About SideTracked Caches
This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breath taking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website.
About SideTracked - Sutton
Sutton station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) on 10 May 1847 when the railway opened its line from West Croydon to Epsom. A branch to Epsom Downs was opened on 22 May 1865 followed by a line to Mitcham Junction on 1 October 1868. The final change to the station came when the branch to Wimbledon opened on 5 January 1930. Until the early 1980s, it was possible to catch a direct express train to the coast from here to Bognor Regis, Chichester and Portsmouth. This service, until its withdrawal, also gave Sutton the fastest ever journey time of 17 minutes to London Victoria.Since the 1980s, these express services are routed via East Croydon to serve Gatwick Airport and passengers from Sutton for the south coast now have to change at Horsham or travel to West Croydon and walk, take the bus or use Croydon's Tramlink service to get to East Croydon.
Today, the service to London Victoria takes just over 25 minutes on the direct route via Hackbridge.
The four platforms at Sutton station are numbered 1 to 4 from north to south. Platforms 1 and 2 are on the lines to Wimbledon, Epsom, Leatherhead, Dorking, and Horsham. Platforms 3 and 4 are on the Epsom Downs Line, which becomes single track about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) south of the station. Platforms 1 and 3 are used by services from outer termini to Central London. Trains from Central London use platforms 2 and 4. Terminating trains which return to central London generally use platform 4.
Platforms 1 and 2 can accommodate 12-coach trains and were used by the express services to Bognor Regis and Portsmouth until they were diverted in the early 1980s to serve Gatwick Airport. Nowadays all trains calling at Sutton are formed of ten coaches or fewer. At the London end of platform 1 there are the remains of a fifth platform which was a bay for local services via Mitcham Junction.
Two waiting rooms serve the station: one has its own cafe; the other has a shop that sits adjacent to the concourse within the station building.
Three lifts serve all platforms - one each for platforms one, two/three and four.
The installation of a side entrance serving the Quadrant was completed in Summer 2014.
The Cache
This cache is a 35mm film pot. Bring a pen or pencil to sign the log.
PLEASE BE AWARE - This can be a busy spot with people coming and going or just simply waiting for a bus.
Extreme stealth is needed.
Please return the cache to exactly the same place it was found, and make sure it's tucked in out of sight.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the high buildings and narrow streets in this area, GPS can have very low accuracy.