scrapped, but some ended up as chicken coops, garden sheds and even living accommodation.

Trolleybuses had been tested since 1933 and proved to be smoother, quieter and faster than the trams they replaced. The absence of tram rails also meant one less hazard for cyclists.



Buses finally ousted the electric trolleybuses at the end of the 1960's, but public transport continued to be in decline. Bournemouth Corporation Bus services were re-branded in 1982, to what we know today as “Yellow Buses”, and the last conductor went in 1986.

This cache is placed in view of where the tram depot used to be situated. Once you have found the cache you will need tweezers to help extract the log sheet.
Source

FTF: DorsetJohn

Bournemouth History series:
GC41YWV: Pier Bandstand (M)
GC4NTAN: Tucktonia (N)
GC4NTAP: The Shell House (P)
GC4NTAQ: Moordown Halifax Memorial (Q)
GC4NTAR: Racecourse (R)
GC4NTAT: Moordown Tram Depot (T)
GC4NTAV: Waterfront (V)
GC4NTAZ: A338 Wessex Way [BONUS] - N50 MN.PQR W001. TV.694

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Jura fvggvat ba orapu, svaq guvf haqre gur zvqqyr frpgvba.

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)