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The Maplines Air Line Railroad Series LbNA #19325 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Rocklun
Plant date:Jun 17, 2004
Location: 34 Thompson Road
City:Thompson
County:Windham
State:Connecticut
Boxes:8
Planted by:The Maplines
Found by: Norse Gnome (8)
Last found:May 27, 2013
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFOFFFr
Last edited:Aug 19, 2016
Original planters: The Maplines
Current owner: Rocklun

Location: Park on the grass near the gate at the West Thompson Cemetery, which is located near 34 Thompson Road (Route 193), Thompson, CT.

CT Treasure Hiker Miles: 2.5

Notes from Rocklun: I adopted this long-abandoned series to preserve it and share it with newer letterboxers, rather than letting it turn into trash in the woods. The original clues are below. I've modified them to reflect location changes and to clarify any confusing points. I tried to modify as little as possible, though, so please keep that in mind as you read the clues and see that they differ from my usual writing style. :^)

P.S. While doing this series, Southpaw and I spotted bluebirds, wood ducks, and hooded mergansers, plus we saw many types of animal tracks in the snow. You may want to bring binoculars.
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The Air Line Railroad is proof that some times a good idea on paper is not necessarily a good idea when built. Two of the most important cities in the United States in the mid-1800s were Boston and New York City. Railroads had been built along the New England shoreline to connect the two cities, but trains had to frequently stop for draw bridges on the many navigable rivers or discharge passengers and freight to cross rivers on ferryboats and re-board trains on the other side. This was very time consuming. Another option was to ride a train far inland to cross Massachusetts from west to east. Finally, steamships connected the two cities by plying the coastal waters of Long Island and Rhode Island sound, and rounding Cape Cod. But to build a railroad on the straight line between the two cities, diagonally through Connecticut and Southeast Massachusetts, had long been a dream of various railroad investors and engineers. The straight line would be faster and better, with less river crossings and passing through scenic Connecticut farm lands and forests. Connecticut had no mountains, just ridges which paralleled each other from north to south. Railroad dreamers, financers, and "great numbers of normally shrewd and cautious Yankees" fell into the trap of the straight line.

The "Air Line" route got its name from the idea that the railroad would follow a path as "if a line had been drawn through the air" between the two cities. It was planned to run diagonally across Connecticut, starting in New Haven and running northeast through Middlefield, Middletown, Portland, East Hampton, Colchester, Willimantic, Goshen, Dayville , and Woonsocket, R.I. and then on to Boston. It specialized in connecting hamlets, and was remarkable for its engineering originality and desire to run "fast passenger trains" The only difficult natural barrier that the designers thought they faced was bridging the three quarter mile wide Connecticut River in the Middletown area. What they failed to account for was the political ramifications of this bridge, as well as the less imposing but more numerous trap rock ridges that ran north to south
across central and eastern Connecticut.

If you would like more history on the Air Line check out this web site.

http://pages.cthome.net/mbartel/ARRhistory.htm

Difficulty: 2.00 Average. The average letter boxer would be able to find this in less than 1 1/2 hours of hunting. One mystery box at the end that is easy too.

Terrain rating: 3.00 May Not suitable for small children. (The average adult or older child should be OK depending on physical condition. Terrain is likely off-trail. May have one or more of the following: some overgrowth, some steep elevation changes, very muddy and slippery in spots or more than a 2 mile round-trip hike.)

Here are the clues to Box #1. Take Rt. 12 North out of Putnam. Go a short distance and soon you will be in Thompson. Now you look for Rt. 193 and take a right East. After you turn look for a cemetery on your left right away. This is where you will be parking your car. Park by the telephone pole. PLEASE FACE YOUR CAR WITH TRAFFIC A Nice State policeman said he would give me a ticket for parking facing the wrong way. Now look up the road a very short distance and you will see the place where the Airline Railroad crossed over Rt. 193 at one time. You will be crossing the road BE CAREFUL WITH SMALL CHILDREN.

Go up the small hill and on to the old rail bed. Walk along the rail bed be careful dirt bikes like to use this path also. Before too long if you look around you will see why this was called the Airline. You are really high in the air here. Walk about 10 - 15 minutes and the trail will take a sharp left up a hill. The trains never went that way. At this Y with your car behind you go straight one or two steps where the trains would have gone. Look on your left and you will see a many ( Too Many to count ) Sister tree. That is where you will find Box #1. If you walk over a pile of brush you went too far. Unfortunately this line used to go all the way in to Putnam at one time but the tunnel was filled in a few years ago.

Now turn around after hiding the box again. Walk back towards your car. About 2/3 of the way back you will have to look on your left for a small post in the ground. It is right near a place where the trail goes around a pile of dirt. If you look real good you will see another wooden post in the woods. At the second post you will find under a small rock and next to a big rock Box #2. [NOTE FROM ROCKLUN: There were briars here, the dirt pile is pretty small, and I only saw one post in the woods.] Now continue towards your car. Soon you will come to the road again. Cross the road BE CAREFUL WITH SMALL CHILDREN.

***NOTE FROM ROCKLUN: Due to construction, I believe Box 3 is now missing.***

From the bottom of the trail, take 30 steps up the hill and stop. Face left. Look for two small (one is twice the size of the other) rocks that are next to each other. Take 4 steps off the trail to them, then look between them. Box #3 is hidden under a couple of small rocks there. Please rehide well, as this box is close to the trail.

Ok now it gets tricky here. You are going to walk on the old railroad bed. BUT BE REAL CAREFUL the rail bed is flooded here and you walk to the left around a small pond (maybe dried up some times of the year). Ok you are back on the rail bed.

Keep looking on the right for a stone retaining wall built low in the hillside. Once you find it, walk until you reach the end of it. From there, take approximately 70 steps to a clump of mountain laurel on the right. Stop and face left. Look for a two-sister oak (the left sister is twice the size of the right sister). We (Rocklun and Southpaw) put two broken cinder blocks next to this tree because the original landmark is gone. Walk up the little hill toward the tree. Standing with this tree to your right, take 5 steps to a single oak. Behind this tree, under old sticks, is Box #4.

After you're done go back to rail bed. Take a left away from your car. Soon you will go under some power lines. The next thing you will see is an old bridge cross over bridge WALK IN THE MIDDLE DO NOT USE WALKWAY HORNETS NEST AT OTHER END. At the end of the bridge stop. Count out 17 steps Right foot only. A trail goes off to the right here. Take it down the hill. Look on the left side for an old Kerosene can. Now look for a fallen white birch tree on your left near by. This tree points to the rock door that hides Box #5. There is a sister tree here too.

OK go back the way you came and when you get to the rail bed take a right. Soon the dirt bikes will take a right down a hill. You will be going straight on the rail bed. HARD TO SEE HERE. From where these 2 paths split, count 9 steps Right Foot only. Turn left and you should see a 4 sister tree. Next to this tree under some pieces of railroad tie is Box #6. [NOTE FROM ROCKLUN: There's a VERY steep drop behind the tree--please be careful!]

AT this point you will turn around because following the rail bed is VERY DANGEROUS AND THE BRIDGE IS GONE. If you follow the dirt bikes bring a set of clothes. (LOTS OF WATER AND MUD.)

Ok walk back towards your car. Go over the old bridge again and walk back to the power lines. Just before you walk under the power lines, take the side trail on the left. Walk on this trail a short way to where it splits. At the split, bear left and take approximately 38 steps along the trail. Stop and face left. Look for an old fallen log with one end on the edge of the trail. Follow the log to its root end and look there, under a couple of rocks, for Box #7.

Return to the RR trail and go left, under the power lines. Continue walking back toward your car.

***NOTE FROM ROCKLUN: Due to construction, I believe Box 8 is now missing.***

OK Box #8 is kind of a mystery box. You have been here before and found a box. You have to stand with your back to the rocks I mentioned earlier. From here, take a reading of 130 degrees and walk across to another tree that is an oak tree and find Box #8 under some small rocks.