Ghost Railways: Outram (3) (Otago) Traditional Cache

This is one of six caches that explore the old Outram railway, a ghost railway since its closure in 1953. The caches in the series are numbered 1-6. They are all stand-alone caches and can be done in any order but I suggest doing them in numerical order so that you gain the best impression of where the line ran.

Black bison tube just above ground level. BYOP.

Caution: this cache is on a road where vehicles pass at speed. I suggest parking in School Road. Beware the open drain that has to be stepped across to reach the cache.

It was improved roads on the Taieri Plains that would eventually kill the Outram line and at this cache we find ourselves at the point where the line crossed what would, years later, be State Highway 87. This area is known as Wyllies Crossing and a station of that name was located on the line in the vicinity of this cache.

After finding the cache we continue along School Road (now a gravel road) on the other side of SH87. At the intersection with Gladfield Road (observation waypoint co-ords below- no cache hidden here) stood Gladfield station. Both of the sources I used to prepare these caches say that from this station, until it meets Riverside Road, School Road is built on top of the abandoned rail roadbed.

Note the obvious old railway relic. Curved rails like this were standard use as gate posts on the old NZR network.

Sources:

Exploring New Zealand’s Ghost Railways, David Leitch & Brian Scott, 1995

“Rails to West Taieri”, New Zealand Railfan, September 2006 issue.