The Polmonty 1 - Sidetracked - Polmont Station
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
Polmont Station
About Polmont Station
Polmont Railway Station serves the village of Polmont, as well as adjacent local villages such as Brightons, Maddiston, and Redding, in the Falkirk Braes area. It is on the main Glasgow to Edinburgh line. It first starting operating in 1842, connecting these cities and later northward, to Dunblane as well.
The station also acted as an interchange for the now defeunct Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway's branch line to Bo'ness. This old line has since been resurrected as a steam train attraction by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society.
The station was scarred by tragedy in July 1984 with the derailment of a high-speed through-train. 13 people died and more than 60 were injured when an Edinburgh to Glasgow express derailed at speed in a cutting just west of the station, after colliding with a cow that had escaped from a field adjacent to the line. A memorial plaque to the victims is located on a wall near the station's garden on the south platform.
As well as being part of the wider SideTracked series, this cache is the first in 'The Polmonty' Cache Series - a short cache trail around some of the central greenspaces of Polmont Village. The series name is inspired by a popular railway advertising poster. The Polmonty series starts with this cache at Polmont Station, but anyone wanting to take a longer expedition can follow the trail down into Polmont's biggest park- Gray Buchanan Park, collecting caches as you make your way round the park. There's even a little puzzle cache in the series, to while away the commute to here. The pun on the original poster, led me to name the rest of the caches in similar style.
If this cache idea and location is familiar to some cachers, it's because there was formerly a 'Sidetracked' cache here a few years back, placed by the cacher Zeryx. Responsible archiving has meant I've been able to do this cache placement, so a quick word of thanks to Zeryx for that.