Right, I've not posted a report for about ten years (or something) so felt I ought to contribute. These are a few shots from our recent trip across to Belgium to hit loads of creamy industrial dereliction. Visited with Goldie87 and my wife. All of the photos are shot with a 28mm prime on grain-tastic poundland film
It started off pretty badly, with the M1 badly snowed under and at a standstill due to an accident. We were sat in the same place for three hours, which meant that by the time we were moving we had already missed the ferry and still had two hours to go. About five miles later the car started intermittently making nasty screeching noises and losing power, turns out the cold had killed off the power steering fluid and chewed up the auxiliary belt, so £150 worth of garage bills and another three hours later we were back on the move. That's what you get for buying shit cars off of Gumtree I suppose.
As soon as we got into Belgium we headed to the hotel having had to write the first day off, and immediately headed into Leuven, where we drank strong beer and ate frites with plenty of samourai sauce. Could be worse.
The next day we headed straight to our first target of the day. It probably has some stupid codename but for the purposes of this, it's a cokeworks. A bloody massive one that only closed very recently. Aside from a little bit of cable stripping evidence there was little to suggest that many people had been here and the place was in very good condition.
After here we headed back to the car and set the satnav for the next location, but upon setting off it became apparent that the car now had a terrible misfire and wouldn't go above 40mph. It seemed like fuel starvation so the first thing I decided to do was change the fuel filter. A few poorly spoken phonecalls later, we were on the way to a car parts shop, where I used google translate to somehow order the correct part. Then it turned out that the filter was located between the rear axle and the boot floor and could only be changed from below. Great. Cue several hours of driving around looking for high kerbs or anything to raise the car up. But there was nothing. So we limped the car to the next location via a lorry garage, who were very helpful and allowed me unsupervised use of their workshop and wouldn't let me pay them. You wouldn't get that in the UK!
So after changing the fuel filter and finding out that the misfire remained we again limped the car to the hotel via a lead I had been meaning to check out for years - A very old boiler making factory. Little remained apart from the maintenance stores and drawing offices, but it was rather nice nonetheless.
The next day after getting the car diagnosed and repaired at a garage (another £150, it was the coil pack) we headed to our location for the day. This place made forging and rolling machinery for the numerous steelworks in the area. Some stripping had taken place compared to previous reports of the place, but many interesting features remained including steam turbines, vast ancient substations, control rooms, decaying offices and huge parts stores. We managed to spend the entire day in here and still could have seen more. In classic style we awkwardly climbed through a window only to find an open door. Typical. Shout out to the Belgians we met in there if you're reading this!
After another evening of strong beer and excellent food we headed to the final location (cheers Joe) which was conveniently located on the way to the ferry. This one was a real gem. Incorrectly codenamed as a power station it is actually a compressor house and dates back to the late 1800s. I would say the electrical gear inside can't be much newer either. After slogging through loads of mud and thorns we found a way in and were immediately rendered very impressed.
So yeah, overall a very expensive trip but these are my favourite type of places so I'm still not disappointed. Hope you enjoyed looking at the photos. Sorry they're all grainy as hell but that's just one of the joys of poundland film (RIP)
It started off pretty badly, with the M1 badly snowed under and at a standstill due to an accident. We were sat in the same place for three hours, which meant that by the time we were moving we had already missed the ferry and still had two hours to go. About five miles later the car started intermittently making nasty screeching noises and losing power, turns out the cold had killed off the power steering fluid and chewed up the auxiliary belt, so £150 worth of garage bills and another three hours later we were back on the move. That's what you get for buying shit cars off of Gumtree I suppose.
As soon as we got into Belgium we headed to the hotel having had to write the first day off, and immediately headed into Leuven, where we drank strong beer and ate frites with plenty of samourai sauce. Could be worse.
The next day we headed straight to our first target of the day. It probably has some stupid codename but for the purposes of this, it's a cokeworks. A bloody massive one that only closed very recently. Aside from a little bit of cable stripping evidence there was little to suggest that many people had been here and the place was in very good condition.
After here we headed back to the car and set the satnav for the next location, but upon setting off it became apparent that the car now had a terrible misfire and wouldn't go above 40mph. It seemed like fuel starvation so the first thing I decided to do was change the fuel filter. A few poorly spoken phonecalls later, we were on the way to a car parts shop, where I used google translate to somehow order the correct part. Then it turned out that the filter was located between the rear axle and the boot floor and could only be changed from below. Great. Cue several hours of driving around looking for high kerbs or anything to raise the car up. But there was nothing. So we limped the car to the next location via a lorry garage, who were very helpful and allowed me unsupervised use of their workshop and wouldn't let me pay them. You wouldn't get that in the UK!
So after changing the fuel filter and finding out that the misfire remained we again limped the car to the hotel via a lead I had been meaning to check out for years - A very old boiler making factory. Little remained apart from the maintenance stores and drawing offices, but it was rather nice nonetheless.
The next day after getting the car diagnosed and repaired at a garage (another £150, it was the coil pack) we headed to our location for the day. This place made forging and rolling machinery for the numerous steelworks in the area. Some stripping had taken place compared to previous reports of the place, but many interesting features remained including steam turbines, vast ancient substations, control rooms, decaying offices and huge parts stores. We managed to spend the entire day in here and still could have seen more. In classic style we awkwardly climbed through a window only to find an open door. Typical. Shout out to the Belgians we met in there if you're reading this!
After another evening of strong beer and excellent food we headed to the final location (cheers Joe) which was conveniently located on the way to the ferry. This one was a real gem. Incorrectly codenamed as a power station it is actually a compressor house and dates back to the late 1800s. I would say the electrical gear inside can't be much newer either. After slogging through loads of mud and thorns we found a way in and were immediately rendered very impressed.
So yeah, overall a very expensive trip but these are my favourite type of places so I'm still not disappointed. Hope you enjoyed looking at the photos. Sorry they're all grainy as hell but that's just one of the joys of poundland film (RIP)
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