Welcome to Nottingham Railway Station!
Near the given coordinates you will find a WWI railwaymans' memorial. Answering questions from this will provide you with a set of nearby coordinates where you will find the cache.
War Memorial cache #42 We shall remember them ~ Nottingham Railway Station. There are literally thousands of War memorials around the country. WW1 Memorials were usually raised through public subscription to remember those that gave the ultimate sacrifice. 2014 was the centenary of the start of the First World War, so it was about time there was a series dedicated to War Memorials. There is an un-numbered series in Scotland called Lest we forget and another we have learned about called Poppies on Parade. We will gladly add any of these to the War Memorial Series, just ask for a number. The name of this series We Shall remember them, was chosen from the very moving poem “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon. It is well worth searching out and reading.”
The Memorial
Since the recent redevelopment of Nottingham Station, it is now much easier to see the WWI Railwaymans' Memorial in the new shopping area at the front of the station. The memorial is dedicated "To the undying memory of the men of this station who facing peril enduring hardship and privation gave their lives in the great war", and was erected by their colleagues in greatful remembrance.
The Station
In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway merged with two others to form the Midland Railway, and by 1848 it had outgrown its former station and new lines to Lincoln had been opened. A new through station was opened on Station Road on 22 May 1848 and was designed by the architect J E Hall of Nottingham. Although attractive when it first opened, by the early 1900s the station was cramped, with only three platforms. A locomotive derailment knocked down a cast iron pillar, which brought down part of the train shed. This and the new Victoria station putting the Midland Railway to shame finally resulted in a scheme to re-build and expand.
When the Great Central Railway opened its rival Victoria Station in 1900, the Midland Railway appointed Albert Edward Lambert, a local Nottingham architect, to rebuild the Midland station. Lambert had been the architect for the Nottingham Victoria railway station and consequently the two buildings shared many similarities in their design. The station was re-built largely on the same site as the Station Street station, but the entrance was relocated onto Carrington Street.
The station was built in an Edwardian Baroque Revival style and was described by the Evening News on the eve of its opening (16 January 1904) as a magnificent new block of buildings.
The station was built using a mix of red brick, terracotta (which was used as a substitute for building stone) and faience (a glazed terracotta) with slate and glazed pitch roofs over the principal buildings. The carriage entrances had Art Nouveau wrought-iron gates
The station’s fore buildings were opened to passengers without any formal ceremony on 17 January 1904, although next day the Evening News reported that the platforms were still in a state of chaos and these were not expected to be ready for another nine months. However it did consider that ‘the result promises to be the provision for Nottingham of one of the most commodious and most convenient passenger stations in the country’.
The Midland Railway always suffered the indignity that its rival the Great Central Railway crossed the top of Nottingham Midland station on a 170-foot-long (52 m) bowstring girder bridge. This became redundant in 1967 and was finally dismantled in the early 1980s.
The station has recently benefited from a multi-million-pound refurbishment and redevelopment; plans for which were unveiled by junior government minister Norman Baker on 5 October 2010. Under the scheme, the station's porte-cochere has been made vehicle-free, and the station's Grade II listed buildings restored. The redevelopment also includes the construction of another platform bring the total up to 7, more shops, and the construction of a bridge to carry trams over the top of the station. The tram line was planned to cross the station on the line of the original Great Central Railway viaduct that had been closed in the 1970s; crossing from Station Street, over both the station and Queen's Road.
Construction of the tram bridge started work on 10 April 2012. The tram bridge design is a Warren truss design made of 508-to-711-millimetre (20 to 28 in) diameter steel tubes. The main bridge is 14.530 meters (48 ft) wide between the truss centerlines, with two equal spans of 52.120 meters (171 ft). Walkways 2.4 to 3.0 meters (8 to 10 ft) wide run down each side of the tram tracks.
Another interesting feature of the station is the overhead footbridge running from Station Street (at the north), over station platforms 1–6 to platform 7 and car parking facilities at Queen's Road (at the south). The footbridge carries the public footpath ‘Footpath 28’, the only traffic-free crossing over the Midland Main Line in Nottingham.
The Cache
To find the location of the cache you need to find answers to the following questions, then put them into the formula below. Although the cache is accessible at all times, the information can only be seen when the station is open.
A; How many Surnames begin with the letter W?
B; The second number of the second year at the top of the memorial?
C; How many platform numbers at the station - A?
X; How many letters in the Surname of the bottom entry of the left hand coloumn?
Y; Number of letters that make up the Surname at the top of the right hand coloumn?
Z; How many Smiths' are remembered + How many Surnames beginning with D?
N 52° 56.ABC W 001° 08.XYZ
The cache is a black magnetic nano that should be easy to find, but you will need to bring your own pen. Please note, the cache is located in an area that can be very busy with muggles, please use stealth. If you have people around you please wait or grab it another time. Should you be stopped by police please explain about geocaching.
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The War Memorial Series is a series by Just-Us-Two
If anyone would like to place a War Memorial Cache of your own then please do so. We would ask if you do so please contact Just-us-Two through their profile page or justustwo1013@gmail.com so they can keep track of the numbers
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*****PLEASE NOTE IMPORTANT *****
*****PHYSICAL CACHES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE PLACED ON THE ACTUAL MEMORIAL OR WITHIN THE BOUNDARY OF SUCH MEMORIALS. AT ALL TIMES PLEASE TREAT LOCATIONS OF MEMORIALS WITH RESPECT. *****