Stargate

Someone once said patience is a virtue and maybe they were right, there were some wise words written in The Battle for the Soul of Man...anyway, we have been waiting for over a year to go through the Stargate and many failed attempts have cost dearly in equipment, not to mention getting sick because of the atmosphere.

I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that we would never get close to it, even after some tantalising glimpses but karma was on our side and we even managed to recover some equipment lost months ago (more on that in a future post). The Stargate was reached....and we went through...to new worlds...

Someone shooting me , shooting the Stargate

Tresham College Farewell (Corby George Street Campus)

This isn't your normal 'report' on some derp it's just a quick post for posterity and historical interest on the passing of Tresham College (Corby) George Street Campus.

By the time you read this the building will have been reduced to rubble after standing in the town for 60 years.

It was nothing to look at architecturally and if people were honest it was a tired eyesore of past times. I watched it close and I watched the Tellytubby secca each night as he fed his face with takeaways while scanning the CCTV in his hut before the demo team moved onto site. The place was so lame I didn't bother exploring it (not my bag really) but it deserves a few words as it breathes its last...

Some cut 'n' paste history from the Internets
Portions of text Copyright © 2011 - Olivia Morton (Tresham College of Further and Higher Education)

Corby Technical College opened on September 16th 1940, to 21 students and was called JTS. JTS developed from a small number of workshops to Corby Technical College where expansion at the college led to more buildings in George Street and Rockingham Road.

The site, now used by Tresham, opened as Corby Technical College’s engineering department on September 16th 1957.

Mr AJ Price was the principal at the time and remained to see the college develop and introduce the building department on September 11th 1958, the commercial department on September 10, 1959 and finally the science department, which moved to the premises on September 8th 1960.

The George Street campus was officially opened on October 20th 1961, by Sir John Cockroft. On January 11th 1978, the merger of Corby and Kettering Technical Colleges was announced and was renamed as Tresham College.

In September 2011 Tresham College moved to a new £36m premises in Oakley Road.

6th September 1957 (News Article)

First installment of county’s finest technical college is ready
The first step in Corby’s most important educational project yet was made when the initial installment of the new college opened for full time students on Thursday (12th September 1957) followed by day release and evening instruction for other students on Monday September 16th.
Both buildings (including Rockingham Road) saw some 1,100 students registered for the winter term.
The ‘new’ George Street College catered for all engineering provision and the General Certificate of Education. The‘imposing’ three-storey façade was only a quarter of the
intended whole building due for completion three years later, aimed to rank as the finest technical college in the county with accommodation for over 2,000 vocational students. The
college was built in three stages – firstly the engineering block included classrooms, lecture theatre, canteen and staff rooms, engineering workshop, electrical installation workshop and laboratories, electronics, heat engines, hydraulics, strength of
materials, metrology.
The second installment, the largest of the three, was to include workshops for bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing, painting and pipe fitting. The third section was a four storey block for the main entrance to the college. The ground floor would provide a large lecture room, common rooms, needlework and other classrooms. In addition it was described
to include the commercial and “women’s departments” for cooking, housecraft and general craft. Behind the four storey block a large assembly hall was planned with its own separate entrance complete with a stage and three dressing rooms, kitchen, dining room and foyer.

11th January 1978 (News Article)
The merger of Kettering and Corby Technical Colleges was approved and to become one college by September 1st 1978 following on the success of the Nene College merger in Northampton. The first step was to find a Principal to run the college by April 1st 1978, whilst the education committee looked for a new and distinctive name to identify the college.
Cllr Lovel Garrett said the merger would improve standards in the north of the county. New courses were likely to be authorised because the new college would be on a higher grade than the two existing colleges.

7th August 1978
The name of the merged Corby and Kettering Technical Colleges was announced as Tresham College. County Education chiefs decided on the new name ready for the new term on September 1st 1978. The amalgamation of the two technical colleges was part of plans to streamline college facilities in the north of the county.
Tresham is a well known Northamptonshire family name which became prominent in the 15th century. Several buildings in the towns served by the new college were either built, designed or owned by members of the Tresham family.
These included Rushton Hall, the Triangular Lodge, the New Building at Lyveden, Manor House at Pilton and there are kneeling figures in the cross of St Faith’s Church at Newton.

In better times

Death Knell

Water Station D200 (self bust)

I'm not sure what I've done to upset the cosmic balance in my world but the tides of karma have washed up nothing but trouble for several months now....so far 2012 sucks :-)

My tripod is still broken (now at Velbon HQ getting repaired) but we thought we would take a look at a bunch of stuff the other week we had been meaning to do for some time...bunkers, storm drains, culverts, an underground reservoir and a couple of water towers.

First on the list was the derp resi but it was soon obvious that the site was very much live after being met with ass ripping 8ft palisade and security camera's...never mind, we cracked on regardless. Sadly the 10ft deep reservoir had over 5ft of water in both sides and someone was definitely 'at home' so to speak. Shame really as it was quite a big boy and would have made for some nice shots...time to move on.

The Water Tower and Pumping Station were similar in that they looked derp from a distance but the humming of pumps and scattering of CCTV said otherwise. We setup anyway and started shooting, the light was pretty lame and I was packing a shagged tripod but we got on with it, avoiding the camera's and generally trying not to get pinged. Out of nowhere a white van came speeding towards us, we must have been spotted somehow? It parked right on top of our hiding place and just sat there, there was no way we could have gotten out without being seen as a climb up a very steep bank was the only exit and this would have out us right on the radar and the vehicle could have easily cut us off before we could climb the palisade. There wasn't really any options as we had lots of other places to go that day and I didn't fancy sitting there until nightfall just to extract quietly and if we sat there any longer another van would soon be along and we would be proper busted so we went for the unconventional option....take the 'fight' to them rather than sit there like mugs.

We strode out of our hiding place and walked straight towards the waiting van, then in an instant I realised something was not right, the driver was sat with his head down, not looking at us (or anything else for that matter), shit, no turning back now, we were in open ground and committed so carried on. At the last second the driver looked up shocked and said "Where the hell did you come from?"
I knew in an instant he wasn't secca so it was blag time...fast...

"Er, well, I'll be straight with you mate, we came over the fence cos we like photographing derp stuff, especially water towers, I'll tell you what, we'll just vanish and you pretend you never saw us yeah?"

"No mate this isn't derelict you're on **** property and if security catch you there'll be all sorts of bother so yeah, you best disappear (he said, smiling).

Although we had effectively busted ourselves for no reason he was cool so we got chatting about some operational details regarding the site before we GTFO and moved onto other stuff on the day's list.

Not as many shots as I've had liked from here but then we did get rudely interrupted ;-)

Nemesis & The Resurrection

If you follow this blog you might be aware of an incident that caused me an amount of problems, sadly the upshot of that day has since had even worse fallout and has been the reason for radio silence on this blog...

The place is really my nemesis, we've been going there for a long time and it doesn't reveal its secrets easily, hard work and an often dangerous environment are required to get any payoff. We have found really neat stuff in far flung corners that makes all the slog worth the effort. In fact certain things, that have become obsessional, still elude me and it was just this said 'thing' that was on the menu when karma dealt me a sucker punch.

Its true my wad0rs split and I dropped a few quids worth of Lensers into the murky depths but the damage was far far worse as I was to find out. The Thrunite is now working, although it took several days for it to dry out, the 'sinking tripod' issues turned out to be the column clamp failing on my Velbon E-540 of which I am waiting to get a spares/repair price for.

The icing on the cake was when my 40D stopped working....yep...d-e-a-d. All of the buttons apart from the shutter had stopped working, the display had gone and the camera just sat there with the autofocus chattering away to itself trying to focus on an invisible/imaginary subject in the distance....FUBAR!!

It was left to dry for a week or so but still refused to play so it got shipped off to the camera doctors while I started searching for a new Canon body (just in case). Two weeks later and several hundred pounds worse off it got couriered back to me having been totally stripped, lovingly rebuilt (with several new parts) and calibrated to Canon factory standards, oh and they cleaned all the mine gunk off it for me too :-)

The repair slip said my camera had suffered 'contamination and corrosion' LOLZ

So, I'm nearly back in the game...stand by for updates in the coming weeks :-)

Dead Wad0rs

Apologies for the lack of updates, been a lot going on in the last month or so...

This pair of wad0rs didn't last long, they've had a couple of leaks for a while now but I suffered a full 'blow out' 250ft from dry land in four feet of stinking, fetid, skanky water yesterday.

In epic Kit Fail stylee at the same moment my 40D started sinking on its tripod, I dropped a Lenser P7 and a P3 in the water (that should have been clipped to me on Paracord...) and flooded my Thrunite Catapult. Water then came over the top of my wad0rs just to add insult to injury. I could feel the Lensers around my feet and could have dived to retrieve them but with the 40D in the other hand it was an easy decision to make....walk away and go buy yet another Lenser Twin Pack...

Three lights down and soaked to the skin we continued the trip and was glad to get out of the wad0rs once away from the location. Suffice to say they went straight in the wheelie bin after I took these shitty cameraphone pix of the damage.....(cheap wad0rs suck by the way).

Their replacements were ordered last week so should be here soon....black Gimp Style rubber with an industrial boot this time ;-)

Mines #47 - End of an era

One of the local playgrounds has been sealed with several tonnes of rock in the last few days, quite unfortunate really as we had unfinished business there......oh well !!

I wonder of anyone was inside when it got sealed? If so its now their watery grave.

Camera phone shit pix:

RAF/USAF Alconbury

I don't profess to be any kind of expert on airfields, not even close, but they do interest me, especially Cold War airfields. The following is a 'cut up' of material from a variety of locations mingled in with some of my own words. Its certainly not a definitive history on Alconbury, more of an overview to accompany the pictures.

Thanks for looking :-)


RAF Bomber Command use (1939-1941)
In September 1939, RAF Upwood squadrons were given operational training roles and Alconbury became RAF Wyton's satellite under No. 2 Group, Squadron Nos. 12, 40 and 139. These squadrons were frequently deployed to Alconbury, No. 139 being the first to be actually stationed there. Squadrons 15 and 40 converted from Battles to Bristol Blenheim bombers. No. 15 Squadron took up residence on 14 April 1940, when additional requisitioned accommodation was available. It flew its first raid of the war on 10 May against a German occupied airfield near Rotterdam.

In May 1942, RAF Alconbury was allocated to the United States Army Air Force:

93d Bombardment Group, 7 September 1942 - 5 December 1942
92d Bombardment Group, 6 January - 15 September 1943
95th Bombardment Group, 15 April - 15 June 1943
482d Bombardment Group, 20 August 1943 - 21 May 1945
801st Bombardment Group (Provisional), January - 1 May 1944
94th Bombardment Wing, 12–18 June 1945
2d Bombardment Wing, 12 June - 26 August 1945
1st Bombardment Wing, 26 June - 26 August 1945
1st Air Division, 20 September - 31 October 1945
406th Bombardment Squadron, 11 November 1943 - 7 February 1944
857th Bombardment Squadron, 11 June - 6 August 1945
652d Bombardment Squadron, 13 July - 25 October 1945
36th Bombardment Squadron: Attached to 328th Service Group, assigned to RAF Watton, operated from Alconbury, 7 February-28

March 1944, Assigned to: 1st Bombardment Division, 28 February - 15 October 1945.


Postwar United States Air Force use:

7560th Air Base Squadron, 7 November 1954 - 25 March 1955 (Redesignated: 7560th Air Base Group, 25 March 1955 - 25 August 1959
86th Bombardment Squadron, 15 September 1955 - 5 August 1959
42d Troop Carrier Squadron, 31 May - 8 December 1957
53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, 25 April - 9 August 1959
10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, 25 August 1959 - 20 August 1987 (Redesignated: 10th Tactical Fighter Wing, 10 August 1987 - 31 March 1993, Redesignated: 10th Air Base Wing, 31 March 1993 - 1 October 1994)
527th Tactical Fighter Training Aggressor Squadron, 1 April 1976 - 14 July 1988
17th Reconnaissance Wing, 1 October 1982 - 30 June 1991 (Assigned to Strategic Air Command Eighth Air Force 7th Air Division)
39th Special Operations Wing, 1 December 1992 - 1 January 1993
352d Special Operations Group, 1 January 1993 - 17 February 1995
710th Air Base Wing, 1 October 1994 - 12 July 1995
423d Air Base Squadron, 12 July 1995 - 1 July 2005 (Based at RAF Molesworth) (Redesignated: 423d Air Base Group, 1 July 2005 - present)
501st Combat Support Wing, 1 May 2007–present


The Cold War, Spy Planes & Operation Desert Storm
In 1959 with the Cold War hotting up (lame humour..), the 10th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing arrived at Alconbury and over the coming years flew many reconnaissance, electronic warfare and 'Aggressor Support' missions.

The Strategic Air Command arrived at Alconbury on 1 October 1982 when the 17th Reconnaissance Wing was activated, bringing with them the U2 and later the TR-1 Spy Plane. These assets required major remodelling of the airfield including Ready Sheds, 13 extra wide Hardened Aircraft Shelters, a Photographic Interpretation Centre and a Nuclear Hardened Command Post/Avionics Suite for the TR-1 spyplanes known only as Building 210 (later nicknamed Magic Mountain).
 
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the threat of the Cold War vanishing there were rumours that RAF Alconbury would be closed down but then in August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Some of the first aircraft to be sent into the Gulf were three TR-1A's from Alconbury's 17th Reconnaissance Wing and 23 A-10's from the 10th Tactical Fighter Wing (511th Tactical Fighter Squadron) were deployed to Saudi Arabia for combat operations.

The 511th TFS A-10s flew no fewer than 1700 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm and played an important part in wreaking havoc on Iraqi tank forces, Scud missiles and other ground positions during the conflict.

In recent years things have wound down considerably and in 1995 the USAF returned the base to the MoD (but retaining the Base Support Area under USAF control). The USAF 423d Air Base Squadron and USAF 501st Combat Support Wing still operate from Alconbury.

Romney Sheds, WW2 Crew, Locker and Drying Rooms - Airfield & Technical Site.

Parachute Store (Building 51) - Airfield & Technical Site

Command Building - Airfield & Technical Site

Hercules Bomber artwork - Airfield & Technical Site

Photographic Processing and Interpretation Facility (Building 69) - Airfield & Technical Site.

WW2 Control Tower & Watch Office with Operations Room for Bomber Satellite Stations - Technical Site

Uni-Seco USAFE Control Tower - Airfield & Technical Site

Guard Tower - Weapons Storage Site

Awesome Warthog/30mm Cannon cartoon drawn by an airman

TR-1/U2 Hardened Aircraft Shelter (Building 4105) - Airfield & Technical Site

17th Reconnaissance Wing Squadron Headquarters - Hardened Area (flooded basement)
(Currently in use by Cambridgeshire Police for tactical training)

Hardened Aircraft Shelter / Tab-Vee 'Oh Johnnie' - Airfield & Technical Site
This was demolished by the SAS as a training exercise, took them 3 attempts to flatten it!!

The gratuitous 'Oh Johnnie vent shot' taken by everyone (yawn...)

'Sally Ann' Tab-Vee/HAS 

(most likely for A-10 Warthog or F5 Tiger...maybe even Phantom LOL!)

'Sally Ann' Tab-Vee/HAS Emergency Exit