CME Expedition 8

Location: Porsgrunn, Norway.
Members: 001, 002, 003.
Type: Train Tunnel.
Status: Inactive / Abandoned.

During our first trip to Porsgrunn, we were just snooping around visiting some of the sites we knew about. One of the targets for the day was an old, abandoned industrial train tunnel which runs underneath most of Porsgrunn. The tracks branch of from the main line, run a total stretch of 1883 meters, or 6177 ft. in tunnel before exiting to a large industrial port site.Caveman 003 had wanted to go to this place for a long time after hearing about it. I had been there previously and knew it was easily accessible. After parking the car, and trying not to attract to much attention from a few youngsters playing nearby, we carefully crossed what once would have been a fence, but was now torn down, halfway concealed by small plants. A few feet later our dissappointment was enormous when we saw they had fenced off the tunnel at this previously open end as well. Still bummed out we took some pictures before moving on.

The Tunnel

Locked Tight

Beyond The Gates

You would just love to see the inside of those gates wouldn't you? Well, we are not the first ones here, probably not the last either. Respect goes out where respect is due, so go check their pictures of this place. BarkUE , Olav XO, 28 Days Later . Great pictures by these guys.

Our journey to Porsgrunn would still turn out to be a major success though, 002 noticed something amazing by chance, but i'll keep that for a later post.   

-Caveman 001-

CME Expedition 7

Locations: Porsgrunn, Norway.
Members: 001, 002, 003.
Types: Shelters.
Status: Unknown, Active, Abandoned.

We headed out one sunny day to check out three of Porsgrunn's shelters. There are others, but these have yet to be explored. The first one we actually just stumbled upon. I was waiting for a green light while pointing out the window towards a steep, rocky surface in the middle of town, saying something like "that's the sort of place you'd expect to find a shelter", and lo and behold.. 002 replies "I'll be damned!" There actually was one right there, so obviously we turned the car around and found a place to park. As is usual, this was locked, but there are as mentioned before usually at least one other way in to a place like this. I happened to come across a document concerning regulations when building shelters. The document dating back to 1948 described how a shelter needed to be constructed with one emergency exit for each 100 people it was designed to provide shelter for. So I think we'll be back to this one to have a closer look at the surroundings. One last interesting thing about this place are the hooks, located just above the doors. We haven't encountered these at any of the other shelters we have been to.  

Main Entrance

Hooks

 

Intakes

 

Next up was the command central for civil defence operations in our part of Norway. We were expecting to meet guys at work there, possibly being questioned about what we were doing, snooping around like this. But this late in the evening it was all quiet, they might have been watching us from behind a camera, who knows, but the only ones we ran into were a couple of girls riding around on their bikes. So unless these eight year old girls were undercover, we seemed to have the place to ourselves.

002 & 003 Exploring

Drive In Entrance

Walk In Entrance

Doorway

Pipes Above Drive In Entrance

Last up for the day was a shelter I had driven past countless times, but had sort of just forgotten about. It was about time we took a closer look. 002 & 003 were both eager. By the time I had parked the car, they were already halfway out of their seats and looking for action. I followed close behind, trying to document..

002

Gates & Entrance

Intakes

The Lock Makes Me Suspect This Has Been Closed For A Long Time

 -Caveman 001-

CME Expedition 6

Location: Skien, Norway.
Members: 001, 002, 003.
Type: Shelter.
Status: Abandoned / Buried.

Doing some research about shelters in Skien i stumbled across a document detailing how a company was awarded the contract of emptying, securing, sealing and concealing a disused shelter just ouside of town. The contract was awarded in early june, so time was of the essence. I had my hopes up as I picked up 002 & 003, but my hopes were soon to be shattered. By the looks of things, they had just finished, probably no more than a week before we got there. I went back a week or so later after 002 reported that they had finished covering the entrance with piles of dirt. Next summer, when plants and weeds reclaim the territory, there will most likely be no trace that there has been anything here at all. But the cavemen know about the 650 sq.feet of cave that lies hidden beneath tons of dirt...the cavemen know!!

Meet Destructo

Sealed

Asbesthos

Where's My Hazmat Suit?

Buried & Gone

  -Caveman 001-

CME Expedition 5

Location: Skien, Norway.
Members: 001.
Type: Shelter, Garage.
Status: Active / Re-Used.

This is one of those, "Why didn't I take pictures while I still had the chance?!" type places.
I'm talking about a former bomb shelter complex in the center of town. I was out ordering some take-away the other day, partly as an excuse to take closer look at this place. Besides..I was just plain old hungry. Public parking areas in the center of Skien had long been an issue of debate. Finally a company was started with the aim of constructing a parking garage into the rock, close to the city center. This was seen as a practical solution, much due to the fact that this place was hollow to begin with, as it had previously been a bomb shelter that the government was now trying to sell. How far back the history of this place goes is uncertain. I tried to do some research, and luckily stumbled upon archives concerning the civil defence of this region. That being said, they were still classified until about 2030-2040. (Oh, how I would have loved to take closer look at those.) But what I can say is that what is now the walking entrance/exit (pictures below) used to have gates and double blast proof doors. They refurbished this area and then drilled a drive-in entrance straight into the mountain a few meters up the street. After having been at it for at least a year or so, the new parking garage opened for public use in the spring of 2010. But there were a few complications along the way..(Newsarticle In Norwegian.) For those of you who read the report from Expedition 3, the entrance in the last two pictures of that report is located straight above this garage / former bomb shelter. There are things indicating that there could be more to this parking garage than meets the eye when you come inside, I believe it originally extended further, but I'll get back to that. Enough talk, it's picture time..

Drive-In

Walk-In

The parking area spans at least 3 stories into the ground, or 6 half-floors. If you notice the walls in the next picture, they appear to be just plain rock, covered with concrete. This could turn out to support my theory about this place originaly being larger than what meets the eye, but first..the walls.

The Walls

So when you keep driving down towards the very bottom of this complex, taking u-turns at every floor, all the walls look like those in the picture above, until you get to the bottom floor that is..

Sealed Off?

When you get to the bottom floor and could be expected to take another u-turn you meet this straight, smooth looking wall, in great contrast to the rest of the complex. Could this be a bricked up, sealed off part of the former bomb shelter? I Don't know, I'm only speculating here, but there a few other interesting features in this place. Next  up, a picture of a door that leads further into the mountain in the back of the complex.

Who Knows Where This Goes?

Ok, there are a few more things to substantiate my claims. First off, drawing lines on maps reveals that the main train tunnel through the city, that is mentioned in earlier reports must be right behind this complex somewhere. For many years there have been discussions amongst local politicans about proposals for a new train station located inside this mountain, instead of, just north of the city center where it's presently located. Guess where one of the proposed entrances to this intended train station would be? Yes, exactly where this garage later turned out to be built! Second, I already mentioned above that the two last pictures in report 3 are located above the garage, but it's hard to say where, (if at all) the stairs end up in this parking garage. Third, the rest of the expedition 3 report contains pictures of a complex that is in so close proximity to this garage that it would be rather odd if they weren't connected in one way or another. Fouth, a few meters down the street from the walk-in entrance, and just below the expedition 3 site, we find this little beauty..

Not The Car..The Gate!!

This is confirmed to be the entrance to telecom tunnels. I read a report about former employees of a telecom company that was once located in the building you get a glimpse of to the left. They were back on a reunion type thing, and they got a guided tour of the tunnels. Meaning there is more than just a single room behind this gate. As a last little interesting feature on the outside, I'll leave you with this little door right next to the walk-in entrance. During the bomb shelter years, this door would have been located right inside of the gates and it has these small bolt looking things all over. Imagine the hull of an early 1900's ship and you get the idea..

Heavy Metal

This mountain right in the heart of the city is starting to look like swiss cheese, full of holes..

-Caveman 001-
             

CME Expedition 4

Location: Skien, Norway.
Members: 001, 003, 004.
Type: Shelter.
Status: Abandoned.

When exploring, sometimes you poke around for a while, only hitting dead ends and locked doors. Yet once in a while, Lady Luck works her magic and you manage to find a way in. This was to be one of those occations, and we struck gold! Bigtime...

Having packed flashlights, camera and gear, I fired up the cavemobile and set out to pick up Caveman 003 and 004. It was a bright and sunny evening and we had little expectations about what we might find at the designated location. Once we got there, we geared up and snooped around until we managed to find the main entrance. These were the usual type, double blast proof doors, but with no way of entering. They didn't seem to be locked from the outside though, but still, they wouldn't budge. We decided to take some pictures before we carried on.

Got To Know It To Find It

Main Entrance

Air Intakes

Communication & Cables

Lock

Still, we weren't quite ready to give up. As mentioned in other reports, a location like this usually has more than one way in or out. Due to the fact that this place was heavily overgrown and clearly abandoned, we had to fight our way through branches and debris. Then we found it (...) The secondary entry point, and it was open!!

The Second Entry

I'll just let the pictures of what happened next, do the rest of the talking..

Beyond The Doorway

Inside

One Of The Halls

Mens Room

Vintage Toilets

Sink & Hose

Instruments & Panels

Further Into The Mountain

Inside The Cave

Cave

Blocked Emergency Exit?

Our first complete success! We'll be back for another look, taking some more pictures. There are still unexplored parts and corners of this complex...

-Caveman 001-

CME Expedition 3

Location: Skien, Norway.
Members: 001.
Type: Shelter.
Status: Active / In Use.

Had a little spare time one evening, so went out for a stroll, bringing the camera along. The mission was checking out the outside of what could possibly be the largest shelter complex we have in this city. I know for a fact that this must be big, because a couple of years ago I walked by when they were doing some sort of work in there. The doors were open, and they had this little excavator just inside the blast proof doors. I went over to ask the two guys that were working there if I could have a look just beyond the doorway, but got turned away for lack of security clearance (!) But what I did manage to do was notice that beyond the doors, the tunnel ran as far into the mountain as my eyes could see and there were plenty of doorways leading off to either side. One of those working there could see I was just a curious guy and let me know that amongst other things, this shelter is connected to the train tunnel mentioned in Expedition 1. There are all sorts of rumors about these tunnels and what the complex contains. Most likely there is a whole lot of telecommunications equipement in here. But one thing is clear..they're enormous. As an interesting side note, during a national guard exercise about 10 years ago I walked past and they had guards stationed at all the entrances to this place, and there are quite a few scattered throughout the city. Enough talk..lets get down to business..

Main Entrance

Blast Proof Doors

Turbines

These turbines are huge. It's difficult to get an idea of the size and scale from the pictures. From time to time they start up, make a whole lot of noise and blow out hot air. This supports the rumors that there might be cables, telecomequipment and other stuff that would need cooling down there.

No Parking

Side Entrance

Side Door

Modern Lock

Another Way In?

After rummaging around for a while I found something that could prove to be interesting. There is no telling what could be down here, who knows, there might be a secondary emergency hatch somewhere. There are often more than one way into these places.But as can be seen from the last picture, exploring needs to wait for another time, equipped with better footwear, flashlights and fellow cavemen..

Before heading home I decided to swing by another one of the entrances to this complex, situated relatively close by. I'll let the pictures speak for them selves. There might be several expeditions around this area to find more entrances and trying to find the extent of this complex..

-Caveman 001-

Another Entrance

Down Into The Darkness