Trans Europe Express - July 2012

[jST]

In July of 2012, Have I boarded this Trans Europe Express.

Last year, Thompski, James, RaptorJesus and I roadtripped to the Ruhrgebiet in Germany. On our return to the UK we found that we’d only scratched the surface of the goodies that lay there, so immediately began planning the next jaunt... This is a roundup of some of the sites visited in our week of European travelling across Belgium, Holland, Germany, Luxembourg & France. There’ll be some full reports to follow.



Our prime targets were the German and French mines of the Ruhr, Saar & Moselle regions that have been left behind after the sharp decline in European coal production over the last 15 or so years.

We loaded up RJ’s Unmarked Taxi™ and headed towards the continent...



Aside from the mines that were planned, there were a few little bonuses on the way through Belgium:

St Hilarius.

A former monastery on the outskirts of a major Belgian City. I couldn’t really see why it was so funny, especially with the 6 foot tall security nettles stinging the shit out of our faces on the way in.





















Laboratoires d’ horreur.

We’d had a little walk around here last year without fruit, however this time we managed to find a way inside. An eerily strange and somewhat disconcerting place, especially “that room” in the basement filled wall to wall with semi-recognisable animal parts. The smell is something to behold.

















Cont...

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Sint Anna.

Another former monastery in the Netherlands, converted to a Children’s asylum and abandoned some time ago. Dismayed to find it rather trashed, however, it held a fairly pretty chapel.

















After traversing the lowlands, we settled into our Kampfsite for a customary evening of wursts and bier whilst planning the next days ZecheMANIA.

First up was Zeche H, remote and in the middle of a forest. This was an extension or “consolidation” of a larger mine which closed in 2001. A fairly modern affair with a large brick, T-shaped Förderturm and naturally lit Kaue.













Thomps



Fordermaschine





Next was Zeche P (AKA Zeche Glaßfut) where poor old James injured his foot with a large shard of broken Glaß on the way out... Scheduled to be demolished imminently, this mine was in a pretty poor condition. Another winding engine and nice Kaue with miners clothing and possesions still in situ remain... but not for long.



















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On to Zeche SE where we hooked up with Pierre and Becki. We’d visited the pit bank and surrounding buildings here last year but the delicious steam winding engine hall and modern Förderturm had evaded us, not this time.











Forderturm

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The next day we were joined by John Salomon who bravely led us through the rusty derp that is Thyssen Sinterei in Duisburg. It was curiously busy with a pornographic photoshoot and a copper thief both beavering away in their own respective, degenerative manners. Bypassing them, we tramped around in the dust pulling immortal poses at every opportunity until a massive storm forced us to take cover under a tree for what seemed like an age.







“Set the Audi to warpspeed AutobahnKREUZ Herr Salomon...” next destination: Zeche E and moar stocks and steam winders.









Rudi der Prinz.



Changeable weather, STAU and shit derps on the journey down to the Saar meant that we arrived at our primo destination of Kohlenwasche GeeGee rather late on. Far and away my favourite site of the trip...







Schacht 4 (the larger stock on he right) at 90m is apparently the tallest headframe in the world. We climbed the 30 storey internal staircase with glee after contorting our way through a coal conveyor. The prospect of standing atop this monster was within grasp... only to be met with a very firmly locked door at the top. Some swearing and gnashing of teeth later, we climbed his baby brother (pictured left)



“There’s a mine over there duck”



This had closed a week previous and had an almost identical headstock to that at Zeche SE, alas, there was still much activity on site.

Once again we crossed frontiers, this time into France and on to Mine W. This was already massively trashed and our headstock climb was aborted due to staircase failure. The French also have a different design for their Kaue cages which were shot at ISO 25600 due to a classic noob error.









Crossing into Luxembourg (AKA the land of bargain diesel) we had Powerplant AD in our sights. Situated in a (very) live Steel works site, this required some dodging about. The main draw of this site is a 1920’s era steam turbine (not my picture) - Unfortunately the building is undergoing renovation and was full of blokes banging pipes. We had to make do with the Derpy boiler house which was a bit meh.









Back to rural France to check out a Gros Ouvrage of the Maginot line. Almost thwarted by a wild platoon of SecuriVACHES we tumbled our way into this maze of tunnels under the countryside.



Built to defend La France against the potential threat of The Hun invasion following the first world war, this network of defensive bunkers weren’t all that effective against old Adolf in WW2.



Due to time constraints and a couple of unexplained happenings whilst down there, our visit here wasn’t a long one and was limited to the Caserne, workshops and powerhouse.

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Before heading back to our base in Germany we rolled by Laverie PR, which held some unexpected bonus trains alongside the massive mine complex.











Then setting off back towards where people drive on the correct side of the road via Power Station IM(eh) - wasn’t too taken with this place, had derped too hard, I expect if we’d started the trip here it would have been much more impressive.













....



This trip was sponsored by:





It also employed methods: “point a wide angle at all the things” - “massive raging aperture” and “ISO 3200FTW”

Cheers for looking and sorry for the massive post.

Thanks to: Pierre, Joel, Earthmagnified & Mortaldecay

[mr beardy]

Sweet,all the shots are ace. I want to explore Europe

[fenrir]

Impressive stuff sir, I am incredibly jealous!

[ROYALBOB]

Could do with a few more pics. Only jeffing, truly awsome, there you go again with them effing birdcages.
I'm the operator with my pocket calculator, By pressing down a special key, it plays a little melody.

[BA]

Very nice indeed Mr JST

[mrtoby]

proper good all these, I'm major jells too-need a europe trip.