I spent a LOT of time in that control center and others over the years.......even in the deteriorated state of the control center in this video, it brought back a lot of great memories of alert duty.....during your video, my mind saw the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom just as they were in the 70s and 80s. Some of the communication racks were even still in place on level 2........thanks for giving this old crew member some good thoughts..
I am just mesmerized by the progress and hard work you have done on the silo project. Your videos are neat! I actually watched them decommissioning the silo and the process when I was 12 yrs old as a curious kid, riding my 3 wheeler around the adjoining property on Missle Base Rd.to get a closer look.
You should be really happy with your purchase of this base. It looks like it being completely submerged displaced all the oxygen and prevented a lot of rust, there is less rest in this base than bases that were not flooded, ie. in AZ.
I took a scuba class and I can tell you right off that it would be pointless to dive that. It would be like fog so thick you cant see your hand under any circumstances. That being said, this is really neat!
The "tunnel" is called the Cableway. The "long cableway". The decontamination area is part of the Blast lock area. You are lucky that the long cableway is still there. Most of these were removed. Good luck in getting this thing cleaned up.
Its funny you mentioned that... I actually said that during a part of the video we shot the other day but I edited it out because I felt like I was cutting the video up too much. But of course you are correct, they are called cableways. Decontamination is part of the blast lock? I wouldn't have thought that since its the silo side of the 4 doored area. Oh, and the tunnels were only removed in some Arizona sites. By the time they got to Kansas and Arkansas they knew better than to remove them. Just not worth the effort.
@@Impetuss Gas analyzer. It pulls air across a couple sensors and tells you what is in the air. Typical sensors would be O2, CO, H2S, and LEL (lower explosive limit - that would be vapors such as gasoline that build up and cause an explosion).
I remember the water treatment guys were always sampling the water in that kitchen. Looks like the kitchen retained their green color. ;) One time I was testing the emergency light unit (ELU) on Level 3. It was located just above the hot water tank at the top of the stairs. To reach it I had stepped on a drain pipe that entered the water tank to press the test button and the pipe broke off. Water went everywhere, down to level 2 and 1. Thankfully the only thing under the level 2 stairs were some manuals but no equipment. Not a fun day! :/ I was a young kid around 20 yrs old at the time.
You should setup a mine shaft bucket system, on the cheap, wood, buckets. Would speed up any kind of junk collection system. Because a cart isn't an option, and i can't imagine there's going to be any kind of speed in walking back and forth with bags of dirt or buckets by hand. Study those in old mines. That's how you displace dirt, metal, water, quick.
It isn't so much that we couldn't do it; plenty of ways to get it done. But then what? Stopping the water flow from inside the broken silo would almost be impossible. I'm hoping to open it up one day but for now it will have to stay like this. Sorry.
Bob Brown checking in. PTS troop from McConnell and was sent down to deactivate about 8 of these sites at Little Rock. I was also sent down the night Damascus blew.
The Cheap revision of the GoPro, a skeleton case and a headstrap mount will help these videos out tremendously. A Patreon Campaign might bring in some extra monetary help from people who want to see this place finished.
This was shot in early 2011 so I didn't have GoPros at the time. But, I have some upcoming videos / time lapses that were shot with GoPros. I do have a Patreon actually... just haven't really promoted it. Thanks! www.patreon.com/dwbs
Thanks for sharing your silo with us! I visited the Titan missle museum by Tucson a few weeks ago, so I have a lot of respect for the work you've done so far!
Hey there, love these videos. Do you know what the groundwater level in the area is and do you have to run pumps constantly to keep it out? Did they originally run pumps back when it was first built?
One site in central North Arkansas had a ground water table of about 3 feet! (leaked all the time.) Actually would 'float' in winter, which caused the Inertial Guidance system to freak out ('inertial light') due to slight movement of the rest of the silo vs. the missile itself.
Lived in one of these for a few years back in the 80s. It was both cool and sad to watch this...bitter-sweet, you might say. Next time you go down, go to the bathroom and see if the drain cover says "JOSAM". That was one of the "stump the dummy" games we used to play with new recruits. Ask them what the "JOSAM" was and where it was located.
Sure is neat to see those old cabinets that held some communications gear still there. To the right of the cabinets were some more cabinets that we would have monitored during launch
Do you know what they were? The 2 just left of where the LCCFC once was are the 465L and 487L. They were receivers where "paper" copies of messages came in. If we received a coded message over the radio, we would then receive the same message on these 2 machines. The tall cabinet to the left front of the LCCFC was the FPCB, Facility Power Control Board. This is where we monitored commercial power and diesel power. We could also start the diesel from this panel and they transfer from commercial to diesel power if need be. Where is your site if you don't mind telling me. I saw one of the sites around Benson and another where there was a restaurant built on the property and of course the museum. Brings back so many memories. Tempts me to want to come back out there to look around.
I was on a Pneudraulics crew. One time I had caught a ride with another crew and I had finished early. While waiting for the other crew to finish their job for my ride back to base, I fell asleep in the Control Center. I knew they were scheduled to do a test of the Diesel power where they switch from Kansas Gas and Electric, and for a second or two the power went off. With "triple redundancy" there was emergency battery power, but everything went dark and quiet. That was the first time that dark and quiet woke me up. Very disquieting feeling that.
Any plans to dig out and build anything in the silo? Would be cool to have something at the end of the long hallway... At least one website I've seen says the silos cannot be fixed...
Worth it? That's tough to say... One of the reasons I've made this progress is because I didn't plan that far ahead. If I had truly thought about all that had to be done and knew what it really took I may have never done it. Ignorance is bliss. :-)
Another great video. Have you thought about finding someone that worked there when it was in service? I just think it would be a great idea to invite someone who worked there or someone who has worked at a similar silo with more info.
I've had a few former crew members out here. In fact, the gentleman that found the warhead when the Damascus site blew visited a few years ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion
Did you go to the Titan II silo Museum www.titanmissilemuseum.org/ to see what things looked like when we pulled alerts? The Long Cableway tunnel had cable trays for all the controls and power. The Control Center Air Conditioner at the Museum does not function, but they have installed a large Swamp Cooler blowing down the Air Intake Shaft. Flex air hose is great idea! NOBODY used the Shower, EVER! Behind the kitchen was a space where Emergency War supplies were kept (food and tools) FAKED out my mother-in-law by moving the cage during a visit.
The plumbing (handing down under the LVL 1 floor,) was copper with sweated joints which had dried out and leaked. ALL over the Commander's console. Also, that thing would need cleaning to spotless after use, or next crew would not take over...
A question for your q&a if you don't mind / haven't already addressed this. How did it full with water? I get that the ground fills when it rains but I thought the place was sealed from outside. Lovely to see the inside! Thank you!
You should get lot's of temporary (waterproof light) without a lot of extension cables. What i often see in construction is flexible led tube lights(led rope light). With a 20 meter/65 foot cord you can wrap it around anything like stairs / pipes etc.
We used what is called "string lights". They come in 100 foot lengths and have a light socket every 10 feet. Its what you see in mines and such. And for bulbs we used CFLs so we didn't have a large current draw on the power plugs.
With opening up the silo , wouldn't it be better leaving the concrete cap on and remove the fill through the tunnel , even know it's going to be harder you won't need to remove the lid and you won't need to redo a lid to the silo
If you look at the diagram, there is what's called the "inner silo" where the missile was. That is completely full of debris. The outer silo called the silo equipment area, is only full on level 1 and 2. The end of the tunnel is level two. So if we dug out the debris you saw at the end of the tunnel, we could drain the water (no simple feat at 150 feet deep) and go into the silo equipment areas of level 3 - 9.
It's not really surprising that after all these years of being completely flooded there isn't more than surface rust on most of the metal. In the Military you have tons of what we used to refer to as busy work and of those tons of tasks Painting is right at the top of the list. So most of the metal in there probably had at least 5 to 10 coats and sometimes more but when they really wanted to give someone something to do to keep busy and out of the way they'd have them remove the old paint before applying a new coat so that's why your not looking at literally hundreds of coats of paint. Also the Military is really focused on rust prevention and painting is a never ending task...
cool! Atlas silos had pneumatically supported areas rather that springs, which I'd think would be better, but they did away with it so... also, do you have plans to eventually get into the silo somehow or are you content with the LCC?
Would love to but a LOT of money involved in doing that. Because once you are in you have to deal with the water... then cleanup, then what to do with all that space. Money money.... :-)
I'm looking for some of that "Lay Flat Ducting" to exhaust air during some dry wall work. I've tried Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards here in St. Louis. Did you buy that locally? Did you order it off the net? Were did you get this stuff? I would have thought it would be more popular/available.
Hey Stan. I didn't even look locally but I'm not surprised they don't carry it. Its fairly unique to need to move that much air temporarily. I did an Amazon search and found this: www.amazon.com/Allegro-Industries-9500-500-Ducting-Blowers/dp/B00TD6HZFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485816292&sr=8-1&keywords=lay+flat+ducting But I'm sure you can find it cheaper with a bit of looking.
btw, your better off hanging vent bags because your heads up there, Not much point blowing cold air in around your toes unless you breathe thru your feet.
It just occurred to me. When we finally make it out past our solar system and start looking for other habitable planets (long time from now).. this is how crazy bugling around alien cultures abandon tech might look like (yes, I am into SciFI).. but this is the look that Hollywood strives for in these kind of flics...
Surely they didn't leave the warhead in there but did they leave the missle in there and just concrete it in and cover it up with dirt? I mean they aren't supposed to be but I think there's alot of things they left behind in there that should have been removed that was not. You would think the crew that was responsible for deconstruction in that place would have cut all the metal out of there and scrapped it to recoup some of the money but it looks like it was closed in a hurry and they just didn't care and said he'll with this and covered it up. Lucky for you though. I bet you would have been pissed to dig up a empty bunker with no stairs or cables or anything. Because that was supposed to happen but didnt
Really loving these videos, kind of a weird question but what does it sound like down there when the pumps aren't running and what not? I imagine it has to be fairly strange being so isolated from nature sounds and sunlight.
Interesting question. I've never really done that but for sure you could have some sensory deprivation. Turn everything off, shut the door... no sound, no light. I agree it would be strange!
So much water, it seems just a foot lower then last vid..... How long were you pumping water at the time of this video? And how long did it take to pump out all the water? Or did you need to fix some holes somewhere first because water is coming in somewhere?
Base Civil Engineers were always drilling and pumping grout through the walls to try to stop the water. Mostly, we used tin-foil gutters to route the water into the floor drains to protect the paint. During construction, the big excavations had coffer dams surrounding the holes with ammonia refrigerant to freeze the soil. Then, they pulled the coffers, and buried the silos, and along came the water.
shot in 2011? i had no idea these videos were close to 5 years old. but its great seeing the water subsiding and lighting hanging in there. looking forward to the rest
in the last video, somebody mentions the copper contained in the silo. do you plan to scrap it? how much copper is contained in a Titan II? It could be a good way to lessen the overall cost of the project.
I freaking love this channel. Such an awesome place to explore!! Hay death, what is you end goal for the facility? New home or just a cool place to go?
I pulled many alerts in one of the Kansas silos back in my day. The control center would make a pretty cool dwelling, but I can't imagine what you would want to do with the silo. Maybe an underground swimming pool?
did you film the tour and the explanation of the tour at the same time or is the explanation filmed recently? It was interesting that you opened it so long ago. I thought it was a lot more recent.
The video where I'm standing there talking was filmed a few days ago. The footage walking around was in 2011. But 4 months passed between episode 5 and 6. So that's one reason why I've waited so long. I can't imagine people wanting to wait that long. And I'll say this... there is a time where I didn't do anything to it for at least 6 months. Maybe even longer. I've owned it for 6 years but have probably only done 6 months of work on it.
I very rare comment on anyones videos, however I have subrcribed to your channel and await every video you produce of your progress.... you are doing what I dream of!!! please don't skimp on videos, and don't edit out anything unless its private of course... many of us watch with delight... enjoy it
Best video yet. I heard you mention that level three is still under water, is there any possibility that the gas could be coming from below? Also, is there any danger of water weight causing too much stress on the springs?
I do think the gas is coming from below. I talk about it in next week's video. And no, the water isn't holding the metal down. There is a 1 foot gap on the outside of the metal called the "rattle space" that allows for horizontal movement. So there is never really any water "weight" on the springs.
So," ringing the bell" refers to moving the floor enough so that it contacts the wall? On a separate note, I found out your real name, and I agree with going by GT. However, I think Gino suits you better, so I am making the command decision to rename you Gino; it was between Gino and Glenn, but Glenn's are always bald.
I skimmed the comments and didn't see it, sorry if it has already been asked. At the point of this video, how long had you been pumping and how long do you think you spent pumping before you considered it done?
When you say they filled the silo, do you mean they filled it with water, or did they fill it with earth? If it's full of solid mass, are you planning on excavating it, and if so, could you go from the top?
They filled it with large debris from blowing up the top. The rest of it was filled with gravel. Right now I don't have plans to excavate it due to financial constraints. If it was going to be excavated it would have to be from the top. There's also another obstacle; a 60 foot by 3 foot thick concrete cap they put on it 25 feet underground. It was part of the SALT treaty to do that.
Death Wears Bunny Slippers WOW! I'm amazed that the SALT treaties were carried out properly. That's a massive undertaking to remove. To your later reply to +deweys - I've gotten quite a few new subscribers for you lately, keep them coming and so will I and others! Hope all are well GT, stay safe down there!
In fact, after the silo was blown up, they had to leave it open for 6 months to allow time for Russian satellites to take a picture to confirm. Wonder if they have any pics of my site they could share? :-)
You have an interesting and unique project, we use to train at an old Nike base, not as cool as your silo. Any concern about the deteriorating lead based paint?
What you called the "tunnel" is the "Long Cable Way." You're standing in the "Blast Lock Area," and the "Short Cable Way" connects to the "Launch Control Center."
Hey Douglas - First, thank you for your service. If you wanted to come visit to help me get the locks working again I'm appreciate it. :-) I've heard from a few people that I shouldn't say "tunnel". My only argument is that they aren't really cableways any more. But yeah, I'm aware of the proper terms.
keep it up! love the videos! could you in your future videos bust out the cool retro illustration/map you had and kind of walk us through each little section you're in, and give a bit of history on those sections? im just going to push you to be my own historian ;) again, love the work!
Take it from me man, you're totally awesome. Every single person who ever said how crazy you was to get this place or how it would never work, they're all just pussies, and in the end your the man with the missile silo. Hell yeah!
Great video! So glad to see some ducting and monitoring being used this time. Cant wait for the next instalment. Are the plans to run all new plumbing and wiring, or are you going to reuse some of the original fittings?
Septic tank is on Lvl 3 - kept pretty empty, because after near hit, plug valves sealed it off and disabled the pumps - pumped out to a septic pond outside the fence.
Simon Allen go watch this video it tells you why I believe ( I personally don’t know I haven’t watched it yet XD) th-cam.com/video/HYxNoVCzl2Q/w-d-xo.html
I spent a LOT of time in that control center and others over the years.......even in the deteriorated state of the control center in this video, it brought back a lot of great memories of alert duty.....during your video, my mind saw the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom just as they were in the 70s and 80s. Some of the communication racks were even still in place on level 2........thanks for giving this old crew member some good thoughts..
I am just mesmerized by the progress and hard work you have done on the silo project. Your videos are neat! I actually watched them decommissioning the silo and the process when I was 12 yrs old as a curious kid, riding my 3 wheeler around the adjoining property on Missle Base Rd.to get a closer look.
You should be really happy with your purchase of this base. It looks like it being completely submerged displaced all the oxygen and prevented a lot of rust, there is less rest in this base than bases that were not flooded, ie. in AZ.
I took a scuba class and I can tell you right off that it would be pointless to dive that. It would be like fog so thick you cant see your hand under any circumstances. That being said, this is really neat!
Thanks!
Death Wears Bunny Slippers
The "tunnel" is called the Cableway. The "long cableway". The decontamination area is part of the Blast lock area. You are lucky that the long cableway is still there. Most of these were removed. Good luck in getting this thing cleaned up.
Its funny you mentioned that... I actually said that during a part of the video we shot the other day but I edited it out because I felt like I was cutting the video up too much. But of course you are correct, they are called cableways. Decontamination is part of the blast lock? I wouldn't have thought that since its the silo side of the 4 doored area. Oh, and the tunnels were only removed in some Arizona sites. By the time they got to Kansas and Arkansas they knew better than to remove them. Just not worth the effort.
The silo is amazing. I'm so excited for you guys and I can't wait to see the progress. Wow!
Thanks!
Damn thats going to be a lot of sand blasting or pressure washing.
Yes it is!
Absolutely amazing. I think everyone following is eager to see how it is now and how have yall have come.
Not as far as I would like but it will be done some day!
I'm so glad you bought a meter :)
Thanks! :-)
What kind of meter?
@@Impetuss Gas analyzer. It pulls air across a couple sensors and tells you what is in the air. Typical sensors would be O2, CO, H2S, and LEL (lower explosive limit - that would be vapors such as gasoline that build up and cause an explosion).
I remember the water treatment guys were always sampling the water in that kitchen. Looks like the kitchen retained their green color. ;) One time I was testing the emergency light unit (ELU) on Level 3. It was located just above the hot water tank at the top of the stairs. To reach it I had stepped on a drain pipe that entered the water tank to press the test button and the pipe broke off. Water went everywhere, down to level 2 and 1. Thankfully the only thing under the level 2 stairs were some manuals but no equipment. Not a fun day! :/ I was a young kid around 20 yrs old at the time.
This is exciting!!! Can't wait to see more of the exploration and progress that you have made with your Titan II.
Thanks!
You should setup a mine shaft bucket system, on the cheap, wood, buckets. Would speed up any kind of junk collection system. Because a cart isn't an option, and i can't imagine there's going to be any kind of speed in walking back and forth with bags of dirt or buckets by hand.
Study those in old mines. That's how you displace dirt, metal, water, quick.
It isn't so much that we couldn't do it; plenty of ways to get it done. But then what? Stopping the water flow from inside the broken silo would almost be impossible. I'm hoping to open it up one day but for now it will have to stay like this. Sorry.
End up finding any cool things left behind once all the water drained out?
A few things... a cup, an old dime and some pliers. :--)
CallSign hi
I love the silo!!! So crazy government just closed them up!
Thanks for sharing
Bob Brown checking in. PTS troop from McConnell and was sent down to deactivate about 8 of these sites at Little Rock. I was also sent down the night Damascus blew.
I'd love to hook one of those up to live in . Awesome job people, I'm impressed.
The Cheap revision of the GoPro, a skeleton case and a headstrap mount will help these videos out tremendously.
A Patreon Campaign might bring in some extra monetary help from people who want to see this place finished.
This was shot in early 2011 so I didn't have GoPros at the time. But, I have some upcoming videos / time lapses that were shot with GoPros.
I do have a Patreon actually... just haven't really promoted it. Thanks! www.patreon.com/dwbs
Well there you go. Throw that in the description of all the videos and see who's out there.
Wait, this whole series was filmed 5 years ago?
What are you doing here?
Thanks for sharing your silo with us! I visited the Titan missle museum by Tucson a few weeks ago, so I have a lot of respect for the work you've done so far!
Thanks Ken! I'm glad you visited the museum. Its incredible for sure!
Hey there, love these videos. Do you know what the groundwater level in the area is and do you have to run pumps constantly to keep it out? Did they originally run pumps back when it was first built?
I'm sure they had to unless it was a really dry year.
One site in central North Arkansas had a ground water table of about 3 feet! (leaked all the time.) Actually would 'float' in winter, which caused the Inertial Guidance system to freak out ('inertial light') due to slight movement of the rest of the silo vs. the missile itself.
Lived in one of these for a few years back in the 80s. It was both cool and sad to watch this...bitter-sweet, you might say.
Next time you go down, go to the bathroom and see if the drain cover says "JOSAM". That was one of the "stump the dummy" games we used to play with new recruits. Ask them what the "JOSAM" was and where it was located.
And I'm sure they spent their time on level 2 and 3 looking for it... not level 1. :-)
Also, the 'Sloan Valve' and the 6 fishes.
LOL Or the Harley Davidson.
I know I'm super late to this. Just two questions, why was the silo full of water, and have you been able to dig all off the gravel out?
@7:48 Lol "See i told you guys i bought one!" made me giggle
:-)
Sure is neat to see those old cabinets that held some communications gear still there. To the right of the cabinets were some more cabinets that we would have monitored during launch
Wish I still had those!
Do you know what they were? The 2 just left of where the LCCFC once was are the 465L and 487L. They were receivers where "paper" copies of messages came in. If we received a coded message over the radio, we would then receive the same message on these 2 machines. The tall cabinet to the left front of the LCCFC was the FPCB, Facility Power Control Board. This is where we monitored commercial power and diesel power. We could also start the diesel from this panel and they transfer from commercial to diesel power if need be. Where is your site if you don't mind telling me. I saw one of the sites around Benson and another where there was a restaurant built on the property and of course the museum. Brings back so many memories. Tempts me to want to come back out there to look around.
I was on a Pneudraulics crew. One time I had caught a ride with another crew and I had finished early. While waiting for the other crew to finish their job for my ride back to base, I fell asleep in the Control Center. I knew they were scheduled to do a test of the Diesel power where they switch from Kansas Gas and Electric, and for a second or two the power went off. With "triple redundancy" there was emergency battery power, but everything went dark and quiet. That was the first time that dark and quiet woke me up. Very disquieting feeling that.
Any plans to dig out and build anything in the silo? Would be cool to have something at the end of the long hallway... At least one website I've seen says the silos cannot be fixed...
Would like to but its VERY expensive.
Death Wears Bunny Slippers, since my comment I saw the other video(s) speaking of a garage and a garden, I like both!
Been following along. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
This seems awful lot of work, hopefully it was worth it. These documentation is really cool.
Worth it? That's tough to say... One of the reasons I've made this progress is because I didn't plan that far ahead. If I had truly thought about all that had to be done and knew what it really took I may have never done it. Ignorance is bliss. :-)
Another great video. Have you thought about finding someone that worked there when it was in service? I just think it would be a great idea to invite someone who worked there or someone who has worked at a similar silo with more info.
I've had a few former crew members out here. In fact, the gentleman that found the warhead when the Damascus site blew visited a few years ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion
22.04.2018. Absolutely blown away with these awesome videos. Amazing.
Thanks Lee!
Wait, it's been 4 months and you STILL have that much water in there, damn.
told you guys i bought a meter! lol great video man keep it up let us know if you found any interesting or strange things after the water drained out
Thanks Tyler!
heavey dip galv. you goota love all that chems.
Did you go to the Titan II silo Museum www.titanmissilemuseum.org/ to see what things looked like when we pulled alerts? The Long Cableway tunnel had cable trays for all the controls and power. The Control Center Air Conditioner at the Museum does not function, but they have installed a large Swamp Cooler blowing down the Air Intake Shaft. Flex air hose is great idea! NOBODY used the Shower, EVER! Behind the kitchen was a space where Emergency War supplies were kept (food and tools) FAKED out my mother-in-law by moving the cage during a visit.
Why nobody used the shower?
The plumbing (handing down under the LVL 1 floor,) was copper with sweated joints which had dried out and leaked. ALL over the Commander's console. Also, that thing would need cleaning to spotless after use, or next crew would not take over...
HANGING down
Really enjoying these videos. I always look forward to the next one :)
Great!
Where do you get the poly ducting?? If you can’t post a link in a comment can you post a link in the description thanks!
Super super cool guys. I've always wanted to go into/work on this type of stuff.
Thanks Jason!
So many questions.. how did you buy this? Why did you buy this? What are you planning on doing with it? What was the total cost?
A question for your q&a if you don't mind / haven't already addressed this.
How did it full with water? I get that the ground fills when it rains but I thought the place was sealed from outside.
Lovely to see the inside! Thank you!
I made a video on this actually. Have to edit and such but will get it posted in the next few days. Thanks!
You should get lot's of temporary (waterproof light) without a lot of extension cables. What i often see in construction is flexible led tube lights(led rope light). With a 20 meter/65 foot cord you can wrap it around anything like stairs / pipes etc.
We used what is called "string lights". They come in 100 foot lengths and have a light socket every 10 feet. Its what you see in mines and such. And for bulbs we used CFLs so we didn't have a large current draw on the power plugs.
respectfully request a job on the project and a possible place to stay within the silo. Lmao! place looks amazing guys, keep up the good work!
Come on over! :-)
I do live in central AZ and would love to come check it out!
With opening up the silo , wouldn't it be better leaving the concrete cap on and remove the fill through the tunnel , even know it's going to be harder you won't need to remove the lid and you won't need to redo a lid to the silo
You did what most people would have done. Don’t feel stupid feel fortunate that nothing bad happened and think twice about what your about to do.
Good, you found the most important location.
The Toilet!
Awesome video! Is the silo completely filled with debris?
If you look at the diagram, there is what's called the "inner silo" where the missile was. That is completely full of debris. The outer silo called the silo equipment area, is only full on level 1 and 2. The end of the tunnel is level two. So if we dug out the debris you saw at the end of the tunnel, we could drain the water (no simple feat at 150 feet deep) and go into the silo equipment areas of level 3 - 9.
Cool. I think it'd be helpful to refer to the map behind you sometimes for us newbies.
I have some videos that take you on the tour of it... have you seen those?
i'm making one of these with the use of mods in minecraft. the only problem is that launching multiple missles gennerally causes my game to crash
One of the best stuff on TH-cam, this videos
Thank you Juan!
It's not really surprising that after all these years of being completely flooded there isn't more than surface rust on most of the metal. In the Military you have tons of what we used to refer to as busy work and of those tons of tasks Painting is right at the top of the list. So most of the metal in there probably had at least 5 to 10 coats and sometimes more but when they really wanted to give someone something to do to keep busy and out of the way they'd have them remove the old paint before applying a new coat so that's why your not looking at literally hundreds of coats of paint. Also the Military is really focused on rust prevention and painting is a never ending task...
Please please please tell me what kind of monitor you bought. :)
cool! Atlas silos had pneumatically supported areas rather that springs, which I'd think would be better, but they did away with it so...
also, do you have plans to eventually get into the silo somehow or are you content with the LCC?
Would love to but a LOT of money involved in doing that. Because once you are in you have to deal with the water... then cleanup, then what to do with all that space. Money money.... :-)
This is true
Might as well be the pit from "300" but instead of kicking people in, you'd be kicking bags of money in
lol
I'm looking for some of that "Lay Flat Ducting" to exhaust air during some dry wall work. I've tried Lowes, Home Depot, and Menards here in St. Louis. Did you buy that locally? Did you order it off the net? Were did you get this stuff? I would have thought it would be more popular/available.
Hey Stan. I didn't even look locally but I'm not surprised they don't carry it. Its fairly unique to need to move that much air temporarily. I did an Amazon search and found this: www.amazon.com/Allegro-Industries-9500-500-Ducting-Blowers/dp/B00TD6HZFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485816292&sr=8-1&keywords=lay+flat+ducting
But I'm sure you can find it cheaper with a bit of looking.
Thanks, was just wondering if it was just me. 😊
how does anyone begin to build that place....
and how did they get those springs in? lol
Where did you go man??? What happened to the videos????
Are you planning on cleaning out the silo?
2:56 -- Someone has R.U.N.N.O.F.T. with your *Blast Over-pressurization Valves.*
Did all that water just seep in as ground water over the years?
btw, your better off hanging vent bags because your heads up there, Not much point blowing cold air in around your toes unless you breathe thru your feet.
The idea of the forced air is to displace the bad air. At your feet vs at head height isn't going to make that much of a difference.
how much scrap steel did you haul off and re-cycle?
Extremely cool! can't wait to see more.
Thanks!
It just occurred to me. When we finally make it out past our solar system and start looking for other habitable planets (long time from now).. this is how crazy bugling around alien cultures abandon tech might look like (yes, I am into SciFI).. but this is the look that Hollywood strives for in these kind of flics...
Surely they didn't leave the warhead in there but did they leave the missle in there and just concrete it in and cover it up with dirt? I mean they aren't supposed to be but I think there's alot of things they left behind in there that should have been removed that was not. You would think the crew that was responsible for deconstruction in that place would have cut all the metal out of there and scrapped it to recoup some of the money but it looks like it was closed in a hurry and they just didn't care and said he'll with this and covered it up. Lucky for you though. I bet you would have been pissed to dig up a empty bunker with no stairs or cables or anything. Because that was supposed to happen but didnt
Really loving these videos, kind of a weird question but what does it sound like down there when the pumps aren't running and what not? I imagine it has to be fairly strange being so isolated from nature sounds and sunlight.
Interesting question. I've never really done that but for sure you could have some sensory deprivation. Turn everything off, shut the door... no sound, no light. I agree it would be strange!
when was all this filmed? the after parts?
Kian - Not sure what you mean by after parts. The first videos were from 2010... I think the latest (Ep12) are from mid 2012.
All the work and there isn't even a missile left in there. C'mon.
Says you. :-)
So much water, it seems just a foot lower then last vid..... How long were you pumping water at the time of this video? And how long did it take to pump out all the water? Or did you need to fix some holes somewhere first because water is coming in somewhere?
Water is still coming in. We'll need to have a way to fix the source of the problem. That should be episode 8 or 9.
ah thanks :)
Base Civil Engineers were always drilling and pumping grout through the walls to try to stop the water. Mostly, we used tin-foil gutters to route the water into the floor drains to protect the paint. During construction, the big excavations had coffer dams surrounding the holes with ammonia refrigerant to freeze the soil. Then, they pulled the coffers, and buried the silos, and along came the water.
shot in 2011? i had no idea these videos were close to 5 years old. but its great seeing the water subsiding and lighting hanging in there. looking forward to the rest
Given budget and other work (actual employment) the progress has been slow. I figured now I have a few episodes to show the world. :-)
in the last video, somebody mentions the copper contained in the silo. do you plan to scrap it? how much copper is contained in a Titan II? It could be a good way to lessen the overall cost of the project.
Scrapping it for profit was part of the plan but... :-)
Death Wears Bunny Slippers but what??? :)
just discovered this channel, holy shit i have been missing out
I freaking love this channel. Such an awesome place to explore!!
Hay death, what is you end goal for the facility? New home or just a cool place to go?
Thanks! Will be a home if all works out!
I pulled many alerts in one of the Kansas silos back in my day. The control center would make a pretty cool dwelling, but I can't imagine what you would want to do with the silo. Maybe an underground swimming pool?
Not going to do much (if anything) with the silo. Way too much work for now.
What is the purpose of the springs? Simply to make it save from vibrations or shocks when launching a missile? Or when getting nuked?
Save equipment from vibrations if attacked.
You guys are kicking ass
Thanks!
did you film the tour and the explanation of the tour at the same time or is the explanation filmed recently? It was interesting that you opened it so long ago. I thought it was a lot more recent.
The video where I'm standing there talking was filmed a few days ago. The footage walking around was in 2011. But 4 months passed between episode 5 and 6. So that's one reason why I've waited so long. I can't imagine people wanting to wait that long. And I'll say this... there is a time where I didn't do anything to it for at least 6 months. Maybe even longer. I've owned it for 6 years but have probably only done 6 months of work on it.
Is level 3 still flooded or was it just flooded at the time of the 2011 walk through?
At this moment it isn't flooded. :-)
I very rare comment on anyones videos, however I have subrcribed to your channel and await every video you produce of your progress.... you are doing what I dream of!!! please don't skimp on videos, and don't edit out anything unless its private of course... many of us watch with delight... enjoy it
Thank you much!
Very cool! thanks for sharing!
Welcome!
Best video yet. I heard you mention that level three is still under water, is there any possibility that the gas could be coming from below? Also, is there any danger of water weight causing too much stress on the springs?
I do think the gas is coming from below. I talk about it in next week's video.
And no, the water isn't holding the metal down. There is a 1 foot gap on the outside of the metal called the "rattle space" that allows for horizontal movement. So there is never really any water "weight" on the springs.
And Thanks!
So," ringing the bell" refers to moving the floor enough so that it contacts the wall? On a separate note, I found out your real name, and I agree with going by GT. However, I think Gino suits you better, so I am making the command decision to rename you Gino; it was between Gino and Glenn, but Glenn's are always bald.
Yeah... that's ringing the bell. And yeah... they call me by my real name in the videos so didn't think I could hide it from you guys long. :-)
I skimmed the comments and didn't see it, sorry if it has already been asked. At the point of this video, how long had you been pumping and how long do you think you spent pumping before you considered it done?
Although, I imagine you're pretty much always going to be pumping water out of there.
The hope would be to not have to pump all the time. Episode 8 or 9 will show how we began to deal with the water problem.
are you radio active? you seem to light up in youre video's
When you say they filled the silo, do you mean they filled it with water, or did they fill it with earth? If it's full of solid mass, are you planning on excavating it, and if so, could you go from the top?
They filled it with large debris from blowing up the top. The rest of it was filled with gravel. Right now I don't have plans to excavate it due to financial constraints. If it was going to be excavated it would have to be from the top. There's also another obstacle; a 60 foot by 3 foot thick concrete cap they put on it 25 feet underground. It was part of the SALT treaty to do that.
Did you know the condition of the silo when you bought this property?
Yeah, I knew what they did. If I own it for another 10 years or so I may open it up. I'll need some more videos for this channel. :-)
Death Wears Bunny Slippers
WOW! I'm amazed that the SALT treaties were carried out properly. That's a massive undertaking to remove. To your later reply to +deweys - I've gotten quite a few new subscribers for you lately, keep them coming and so will I and others! Hope all are well GT, stay safe down there!
In fact, after the silo was blown up, they had to leave it open for 6 months to allow time for Russian satellites to take a picture to confirm. Wonder if they have any pics of my site they could share? :-)
When you say level 3 is still underwater, are you speaking as though it's still 2011, or is it still underwater in 2016?
Hmm. Well there is water in level 3 right now, but not full.
You have an interesting and unique project, we use to train at an old Nike base, not as cool as your silo. Any concern about the deteriorating lead based paint?
This is amazing it's something on my dream list to do one day.
Make it happen!
What you called the "tunnel" is the "Long Cable Way." You're standing in the "Blast Lock Area," and the "Short Cable Way" connects to the "Launch Control Center."
Hey Douglas - First, thank you for your service. If you wanted to come visit to help me get the locks working again I'm appreciate it. :-)
I've heard from a few people that I shouldn't say "tunnel". My only argument is that they aren't really cableways any more. But yeah, I'm aware of the proper terms.
keep it up! love the videos!
could you in your future videos bust out the cool retro illustration/map you had and kind of walk us through each little section you're in, and give a bit of history on those sections? im just going to push you to be my own historian ;)
again, love the work!
Have you seen this video? It may help a bit. th-cam.com/video/EfTfcdL4qlE/w-d-xo.html
Let me know if there's something else you'd like to see.
I am finding this extremely interesting and entertaining.
Thanks!
I just watched a few to see if one of those drop cords was gonna fall in the water.
So did they remove the missles then bury the silos?
Basically, yeah.
Take it from me man, you're totally awesome. Every single person who ever said how crazy you was to get this place or how it would never work, they're all just pussies, and in the end your the man with the missile silo. Hell yeah!
What does the missile silo look like now inside of it
Great video! So glad to see some ducting and monitoring being used this time.
Cant wait for the next instalment.
Are the plans to run all new plumbing and wiring, or are you going to reuse some of the original fittings?
The only thing that will remain is the septic tank and pumps. Everything else will need to be new. Thanks!
Okay cool. Cheers for the speedy response!
Septic tank is on Lvl 3 - kept pretty empty, because after near hit, plug valves sealed it off and disabled the pumps - pumped out to a septic pond outside the fence.
I have watched these videos and found them fascinating. I have one question, why did you buy it?
Simon Allen go watch this video it tells you why I believe ( I personally don’t know I haven’t watched it yet XD) th-cam.com/video/HYxNoVCzl2Q/w-d-xo.html
Good video series.
How will you get the rest of the water out?
You ever get in the silo ?
That's some money in scrap all over in there. Hope it outweighs the cost of removal.
We had to pay to have it removed. $7500. Well worth it!
Why was it so important to keep the tunnel level, and especially to that "level" of precision?
I'd say it was because of all the critical utilities running through the cableways.
A big reason is power ect running through they dont want something to be bumped and possibly set something off
Sweet video man. What do you plan on doing with this thing? Living in it?
Yep. It will be a home / bad ass entertainment area. :-)
Are you going to be like one of those doomsday preppers?
It's called the long cableway not a tunnel. I pulled alerts for 10 years in one just like it in kansas .
I know. But it doesn't have cables in it anymore. :-)
I fkn love this channel. This is too cool
Thanks!
What 2011?
Only dry spot in the place is the water tank.
Awesome!!!!
Thank you John!