Underground toilets-Pictures recovered for Pete's delectation.

[yen_powell]

12 minutes ago, XTreme said:

You certainly get about a bit Yen.

But why were you walking up a sewer?

I was a trainee in the Main Drainage team for 6 months. I am a bit claustrophobic and I asked to go down one to try and convince myself it was just a passing phase. Not a problem they said, I went to our supply depot and was issued with a yellow rubber immersion suit, super long white socks and thigh length rubber waders (when we still had such things, nowadays you have to find your own stuff and order it yourself). I'll bet the thought of me in that lot is getting you all going. Actually at the manhole I was given a hard hat with head lamp and a belt with a battery pack which gets in the way all the time. They didn't want the suit or waders back for some reason after I came back up and was hosed down to remove the clinging turds?

[XTreme]

Just now, yen_powell said:

I was a trainee in the Main Drainage team for 6 months. I am a bit claustrophobic and I asked to go down one to try and convince myself it was just a passing phase. Not a problem they said, I went to our supply depot and was issued with a yellow rubber immersion suit, super long white socks and thigh length rubber waders (when we still had such things, nowadays you have to find your own stuff and order it yourself). I'll bet the thought of me in that lot is getting you all going. Actually at the manhole I was given a hard hat with head lamp and a belt with a battery pack which gets in the way all the time. They didn't want the suit or waders back for some reason after I came back up and was hosed down to remove the clinging turds?

I hope they paid you time and a turd Yen? 

[skyrider]

3 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I was a trainee in the Main Drainage team for 6 months. I am a bit claustrophobic and I asked to go down one to try and convince myself it was just a passing phase. Not a problem they said, I went to our supply depot and was issued with a yellow rubber immersion suit, super long white socks and thigh length rubber waders (when we still had such things, nowadays you have to find your own stuff and order it yourself). I'll bet the thought of me in that lot is getting you all going. Actually at the manhole I was given a hard hat with head lamp and a belt with a battery pack which gets in the way all the time. They didn't want the suit or waders back for some reason after I came back up and was hosed down to remove the clinging turds?

good work if you can get it 

[yen_powell]

I searched for pictures to give a better idea. This is one being built, possibly a little larger than the one I went through. Water and err.... slurry was about 8 brick courses up from the bottom. Notice the upside down egg shape. That makes them self cleaning because the water flows more quickly and keeps the err sludge from settling too easily. 

[XTreme]

22 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I searched for pictures to give a better idea. This is one being built, possibly a little larger than the one I went through. Water and err.... slurry was about 8 brick courses up from the bottom. Notice the upside down egg shape. That makes them self cleaning because the water flows more quickly and keeps the err sludge from settling too easily. 

So how high was the shit you were wading through Yen?

[Sir Fallsalot]

2 minutes ago, XTreme said:

So how high was the shit you were wading through Yen?

I think he was knee deep in it story of my life 

[yen_powell]

12 minutes ago, XTreme said:

So how high was the shit you were wading through Yen?

Imagine half squatting down with your hands pressed against the ceiling for balance, the water was about half an inch below my small but perfectly formed arse. I was advised that if I got cramp I was just to sit down in the slop. 'Will my waterproof suit keep it on the outside?' I asked. 'No, but the cramp will ease', they answered.

[XTreme]

4 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

Imagine half squatting down with your hands pressed against the ceiling for balance, the water was about half an inch below my small but perfectly formed arse. I was advised that if I got cramp I was just to sit down in the slop. 'Will my waterproof suit keep it on the outside?' I asked. 'No, but the cramp will ease', they answered.

And you asked to go down in this shit Yen? 

[yen_powell]

2 hours ago, XTreme said:

And you asked to go down in this shit Yen? 

I've matured, these days I would send someone else. Of course, nowadays I wouldn't be allowed down, no confined spaces certificate.

Just remembered, I went down the Crossrail working shaft at Blackwall a few years back. An excavation so big and deep it was like a James Bond villain's lair. Another chance to carry an oxygen mask and bottle I wouldn't know how to use and with a metal token around my neck taken from a peg board so they know how many people are down there and that they have all come back at the end of the shift. Apparently they thought they had lost someone once, but he had gone home from the Whitechapel Station end of the tunnelling and forgotten to let them know.

[XTreme]

2 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

I've matured, these days I would send someone else. Of course, nowadays I wouldn't be allowed down, no confined spaces certificate.

Just remembered, I went down the Crossrail working shaft at Blackwall a few years back. An excavation so big and deep it was like a James Bond villain's lair. Another chance to carry an oxygen mask and bottle I wouldn't know how to use and with a metal token around my neck taken from a peg board so they know how many people are down there and that they have all come back at the end of the shift. Apparently they thought they had lost someone once, but he had gone home from the Whitechapel Station end of the tunnelling and forgotten to let them know.

Wow! Any shots taken down there?

[yen_powell]

2 hours ago, XTreme said:

Wow! Any shots taken down there?

No, never had a camera with me, I wasn't meant to be going, got dragged along at the last minute.

It was weird. At the bottom of this deep giant cylindrical hole was a tube tunnel going away for ever in one direction (to the west) but only going for 10 metres in the opposite direction. Up top hundreds of pre-formed quarter circles to line the tunnel were laid out in the order to be used. There was railway track laid, but this was for construction traffic, it would all be ripped up for the permanent way to be laid near the end of works. There was a huge gantry across the top of the open hole with cranes and things hanging off it and every time it was going to move a siren would go off, as I said earlier, like a scene at the end of a James Bond film in the villain's lair. They did say if I came back for a second visit I could travel on one of the construction trains, but it would mean not getting back for about 5 hours as you have to leave at the same point you entered.

[XTreme]

3 minutes ago, yen_powell said:

No, never had a camera with me, I wasn't meant to be going, got dragged along at the last minute.

It was weird. At the bottom of this deep giant cylindrical hole was a tube tunnel going away for ever in one direction (to the west) but only going for 10 metres in the opposite direction. Up top hundreds of pre-formed quarter circles to line the tunnel were laid out in the order to be used. There was railway track laid, but this was for construction traffic, it would all be ripped up for the permanent way to be laid near the end of works. There was a huge gantry across the top of the open hole with cranes and things hanging off it and every time it was going to move a siren would go off, as I said earlier, like a scene at the end of a James Bond film in the villain's lair. They did say if I came back for a second visit I could travel on one of the construction trains, but it would mean not getting back for about 5 hours as you have to leave at the same point you entered.

Must be amazing to see all that!

I'm sure I read somewhere that there's networks of unused underground tunnels running underneath London? Is that right?

[yen_powell]

15 hours ago, XTreme said:

Must be amazing to see all that!

I'm sure I read somewhere that there's networks of unused underground tunnels running underneath London? Is that right?

There's a secret tunnel that starts in Bethnal Green Road. It used to be in the middle of a traffic island, but the footway was built out around it. It is now between these cycle hire racks https://goo.gl/maps/ecoRLjTFC2dzDvc38

It runs to Whitehall amongst other places, a big network. Big enough for a car to drive along if you could get it down there in the first place. A journalist got down there and took pictures in the 70s and wrote an article about them. When I find the link I will post it. They placed gates along it after he did that to stop it happening again.

I and a colleague had the lid up whilst doing a survey in the 90s and underneath is another lid with a huge padlock and a phone number with a warning notice. We rang it and had to make an appointment for them to come and open it. I misssed it, my colleague went down though, said there were communication cables bathed in oil to keep them cool, something like that anyway.

[yen_powell]

Just now, yen_powell said:

There's a secret tunnel that starts in Bethnal Green Road. It used to be in the middle of a traffic island, but the footway was built out around it. It is now between these cycle hire racks https://goo.gl/maps/ecoRLjTFC2dzDvc38

It runs to Whitehall amongst other places, a big network. Big enough for a car to drive along if you could get it down there in the first place. A journalist got down there and took pictures in the 70s and wrote an article about them. When I find the link I will post it. They placed gates along it after he did that to stop it happening again.

I and a colleague had the lid up whilst doing a survey in the 90s and underneath is another lid with a huge padlock and a phone number with a warning notice. We rang it and had to make an appointment for them to come and open it. I misssed it, my colleague went down though, said there were communication cables bathed in oil to keep them cool, something like that anyway.

https://www.duncancampbell.org/menu/journalism/newstatesman/newstatesman-1980/a christmas party for the moles.pdf

There ya go

[XTreme]

Great info there Yen!

Appears this guy is still investigating security, conspiracies, and other related stuff.

Just followed him on Twitter!

[MooN]

you can do guided tours of the parisien sewer network...

https://www.pariszigzag.fr/balades-excursions/balade-paris/visite-des-egouts-de-paris

 

[XTreme]

1 hour ago, MooN said:

you can do guided tours of the parisien sewer network...

https://www.pariszigzag.fr/balades-excursions/balade-paris/visite-des-egouts-de-paris

 

Those sort of guided tours locations take the real atmosphere out of the places though Chris.

I like the suspense of being in a remote abandoned location on your own......and not knowing what you're going to find.

[skyrider]

4 hours ago, XTreme said:

Those sort of guided tours locations take the real atmosphere out of the places though Chris.

I like the suspense of being in a remote abandoned location on your own......and not knowing what you're going to find.

the mind boggles 

[XTreme]

On 21/02/2021 at 20:26, skyrider said:

the mind boggles 

As long as it's not those fucking subhumans from the other forum Lionel! 

[skyrider]

[MooN]

4 hours ago, XTreme said:

Those sort of guided tours locations take the real atmosphere out of the places though Chris.

I'm sure they do Pete but not having Yen's contacts or experience in the "underworld" of public sewerage, I don't have any other way to suggest entry to the delights of the Parisien poo park.

[XTreme]

6 minutes ago, MooN said:

but not having Yen's contacts or experience in the "underworld" of public sewerage,

Yen's a mover and a shaker in the world of shit Chris!

He lives for it!

[yen_powell]

1 hour ago, XTreme said:

Yen's a mover and a shaker in the world of shit Chris!

He lives for it!

You can usually identify one of my work drawings by the turd I always place in it somewhere, it is my signature. Below is one of my drawings followed by a zoom in to each side. I have a turd block, that is to say it was drawn years ago and sits in a library of my stuff and is inserted into any drawing I work on.

[XTreme]

You put a turd into every drawing Yen? 

[yen_powell]

24 minutes ago, XTreme said:

You put a turd into every drawing Yen? 

Only on ones like that which have elevations rather than plan views. My Petticoat Lane market cross section drawing of a trapped road gulley has about 15 coat hangers wedged in it, because that is what the traders do with them rather than take them home, I think i may have put some hyperdermics in there as well, as the drug users get rid of them that way. 

When we were still drawing by hand on tracing paper I had a punk rocker with a mohawk walking across the road with a large stereo on his shoulder. I also did a proper non technical drawing to show my proposals for a market square many many years ago which got put on the front of a leaflet. It had the nutty lollypop lady in it who was always drunk and stopped traffic on days there was no school cos she liked doing it and also my then girlfriend's dad's skip lorry with their jack russell hanging out the window and his company name on the side of the skip. I have a few leaflets as souvenirs in a drawer somewhere so I might be able to take a photo of that one.