Urbexone

big artillery bunker of WW II and after

After a long time, we decied to plan a new big trip. After some serach in the internet we found this artillery site. This site was not so bad stripped by copper thiefs and some parts were held up in service up to 1998.

But not all the inventory was updated during the time between 1930 (construction of the site) and abandonment in 1998. Some parts are still original like the kitchen:

And these parts are often nearly untouched!

And other parts are likely some years newer

The army also installed some new cable trays through the complete gallery (the grey modern style mounts in the upper left/right):

After the visit of the next site, we know why the put the new cables into this bunker. Read the eassy [] for further informations.

Also the old diesel engines were in nearly good shap. Only the generators were badly stripped

some big switches were already still there in nice condition

All other photos can be found in the Album

LostPlace-Tour 3

Our third trip was the longest trip until now. We visited a lot of different locations and took the time we need for every expedition

We made a lot of nice pictures and collected a lot of new impressions. This time the weather was really nice, some times a little bit to hot but not such as bad as on our second trip.

Places we visited (click in the picture for the essay):

Museum Hackenberg (A19):

Big Site of WWII:

The Old Oxygen Facility:

Old German Fortress:

Museum Fort Guentrange:

All the small sites we visited:

Small sites of the 3rd trip

Like on our first tour, we visited a lot of small locations. Some were very interesting some a little bit less. I took some photos, but not enough to create an own album for every site. So I decided to upload them toghter in one album. Here are some of the best pictures:

Most of them were a type called "casemattes" or "abri". Nothing really special, not so large as the big site we visited. But also worth a visit.

We also made some pictures of the waste water system and took another try to understand what the constructors build up there...

...but we did not understand it! A lot of water and vent pipes and it seems as the had a big problem ones the container underneath the toilets were full.

Enjoy visiting the album!

Le Fort De Guentrange

During the 3rd trip we visited 2 museums. The first one was Hackenberg, the secound one the fort of Guentrange. Also build up in the early 1900s but much better shape than The Old German Fort.

We were in this area for some other reasons and going around, making some pictures of the outside, when we found a sign about a guided tour through the building on weekends.

So we decided to visit this side again some days later....

The inside was really amazing! The association of the fort kept the original old diesel enginens and the backoven in service!

Badly the were not allowed to start the engine in public, but the showed us a little film of it! Really intresting and amazing. The original old switchboard and the rotary bassed AC/DC converter is also already there....

Original the had a DC based power curcuit, buffered by batteries to kept the light on in case the public power grid fails and the diesel generatores were not already in service.

During the over 3h tour through the fort we visited an old fighting battery with an exploded colch

This did not happened because of an accident, the americans did this to make the colch unusable for the germans...

In the inside was also a nice little museum with original wapons and uniforms of the first and secound world war. 

The kitchen (with an old meal chart) was also shown

From the top of the building we had a beautiful view over the city of Thionville

Normaly it is not allowed to make photos inside, but I asks and because of the small group and a nice little talk later they allowed my to take some pictures.....

Old German Fortress (build ~1900)

During our third trip [link] we also decided to visit an old German fortress. This location was the complete oposite to the other sites we visited. This fortress is not complete in the orginal shape, ist was reused and rebuilt during the first and second worldwar but it is something special.

We had to walk some kilometers to reach the old build on top of a little hill. Finding the entrance was not very difficult, we just had to follow the traces of alle the other spotters.

At the inside we were very surprised about the paintings and writings on the walls:

As you can see, some power and telephone wires were later installed. The central heating system is completly original.

The also had 6 old diesel engines (all had been removed) for feeding the fort with power. These were one of the first diesel engines ever build in the world! The diesel engine was invented in 1893!

The old main kitchen:

There is also a big baking oven to make fresh bread every day.

The tunnel to one of the fighting batteries:

After I took that picture my camera battery went dead. Not only empty, dead! I changed it, and the next one went dead. Both ones were about 7 month old not so often charged.

So thats the reason, why sere are no more pictures of this location. All my other batteries were 150km away at the campside.

Beeing back home I asked Canon for a repair. The said "no" because camera batteries are "wearing merterial". Ahh OK. So the should went dead after half a year? So I gonna buy the cheap ones on Amazon.... -.-

Old Oxygen Facility - 2

These pictures were made during our second trip to the Old Oxygen Facility. These time I had the complete equipment with me and played a bit with the camera.

I started playing with the black&white mode while my partner was playing with our climbing gear ( That is the reason, why I have pictures from "above").

Very bad that this building degenerates very fast and even no one does care about ist. Luckily there was not so much rubbish as normal is in such an area.

Even the nature is getting its space back...

There was also a nice very old crane on the celling!

Very nice really old school electric circuits!

Gros Ouvrage of World War 2

This location was one of the main reasons for our 3rd trip. It was one of the biggest sites along the border and held up in service during the cold war. Some parts (esp. the kitchen) has been removed for showing them in museums like Hackenberg.

Finding the entrance was not so easy, because we parked the car downtown in the village not to catch someones eyes on our plan. Some other urbexers drove through the forest and got cought up by the police. So ewen if you have got a 4WD-car this is not a good idea...

After taking the stairs to go into the underground we enjoyed a lot of new impressions

The most interesting area was the power plant. Some of the old diesel engines were still in good condition. Bringing some new oil, fresh diesel and compressed air (for the starter) and you can fire up the engines (we even thought...).

At this trip even one of my best photos arised.

This one was really contingency. We walked through the switchboard plant and I played a little bit with my camera, took the photo, checked it on the LCD and just thought "well...looks a little bit nice". Later at the campside I made a backup of the storage card and looked at this picture on the notebook screen. All the effort was it worth!

Gros Ouvrage Hackenberg (A19)

Not really an urban expedition but close to one. During the preparation of our third trip, I found this museum: Gros Ouvrage Hackenberg (A19) The admission was not so cheap but it was worth it! The guides were in French, English and German. During the guidance we were driven through the site with the original ammunition train. Very spectacle.

They also running one of the old diesel engines for feeding the bunker with electricity. Very interesting. The old engines are not as loud as we decided. For distributing the power to the units, they are also using the old cables, converters and switchs. A lot of the equipment was buid in the early 40s, in some parts very scary for me...

Inside the bunker, they have also build up a small museum with lots of guns und original martieral of WW II.

You can also visit the outside and see what the Germans and the Americans did with the concrete of bloc 8

The guides also showed us the function of the different "colches" and mortars...

LostPlace-Tour 2

Because of the snow and the short time (we had only 3 days) we only vistited a lot of small locations and only one big site.

Places we visited (click in the picture for the essay):

Big bunker of WorldWar 2:

All the other stuff:

Another big site of WW 2

This site was the main reason why we came back into this area. We know that it is really hugh with a lot of inventory in it, This bunker was hold in service until the late 80s. It was designed for about 600 persons and were in the traditional design. The main gallery is one of the deepest and longest!

It was the snowiest day of the year and we had do drive over some dirt roads to reach the site.

Also we had big problems with the snow. We had to walk over an half an hour because we nearly got stuck with the car.

But all the effort was worth it! The site was amazing. Badly stripped by copper and steel thefes, but some of the engines, the ventilation system and the tracks of the railway were already in the underground.

It is a very large location, we were over 7 hours down into the underground.

This was also the first time we suddenly met other urbexers in such a location. We were a little bit frightened as we saw suddenly light at the other end of the tunnel.

And this also was the first time we had a little accident. My partner overlook the waterfilled service pit for the locomotives and fell into it. The water was nearly frozen....

Both were very scary experiences.....

After such a long time downstairs we had to walk another 30min through the snow to get back to the car. We were very happy as we arrived at the campsite, having a hot shower and cooking a nice meal.