The Treasure in the Cabinet

Are you familiar with geocaching? Geocaching can be simply described as a kind of modern treasure hunt with GPS equipment or smartphones. Some people (geocachers) hide a tin or a container with a logbook, and post the coordinates of this hiding place in the internet. Other geocachers set off to find the hiding place with the help of these coordinates and a GPS smartphone. If successful, they enter their codename and the date of the find in the logbook. Similar to the entry in the summit book when you reach the mountain peak. If you would like to know what this has to do with HANNING & KAHL, read on. By Ruben Vorwald

At Dresdner Verkehrsbetriebe (DVB), an old HANNING & KAHL control cabinet had been taken out of service and was heading for disposal. Then Niklas Lindemann, DVB tram repair team, had an idea: “Geocache in the control cabinet“. The first task was to empty the control cabinet which had previously held a point controller and needed to be revamped. After all, the treasure had clocked up quite a few years of service and even a HANNING & KAHL control cabinet can use a make-over after such a long time. Ideas were collected. Through his work in tram repairs, Mr Lindemann had a wide range of options. The motto for the interior was instantly clear. A geocache public-transport style. Bent holding bars and straps, defective stop-request switches, worn seat coverings. Using these and many other gimmicks from trams, Niklas Lindemann constructed a geocache control cabinet with interior lighting via different lamps and a small secret compartment containing the logbook. 

Power supply for the lighting is supplied by a car battery which is regularly charged by the geocacher. DVB info flyers are also hidden in the cache. 

Today, the cabinet is no longer directly on the road; it has now been mounted on a self-made concrete base slightly out of the line of vision of curious muggles (people who do not engage in geocaching). 

We at HANNING & KAHL thank Niklas Lindemann for this great geocache. If you would like to hunt for the treasure in the cabinet,this Link leads to further information.