diff --git a/astroquery/vamdc/__init__.py b/astroquery/vamdc/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3931496608
--- /dev/null
+++ b/astroquery/vamdc/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+# Licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license - see LICENSE.rst
+"""
+VAMDC molecular line database
+"""
+from astropy import config as _config
+from astropy.config import paths
+import os
+
+
+class Conf(_config.ConfigNamespace):
+    """
+    Configuration parameters for `astroquery.vamdc`.
+    """
+
+    timeout = _config.ConfigItem(60, "Timeout in seconds")
+
+    cache_location = os.path.join(paths.get_cache_dir(), 'astroquery/vamdc',)
+
+conf = Conf()
+
+from .core import Vamdc, VamdcClass
+
+__all__ = ['Vamdc', 'VamdcClass',
+           'Conf', 'conf',
+           ]
diff --git a/astroquery/vamdc/core.py b/astroquery/vamdc/core.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c97e1ff201
--- /dev/null
+++ b/astroquery/vamdc/core.py
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+# Licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license - see LICENSE.rst
+from __future__ import print_function
+import time
+import os.path
+import getpass
+import keyring
+import numpy as np
+import re
+import tarfile
+import string
+import requests
+import sys
+from pkg_resources import resource_filename
+from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
+
+from astropy.extern.six.moves.urllib_parse import urljoin, urlparse
+from astropy.extern.six import iteritems
+from astropy.extern import six
+from astropy.table import Table, Column
+from astropy import log
+from astropy.utils.console import ProgressBar
+from astropy import units as u
+import astropy.io.votable as votable
+
+from ..exceptions import (RemoteServiceError, TableParseError,
+                          InvalidQueryError)
+from ..utils import commons, system_tools
+from ..utils.process_asyncs import async_to_sync
+from ..query import BaseQuery
+from . import conf
+from . load_species_table import species_lookuptable
+
+__doctest_skip__ = ['VamdcClass.*']
+
+
+@async_to_sync
+class VamdcClass(BaseQuery):
+
+    TIMEOUT = conf.timeout
+    CACHE_LOCATION = conf.cache_location
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        super(VamdcClass, self).__init__()
+
+        from vamdclib import nodes as vnodes
+        from vamdclib import request as vrequest
+        from vamdclib import specmodel
+
+        self._vnodes = vnodes
+        self._vrequest = vrequest
+
+        self._nl = vnodes.Nodelist()
+        self._cdms = self._nl.findnode('cdms')
+
+        self.specmodel = specmodel
+
+    @property
+    def species_lookuptable(self, cache=True):
+        """
+        As a property, you can't turn off caching....
+        """
+        if not hasattr(self, '_lut'):
+            self._lut = species_lookuptable(cache=cache)
+
+        return self._lut
+
+    def query_molecule(self, molecule_name, chem_re_flags=0, cache=True):
+        """
+        Query for the VAMDC data for a specific molecule
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        molecule_name: str
+            The common name (including unicode characters) or the ordinary
+            molecular formula (e.g., CH3OH for Methanol) of the molecule.
+        chem_re_flags: int
+            The re (regular expression) flags for comparison of the molecule
+            name with the lookuptable keys
+        cache: bool
+            Use the astroquery cache to store/recover the result
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        result: `vamdclib.request.Result`
+            A vamdclib Result object that has a data attribute.  The result
+            object has dictionary-like entries but has more functionality built
+            on top of that
+        """
+
+        myhash = "{0}_re{1}".format(molecule_name, chem_re_flags)
+        myhashpath = os.path.join(self.CACHE_LOCATION,
+                                  myhash)
+        if os.path.exists(myhashpath) and cache:
+            with open(myhashpath, 'r') as fh:
+                xml = fh.read()
+            result = self._vrequest.Result()
+            result.Xml = xml
+            result.populate_model()
+        else:
+            species_id_dict = self.species_lookuptable.find(molecule_name,
+                                                            flags=chem_re_flags)
+            if len(species_id_dict) == 1:
+                species_id = list(species_id_dict.values())[0]
+            else:
+                raise ValueError("Too many species matched: {0}"
+                                 .format(species_id_dict))
+             
+            request = self._vrequest.Request(node=self._cdms)
+            query_string = "SELECT ALL WHERE VAMDCSpeciesID='%s'" % species_id
+            request.setquery(query_string)
+            result = request.dorequest()
+            
+            if cache:
+                with open(myhashpath, 'w') as fh:
+                    xml = fh.write(result.Xml)
+
+        return result
+
+        # example use of specmodel; return to this later...
+        #Q = self.specmodel.calculate_partitionfunction(result.data['States'],
+        #                                  temperature=tex)[species_id]
+
+
+Vamdc = VamdcClass()
diff --git a/astroquery/vamdc/load_species_table.py b/astroquery/vamdc/load_species_table.py
index 673d9d4a0d..6d88aa919d 100644
--- a/astroquery/vamdc/load_species_table.py
+++ b/astroquery/vamdc/load_species_table.py
@@ -1,29 +1,49 @@
 # Licensed under a 3-clause BSD style license - see LICENSE.rst
 from astropy import log
+import os
+import json
 from ..splatalogue.load_species_table import SpeciesLookuptable
-
-
-def species_lookuptable():
-
-    log.info("Loading molecular line ID database")
-
-    from vamdclib import nodes
-    from vamdclib import request as r
-
-    nl = nodes.Nodelist()
-    nl.findnode('cdms')
-    cdms = nl.findnode('cdms')
-
-    request = r.Request(node=cdms)
-
-    # Retrieve all species from CDMS
-    result = request.getspecies()
-    molecules = result.data['Molecules']
-
-    lutdict = {"{0} {1}".format(molecules[key].ChemicalName,
-                                molecules[key].OrdinaryStructuralFormula):
-               molecules[key].VAMDCSpeciesID
-               for key in molecules}
-    lookuptable = SpeciesLookuptable(lutdict)
+from . import Conf
+
+def species_lookuptable(cache=True):
+    """
+    Get a lookuptable from chemical name + OrdinaryStructuralFormula to VAMDC
+    id
+    """
+
+    if not os.path.exists(Conf.cache_location):
+        os.makedirs(Conf.cache_location)
+
+    lut_path = os.path.join(Conf.cache_location,
+                            'species_lookuptable.json')
+    if os.path.exists(lut_path) and cache:
+        log.info("Loading cached molecular line ID database")
+        with open(lut_path, 'r') as fh:
+            lutdict = json.load(fh)
+        lookuptable = SpeciesLookuptable(lutdict)
+    else:
+        log.info("Loading molecular line ID database")
+
+        from vamdclib import nodes as vnodes
+        from vamdclib import request as vrequest
+
+        nl = vnodes.Nodelist()
+        nl.findnode('cdms')
+        cdms = nl.findnode('cdms')
+
+        request = vrequest.Request(node=cdms)
+
+        # Retrieve all species from CDMS
+        result = request.getspecies()
+        molecules = result.data['Molecules']
+
+        lutdict = {"{0} {1}".format(molecules[key].ChemicalName,
+                                    molecules[key].OrdinaryStructuralFormula):
+                   molecules[key].VAMDCSpeciesID
+                   for key in molecules}
+        lookuptable = SpeciesLookuptable(lutdict)
+        if cache:
+            with open(lut_path, 'w') as fh:
+                json.dump(lookuptable, fh)
 
     return lookuptable