SideTracked - Old Hill Traditional Geocache
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Difficulty:
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Size: 
(small)
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A cache and dash placed near Old Hill Rail Station. This cache is about the size of a match box. You might be able to use mark one eye ball, but you will probably have to use mark one left hand feeler gauge.
About SideTracked
We have Motorway Mayhem. We have A-Road Anarchy and even Village Vexation. Now a series for public transport users! SideTracked Caches are intended to provide quick cache-and-dashes at train stations.
About Old Hill Rail Station
The station serves the Old Hill area of Sandwell, West Midlands. Managed by London Midland, the station is on the Worcester to Stratford-on-Avon line, via Birmingham and Worcester. Chiltern Railways operate a small number of trains.
History
Old Hill High Street railway station preceded the present station, which was a station situated on the former Great Western Railway’s, Bumble Hole Line, which ran between Blowers Green and Old Hill. Old Hill High Street railway station was the second of the two stations in Old Hill. Its location provided better access to the town centre. It closed in 1964.
The station, which was part of the Great Western Railway, opened in 1866. The station was at the junction of the line from Birmingham to Stourbridge Junction, with lines to Dudley, Halesowen, and Longbridge. The two lines to Dudley, and Longbridge via Halesowen have long since been closed. The original station buildings have also been removed.
This junction meant that the station was built staggered, with the Birmingham-bound platform offset by a short distance.
A further junction in the Stourbridge direction allowed trains to traverse the Bumble Hole Line, which ran to Dudley. This line closed in 1964.
To the East of the current station there were private railway sidings to serve Palmer's Timber Yard, which have now long been removed.
The timber station buildings originally on this site were badly damaged by fire on 13 September 1967, and this prompted the station to be modernised - with the opening of the new building on the 22 May 1968.
The station bridge was originally at the Stourbridge end of the platform.
With the increase in mechanisation of the railways, the signal box that served Old Hill was demolished in 1973.
Services
Local services are frequent, presently about every half hour. Limited stop trains do not usually stop at this station.
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FTF – -Ako-
STF – Wazhawkins
TTF - BaggieDave
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Tngr jnl gb fhpprff