I was fascinated by these places when i first heard about them in 2008. The brutal strangeness of them was awesome. I went n did three of them while on a Baltic Road Trip with Snappel in May 2010. Benkar very kindly told us where three of them were. That report is Here.
As that report states, these stuctures function as reinforced back-up power connection points, dotted around the main lines, into which could be shunted a generator train, that once hooked up to the grid from the confines of the Reservkraftstation, could power that section of the railway, if said sections main, unhidden power relay or supply was destroyed by the Soviets.
Theres fifteen of them, that i was finally able to ascertain in 2016, when i spent a week running the names n refs i found on a very vague map through Google till, i managed to locate the remaining twelve. 'Reservkraftstation' is a seemingly made up term, as they were only referred to as 'Substations' during my searches. I marked them all on GE, n put that shit away for three years.
Cut to July 2019, IDM is in Oslo, so i was like, fuck it! Solo 4600km Road Trip. And over the next 7 days i visited all of the remaining twelve and right off the bat, ill tell you that half of them were still in use. The facades of those six follow, as while i tried to get into all of them, i wasnt interested in breaking into operational sites.
In use as a Railway Power Substation
Ditto.
In use as a Car Mechanics/Art Gallery. This station was one of two that had a pair of entrances.
Entrance Two.
This one from what i could tell was reused as Document storage, n its site gates were huge. I was only able to get a photo from above it.
In use as a substation
Ditto.
So with the duds out the way....
This was an odd trip. To start with, i was following Pins i had placed three years earlier, so on quite a few occasions i wondered if i had gotten it wrong, literally following Location details i couldnt remember much about, but in the end i found all twelve. I had a 2600km to drive from Oslo, southwards into Sweden, then Northwards towards Stockholm where i met up with a mob of transiting CC folks, then the long drive up to the very northern top of Sweden, then a another 2000kms drive back down through Norway. I had to drive at least 600kms a day, n would be spending, likely at best, an hour at each site, cos TBH, theres not a lot to each of them. Each has a railspur off the main line, a huge set of doors, then inside, usually a rail platform, lots of busted high voltage gear and a ventilation/escape shaft.
As such, heres the six i found abandoned, with some Roadtrip pics.
Number One was pretty straightforward. Ran into some local kids on my way out. When i told them the next nearest of these places was 230kms away they baulked.
Stone Cage Blast Doors.
This one was rather misty, and has been seen to flood at times.
Sweden is rad for finding nice, easy quiet places to sleep in the car.
The second on was a lot better hidden, but still near a small town
Fuckin' Mad Scientists Lab.
The Platform. Youse'll have to excuse my lightpainting, im real fuckin lazy these days.
Rotting Cammo.
Third One. This is a Twin Station. Neither front doors were unsecured. Main entrance.
Spare Entrance.
So it was off to find the hilltop Vent for access.
Steamy!
This one, unlike most of the rest had joining corridors and larger switchrooms. It was prolly the biggest. Shit lightpainting ahead!
Main Side, looking outwards.
Main Side Looking inwards towards the Switch room.
Expanded inward view.
Spare Tunnel looking outwards.
Map Box. This seems to be just the local line area, n it was very rusty.
The innards of the spare tunnel seemed to be for storage, with some big fucking freezer flaps.
The rear of this one was all bunker corridors and wrecked switchgear all covered in wet and mist, so i left and followed a gorgeous '68 Charger for 30kms. In the next post.
As that report states, these stuctures function as reinforced back-up power connection points, dotted around the main lines, into which could be shunted a generator train, that once hooked up to the grid from the confines of the Reservkraftstation, could power that section of the railway, if said sections main, unhidden power relay or supply was destroyed by the Soviets.
Theres fifteen of them, that i was finally able to ascertain in 2016, when i spent a week running the names n refs i found on a very vague map through Google till, i managed to locate the remaining twelve. 'Reservkraftstation' is a seemingly made up term, as they were only referred to as 'Substations' during my searches. I marked them all on GE, n put that shit away for three years.
Cut to July 2019, IDM is in Oslo, so i was like, fuck it! Solo 4600km Road Trip. And over the next 7 days i visited all of the remaining twelve and right off the bat, ill tell you that half of them were still in use. The facades of those six follow, as while i tried to get into all of them, i wasnt interested in breaking into operational sites.
In use as a Railway Power Substation
Ditto.
In use as a Car Mechanics/Art Gallery. This station was one of two that had a pair of entrances.
Entrance Two.
This one from what i could tell was reused as Document storage, n its site gates were huge. I was only able to get a photo from above it.
In use as a substation
Ditto.
So with the duds out the way....
This was an odd trip. To start with, i was following Pins i had placed three years earlier, so on quite a few occasions i wondered if i had gotten it wrong, literally following Location details i couldnt remember much about, but in the end i found all twelve. I had a 2600km to drive from Oslo, southwards into Sweden, then Northwards towards Stockholm where i met up with a mob of transiting CC folks, then the long drive up to the very northern top of Sweden, then a another 2000kms drive back down through Norway. I had to drive at least 600kms a day, n would be spending, likely at best, an hour at each site, cos TBH, theres not a lot to each of them. Each has a railspur off the main line, a huge set of doors, then inside, usually a rail platform, lots of busted high voltage gear and a ventilation/escape shaft.
As such, heres the six i found abandoned, with some Roadtrip pics.
Number One was pretty straightforward. Ran into some local kids on my way out. When i told them the next nearest of these places was 230kms away they baulked.
Stone Cage Blast Doors.
This one was rather misty, and has been seen to flood at times.
Sweden is rad for finding nice, easy quiet places to sleep in the car.
The second on was a lot better hidden, but still near a small town
Fuckin' Mad Scientists Lab.
The Platform. Youse'll have to excuse my lightpainting, im real fuckin lazy these days.
Rotting Cammo.
Third One. This is a Twin Station. Neither front doors were unsecured. Main entrance.
Spare Entrance.
So it was off to find the hilltop Vent for access.
Steamy!
This one, unlike most of the rest had joining corridors and larger switchrooms. It was prolly the biggest. Shit lightpainting ahead!
Main Side, looking outwards.
Main Side Looking inwards towards the Switch room.
Expanded inward view.
Spare Tunnel looking outwards.
Map Box. This seems to be just the local line area, n it was very rusty.
The innards of the spare tunnel seemed to be for storage, with some big fucking freezer flaps.
The rear of this one was all bunker corridors and wrecked switchgear all covered in wet and mist, so i left and followed a gorgeous '68 Charger for 30kms. In the next post.
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