Tour Report: Railyard SP

In September 2019, I set off with my buddy "Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland" to explore a few abandoned places in north-eastern Germany.

The first place we went to - a former railroad depot - I had already looked at from the outside with my wife, but hadn't found an entrance back then. This time, however, there was an opening!

But first things first: The old depot is located more or less directly in the city center between the active railroad tracks and a busy main road. Part of it has been converted into a museum, and the surrounding areas have been developed with residential and commercial buildings.

A short distance away in the residential area, we found an unsuspicious parking lot from where we began our exploration.

Unfortunately, there was no guaranteed way of getting into the engine shed without being seen, so once again we adopted the "cheek wins out" approach.

On the side facing the road, we finally found a narrow entrance through which we were able to squeeze in. We just hoped that no one had seen us doing our contortions.

Unfortunately, the site was actually so well secured that we could only see the roundhouse. Decay had done a great job - collapsed roofs and collapsed walls dominated the picture. My buddy managed to climb into another area (he's quite a bit taller than me), but even there he was met with a similar sight.

Unlike many other locations in the region, there was no garbage. Apparently the security measures had meant that local residents were unable to illegally dispose of their garbage on the site.

So we were able to enjoy the warm late summer day in peace and quiet with a great light atmosphere.

After about an hour, we made our way to the next location.

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

Tour Report: The Halls of Carpets

In September 2019, we embarked on a short tour to explore a location not far from our hometown. I knew that the old abandoned carpet factory existed a few years before, but we had never made our way there. I had only seen a few photos up until then, but these had whetted our appetite for an architectural treat.

The drive took about two hours.

The factory buildings are nestled between a residential area, various industrial areas and a tennis club. When we arrived, we first went for a walk to look for possible entrances. We didn't really find anything that gave us easy access. But we didn't give up that easily.

We took the "hard" way in.

There was a house right next to the road near the main entrance to the factory premises. It looked abandoned, so we took a look around. The doors and windows were completely locked, but the garden wall was right next to the gatehouse. Unfortunately, the wall was too high for us to get over. We looked around the garden of the house and discovered an old ladder under a pile of leaves.

This enabled us to get over the wall. There was a small embankment on the other side, so we didn't need a ladder to climb down. 

So now we were on the site and only had to walk about 400 meters along a clearly visible path until we reached the first building and were out of sight.

As soon as we entered, we saw what awaited us - huge, empty factory halls with some very impressive architecture. The halls were so big that even the graffiti didn't really matter - they just disappeared into the vast rooms.

After we had explored about a third of the site, we discovered a former laboratory in a small building. While we were taking our photos there, a black van suddenly drove onto the site and stopped in front of a building near the laboratory.

We hid and heard someone getting out. We waited for about fifteen minutes, but no one seemed to have noticed us. As the site is huge and the buildings provided good cover, we decided to continue our exploration despite the risk.

So we saved the building in front of which the car had parked and looked at other factory buildings.

I was particularly impressed by the halls with the curved roofs, some of which looked like aircraft hangars and were flooded with daylight due to their construction.

At some point, the black car disappeared from the site again so that we could inspect the last building.

I don't remember how long we were on the site, but it was a few hours and I think it was really worth it.

We left the site the same way we had entered it and hid the ladder under the pile of leaves again.

We met the black van and the driver less than a year later when we visited the old factory again - but that story will be for next time!

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.