Tour Report: Railway Tunnel T.

After our visit to the car sculpture park, we wanted to check out another location with my cousin Peter. We decided on a disused railway tunnel, as it wasn't too far away and we assumed it would be easy to reach.

First of all, it wasn't that easy to find a parking spot, because the path to the tunnel entrance, which was supposed to be “easy” to reach, is located in the middle of a residential area. So the walk was a bit longer than expected—and there was no direct path to the tunnel, so we had to walk quite a distance along the former railroad tracks.

This wouldn't normally have been a problem, but unfortunately the route had turned into a veritable jungle of nettles, some of which were as tall as a man. There was no beaten path or anything similar – we had to walk right through the middle of it.

At some point, I extended the legs of my tripod and swung them around in front of me to “clear” a path, so to speak. That worked quite well, so Peter grabbed a long, sturdy branch and swung it energetically to clear a path as well.

Soon we saw the tunnel entrance in the distance. We could see that the opening was sealed with large wooden panels—but there was a small opening in the form of a door.

We were excited that we would probably have the opportunity to explore the tunnel from the inside.

But no such luck—just a meter behind the wooden wall, a solid steel grate blocked the tunnel.

Since there was only a small door, there was no real source of light, and the light from our flashlights was lost in the darkness. Taking pictures from the inside was therefore completely pointless.

All that remained of this trip were the pictures from outside and the fond memories of our battle with an army of nettles.

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Tour Report: Freight Depot S.

After exploring the abandoned railyard, we made our way to the next location. This was the town's old freight depot, which is just a few minutes away from the railyard.

I had been there a few years earlier, but at the time most of the buildings were safely locked up.

Now, however, the perforated panels had been removed from many of the buildings, the doors had been kicked in and the windows broken, so we had access everywhere. Unfortunately, so did many vandals and sprayers, who had obviously already made their way around the site.

However, we weren't expecting anything really spectacular when we chose this place, so we weren't disappointed. Of course, there were still a few nice motifs, so we didn't have to leave empty-handed.

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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.

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Tour Report: Railway Repair Factory "Fields of Green"

This abandoned former railway repair workshop was the last location we visited during our summer vacation in 2019.

As we still had a few kilometers to go by car, we started relatively early and made our way to the old industrial ruin.

The site is located directly on a busy road with plenty of parking spaces, so we quickly found a parking space and were able to look around for an entrance. We found it very quickly, as the main gate was open. There were no prohibition signs or anything like that, so we were able to stroll into the grounds without a care in the world.

First we took a look at the remaining outdoor facilities, then we set about exploring the factory halls.

Unfortunately, a photographer and his model were also passing the time in the factory halls, so that we were not completely undisturbed and had to interrupt our walk again and again to wait for the photographer to get the picture in the box. What often annoys me about this kind of thing is that "model photographers" expect you to wait until they are finished with their pictures - but they themselves don't seem to be able to do this and march right through the middle of the picture without any ifs or buts and start setting up their stuff.

Well, you're above it all and can overlook other people's character flaws without letting them spoil your mood.

In any case, we took all the time we needed to really take a close look at every factory hall. We particularly liked the vegetation inside the halls. Most of the rooms were decorated with varying degrees of vegetation - sometimes just bushes and ferns, but sometimes also real trees. We are always amazed at how nature reclaims the old industrial halls!

After a good two hours, we had finished our exploration and made our way to a dear friend's house where we were going to spend the last night of our vacation.

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Tour Report: Rail Yard "Ivy"

After exploring the abandoned school, we still had some time to check out one more location before we had to head home. So we drove back to the nearby city, because from there it was more or less a straight shot home on the highway. Right next to the city's main train station are the remains of the local rail yard. In earlier times, almost every larger train station had its own rail yard to conduct repairs and be able to quickly allocate locomotives and train cars. That was of course in a time when centralization of services wasn't the way to go yet. Most of the smaller rail yards had been closed towards the end of the last century in favor of large central maintenance hubs.

This particular rail yard was closed in 1998, so at the time of our exploration, it had been abandoned for more than twenty years.

As we arrived, we found a good place to park in a side road. From there, we walked a few minutes to the fence on the back of the premises and quickly discovered an opening where we could squeeze through. Since the active station was right next to the rail yard, we had to be careful not to be spotted, but the vegetation provided a little bit of cover.

Probably because of the populated area, the condition of the place was pretty good in terms of vandalism. Of course, there were a few graffiti, but there has been far less trash dumped than in similar locations that I've visited. Additionally, there was some really nice green decay, so it was a good spot to finish off our tour.

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