This actually began back in February at Ho Man Tin station with Monkey, having made it to track level before having to make a swift exit, I always felt that I needed to have another proper go at it.
In the meantime I discovered that the tracks were completed, energised and already being used to test trains. The potential to find a train laid up in one of the tunnels meant that this was now firmly at the top of the list.
Railway Tunnelling and Track Works
The structural works for the railway tunnels between Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa have been completed. Following the connection of the overhead lines and the completion of trackside equipment , train testing has begun in tunnels between Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa since late January 2016.
A return visit allowed us enough time to see that the sliding track doors had all been installed and showed u that there was a four line junction just beyond the end of that platform. We had a quick go at opening them before seeing workers milling about at the far end of the track and again bailing.
Over the next week I organised a key to operate the interlocks for the track doors (8mm square if you're wondering) and come the weekend we were again heading for the tracks. This time we didn't even get to the bottom of the stairs before encountering workers again. A fourth visit with Gone, Sho and Jimmy ended at the track level when a worker walked down a set of stairs 10 m away and somehow didn't see us skulking at the end of the platform and the next week again ended in worker based failure.
We decided that a new approach might be the answer and decided to try entering at Whampoa and walking the tracks for 1km back to Ho Man Tin and the junction.
Whampoa Station (WHA) is located within the developed area of Whampoa Garden immediately adjacent to the stern of The Whampoa (Ship) which is a symbol of identity for the area and its history. The station consists of a platform tunnel between two separate concourses and is mainly underground except for the entrances and ventilation shafts. The West Concourse located at the junction of Hung Hom Road and Tak Man Street while the East Concourse located along Tak On Street and crossed by Shung King and Tak Ting Streets.
There are four entrances proposed for the station:
In the meantime I discovered that the tracks were completed, energised and already being used to test trains. The potential to find a train laid up in one of the tunnels meant that this was now firmly at the top of the list.
Railway Tunnelling and Track Works
The structural works for the railway tunnels between Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa have been completed. Following the connection of the overhead lines and the completion of trackside equipment , train testing has begun in tunnels between Yau Ma Tei and Whampoa since late January 2016.
A return visit allowed us enough time to see that the sliding track doors had all been installed and showed u that there was a four line junction just beyond the end of that platform. We had a quick go at opening them before seeing workers milling about at the far end of the track and again bailing.
Over the next week I organised a key to operate the interlocks for the track doors (8mm square if you're wondering) and come the weekend we were again heading for the tracks. This time we didn't even get to the bottom of the stairs before encountering workers again. A fourth visit with Gone, Sho and Jimmy ended at the track level when a worker walked down a set of stairs 10 m away and somehow didn't see us skulking at the end of the platform and the next week again ended in worker based failure.
We decided that a new approach might be the answer and decided to try entering at Whampoa and walking the tracks for 1km back to Ho Man Tin and the junction.
Whampoa Station (WHA) is located within the developed area of Whampoa Garden immediately adjacent to the stern of The Whampoa (Ship) which is a symbol of identity for the area and its history. The station consists of a platform tunnel between two separate concourses and is mainly underground except for the entrances and ventilation shafts. The West Concourse located at the junction of Hung Hom Road and Tak Man Street while the East Concourse located along Tak On Street and crossed by Shung King and Tak Ting Streets.
There are four entrances proposed for the station:
- Entrances A1 and A2 are located at Hung Hom Road and connect to the West Concourse. Ventilation louvers are integrated with Entrance A1.
- Entrance B1 is located at Shung King Street opposite to The Whampoa (Ship) and connects to the East Concourse.
- Entrance B2 serves the Tak On Street and Tak Ting Street road junction. Air intake louver is integrated on top of the entrance.
In addition, subway / covered walkway / footbridge will be provided to enhance pedestrian connectivity from the station to Ho Man Tin and Oi Man Estates.
The station will be constructed by cut & cover method. Excavated spoil will be carted away to the barging point for disposal and the permanent structures will be built bottom-up using conventional insitu concrete construction.
After a quick check topside of the various entrances, we chose one and headed down.
Reaching the bottom we were able to hear various noises from workers and machinery not so far away.
To the right here is the platform and what will be the stations main control room.
We elected to avoid the platform and took a side passage into the plant and E&M area of the station.
Passing various rooms and control systems we carried on into the station and hoped for the best.
Air conditioning and ventilation.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HTLEUr]
Switchboard and circuit breakers.
Track status display and control system.
Emergency power battery room.
Main distribution room and possibly track power circuits.
Finally!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2xA9]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJmTQ]
Opening the door we realised we were now in the overrun tunnel beyond the station. Looking left was a dead end with the emergency buffers.
Looking to the right was the tunnel to the platform.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJnL1]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJoyd]
So far everything was going well, there wasn't too much noise from the platform and apparently no workers were on the tracks, so we began heading to the platform to see if it was going to be possible to pass it.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2GGf]
After what seemed like an age of creeping below the platform communicating with sign language and hiding overtime a worker came close to the doors, we had made it into the next section of tunnel.
1000m to Ho Man Tin and the junction we were after. Note the rails here are now shiny and not rusted.
About half way along the tunnel there was a heavy sliding door to the right, opening it to see what was behind, we found ourselves in a second overrun tunnel.
Carrying along this felt safer than the main running tunnel, should workers step off the platforms to either side, we would be more hidden and would hopefully have a head start to make a run for it.
Eventually the overrun tunnel opened out into the junction we were looking for, four different sections of track crossed over along with their overhead power supply. The station ahead is Ho Man Tin again with Whampoa slightly less than 1km behind us.
Deciding against trying to exit through Ho Man Tin again we happily headed back down the overrun tunnel towards Whampoa.
Having reached the door through to the running tunnel again we stopped to pack up and get ready for the exit gauntlet of workers again. If you've ever spent time in these kind of environments, you'll know that there are always a lot of different noises going on constantly. Pumps clanging and banging, workers in the distance and of course hundreds of extraction and ventilation fans.
This was a brand new noise. It could maybe have been a particularly large vent fan, a kind of rumbling whirring sound, but much, much louder.
Pushing the heavy door across I looked back along the track towards Whampoa, where I could now see a light at the end of the tunnel, Unfortunately for us, it wasn't playing along with the usual idiom. In fact there were two lights, and even worse they were attached to the front of the train which was sat at the platform making the noise we could hear.
Fuck!
After what felt like about a week, but was probably more like thirty seconds, nothing more had happened, no new noise, no workers and no movement. We made the call to set of running the couple of hundred metres back to the Whampoa platform and hope we were distant enough to not be seen.
We made it less than twenty metres before I looked back and saw the lights were not only moving now, but were accelerating furiously towards us. We sprinted back to the doorway and managed to get through before the train was too close, only now there was a new problem, the sliding door had previously needed quite an effort to open, but now the air being pistoned through the tunnel by the train was forcing the door open, now it took a serious effort to close it!
The train thundered past and carried on towards the platform ahead, as it receded though we became aware of another new noise, looking back along the overrun tunnel we were in we saw a second train slowly heading straight towards us, we flattened against the door and hoped that the stop would keep the driver too far back to see us there. Once it had stopped and no one had come to see what the fuck two guys were doing hiding there at 3am. we were able to take stock of what was going on, the decision was made to wait for the first train to come back and then as soon as it passed just run for the station and hope we weren't seen.
With the door wedged open a crack I watched the train passing us again, but sods law would dictate that the driver was in the rear cabin looking back along the track we wanted to run along. That was going to seriously cut into the time we had to make it back past the next platform.
Once we felt the train was far enough away we were straight into the tunnel sprinting like never before, as we closed in on the relative safety of the platform we heard the train stop again at the far platform. As we reached the platform again we slowed slightly and began doing that kind of waddling bent over run you do when you're trying to move quickly but keep below whatever you're hiding behind. Still worrying about getting out without being seen at this point.
We were probably fifty metres into the platform when we heard the train start heading back towards us.
Here's a few figures to try to quantify the depth of the ensuing bowel movement-
MTR trains travel at up to 80kmh and accelerate so hard even fully loaded you'll often see people fall over as they leave a station. The platforms are 250m long and as I mentioned earlier the next station is 1km away.
For arguments sake, and not allowing for acceleration and braking, 1250m at 80kmh takes 56 seconds.
Now we were fully sprinting, any thought of stealth or workers was completely forgotten, trying to keep moving at full speed, look back and not trip over. It's a little intense.
We made it to the far end of the platform as the train reached the opposite end and managed to dive into a doorway and hide again.
Below was taken as we passed the first time, but shows where we were hiding tucked as far to the right as possible. The camera here would have been facing the front of the train as it stopped at the end of the station. All we could do was hope that the train didn't move forwards into the overrun ahead.
Once again, luck favoured us, no angry driver or workmen came to see what we were doing and eventually the train set off again, leaving us time to sprint back into the overrun and our exit.
Till next time!
[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HTLEUr][url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2xA9][url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJmTQ][url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJnL1][url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJoyd][url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2GGf][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]The station will be constructed by cut & cover method. Excavated spoil will be carted away to the barging point for disposal and the permanent structures will be built bottom-up using conventional insitu concrete construction.
After a quick check topside of the various entrances, we chose one and headed down.
Reaching the bottom we were able to hear various noises from workers and machinery not so far away.
To the right here is the platform and what will be the stations main control room.
We elected to avoid the platform and took a side passage into the plant and E&M area of the station.
Passing various rooms and control systems we carried on into the station and hoped for the best.
Air conditioning and ventilation.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HTLEUr]
Switchboard and circuit breakers.
Track status display and control system.
Emergency power battery room.
Main distribution room and possibly track power circuits.
Finally!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2xA9]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJmTQ]
Opening the door we realised we were now in the overrun tunnel beyond the station. Looking left was a dead end with the emergency buffers.
Looking to the right was the tunnel to the platform.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJnL1]
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HQJoyd]
So far everything was going well, there wasn't too much noise from the platform and apparently no workers were on the tracks, so we began heading to the platform to see if it was going to be possible to pass it.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/HK2GGf]
After what seemed like an age of creeping below the platform communicating with sign language and hiding overtime a worker came close to the doors, we had made it into the next section of tunnel.
1000m to Ho Man Tin and the junction we were after. Note the rails here are now shiny and not rusted.
About half way along the tunnel there was a heavy sliding door to the right, opening it to see what was behind, we found ourselves in a second overrun tunnel.
Carrying along this felt safer than the main running tunnel, should workers step off the platforms to either side, we would be more hidden and would hopefully have a head start to make a run for it.
Eventually the overrun tunnel opened out into the junction we were looking for, four different sections of track crossed over along with their overhead power supply. The station ahead is Ho Man Tin again with Whampoa slightly less than 1km behind us.
Deciding against trying to exit through Ho Man Tin again we happily headed back down the overrun tunnel towards Whampoa.
Having reached the door through to the running tunnel again we stopped to pack up and get ready for the exit gauntlet of workers again. If you've ever spent time in these kind of environments, you'll know that there are always a lot of different noises going on constantly. Pumps clanging and banging, workers in the distance and of course hundreds of extraction and ventilation fans.
This was a brand new noise. It could maybe have been a particularly large vent fan, a kind of rumbling whirring sound, but much, much louder.
Pushing the heavy door across I looked back along the track towards Whampoa, where I could now see a light at the end of the tunnel, Unfortunately for us, it wasn't playing along with the usual idiom. In fact there were two lights, and even worse they were attached to the front of the train which was sat at the platform making the noise we could hear.
Fuck!
After what felt like about a week, but was probably more like thirty seconds, nothing more had happened, no new noise, no workers and no movement. We made the call to set of running the couple of hundred metres back to the Whampoa platform and hope we were distant enough to not be seen.
We made it less than twenty metres before I looked back and saw the lights were not only moving now, but were accelerating furiously towards us. We sprinted back to the doorway and managed to get through before the train was too close, only now there was a new problem, the sliding door had previously needed quite an effort to open, but now the air being pistoned through the tunnel by the train was forcing the door open, now it took a serious effort to close it!
The train thundered past and carried on towards the platform ahead, as it receded though we became aware of another new noise, looking back along the overrun tunnel we were in we saw a second train slowly heading straight towards us, we flattened against the door and hoped that the stop would keep the driver too far back to see us there. Once it had stopped and no one had come to see what the fuck two guys were doing hiding there at 3am. we were able to take stock of what was going on, the decision was made to wait for the first train to come back and then as soon as it passed just run for the station and hope we weren't seen.
With the door wedged open a crack I watched the train passing us again, but sods law would dictate that the driver was in the rear cabin looking back along the track we wanted to run along. That was going to seriously cut into the time we had to make it back past the next platform.
Once we felt the train was far enough away we were straight into the tunnel sprinting like never before, as we closed in on the relative safety of the platform we heard the train stop again at the far platform. As we reached the platform again we slowed slightly and began doing that kind of waddling bent over run you do when you're trying to move quickly but keep below whatever you're hiding behind. Still worrying about getting out without being seen at this point.
We were probably fifty metres into the platform when we heard the train start heading back towards us.
Here's a few figures to try to quantify the depth of the ensuing bowel movement-
MTR trains travel at up to 80kmh and accelerate so hard even fully loaded you'll often see people fall over as they leave a station. The platforms are 250m long and as I mentioned earlier the next station is 1km away.
For arguments sake, and not allowing for acceleration and braking, 1250m at 80kmh takes 56 seconds.
Now we were fully sprinting, any thought of stealth or workers was completely forgotten, trying to keep moving at full speed, look back and not trip over. It's a little intense.
We made it to the far end of the platform as the train reached the opposite end and managed to dive into a doorway and hide again.
Below was taken as we passed the first time, but shows where we were hiding tucked as far to the right as possible. The camera here would have been facing the front of the train as it stopped at the end of the station. All we could do was hope that the train didn't move forwards into the overrun ahead.
Once again, luck favoured us, no angry driver or workmen came to see what we were doing and eventually the train set off again, leaving us time to sprint back into the overrun and our exit.
Till next time!
[/url][/url][/url][/url][/url][/url]
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