24-Jun-2010 -- This report is the first out of two confluences that I visited together with Gordon Spence, the confluence coordinator of Europe and Australia.
A conference participation in Newcastle upon Tyne arose the opportunity to meet Gordon and visit some of “his” degree confluence points. Do you think it can’t be “his”, because confluence points cannot be owned by someone who does not even own the land? Then I can correct you: Gordon takes great care of England’s confluence points, revisits them whenever possible, posts problems if trespassing is needs to be pre-arranged and accompanies confluence hunters coming from all over the world to his points.
This time, we met in York station (me coming by train from Newcastle and Gordon by car from his home). Here, Gordon showed me the York Zero Post of the North Eastern Railway’s lines. This is remarkable, because it is just 10 km from this “Zero Point”.
Gordon drove us to the confluence point – for me an unused convenience. For the last 330 m – the pedestrian navigation part – I was allowed to lead although Gordon would have known better. But it was a pleasant sunny day and we were not in a hurry. After following some tractor tracks, we reached the confluence point in a barley field.
After completion of our visit, we directly drove further south to 53°N 1°W..
CP visit details:
- Beeline distance from car parking: 330 m
- Walking time (incl. return): 45 min
- Time at the CP: 2:55 pm
- Measured height: 21 m
- Position accuracy at the CP: 3 m
- Minimal distance to the CP: 0 m
- Vegetation: In a barley field.
- Distance to a road: 280 m
- Distance to a track: 240 m
- Distance to houses: 180 m (a builders merchants)
- Topography: flat.
- Weather: sunny, 25° C (felt temperature)
- Description of the CP: In an agricultural dominated area 10 km north-east of the old city York.
- Given Name: The Railway Zero Confluence