Report - Packin' Heat, Manchester - July 2013.

[Ojay]

Packin' Heat, Manchester

First discovered by Littlemike & Userscott in 2008 Packin' Heat is essentially a balancer and another point in the sewerage system where the main purpose is to control the flow between the 2 Davyhulme Outfall sewers 'A' & 'B'

A 3.6m RBP serves as an overflow to balance the 'A' & 'B' sewers which run parallel (around 70m apart) at this point

Here a City Engineers picture taken from the archives that provided one of the better leads in recent years

Myself and nickindroy were out recently stocking up on alcohol and evading the scorchio temperatures in Mancunia

Suitably geared up, we dropped into the main chamber via a laddered access shaft just off a busy highway

Once down a side entry tunnel connects the main chamber

Here a 'L' shaped walkway allows one to inspect/maintain the machinery which sits about 3m above the 'A' outfall sewer which runs directly under the road as it makes it's way towards the nearby Wwtw

Essentially an underground motorised control room, used for lowering the Penstocks (P6/P7)

During capacity the system can be controlled electronically by either raising or lowering P6/P7 accordingly to divert down either trunk as and when required


Below the machinery room, the Davyhulme 'A' Outfall sewer flows quietly in today's summer temperatures via a 4.2m RBP

P6

P7

Further upstream of the trunk

On the other trunk (Davyhulme 'B') sits a similar disused chamber home to 2 more large penstocks (P8/P9) no longer in use and rusted into a raised position

Sadly we could not budge the heavy lid due to recent developments, however we did manage to drop into the maintenance shafts which serve both penstocks

The oxygen level dropped a good 1% whilst down here, and it was too confined and dusty to piss about with the dslr

I grabbed a couple of flashtastics on the phone whilst nick was on traffic control above ground, before bailing..


P8

P9

Outta here

​