I have been reading old Infiltration issues detailing steam tunnel exploring which I have found really interesting, but when I searched the site for the most recent thread about it, I didn't see one that wasn't from 2004 or earlier, which might mean that is has been falling out of favor with explorers or just that it isn't worth it to people to do it now that a lot of colleges have upped security systems they have.

Nonetheless I'm just putting this out there, what stories do you guys have of exploring different college steam tunnels, which college it was, when you did it, and would you do it again.

Thanks for your replies in advance,

page2 200 by rescueme1060, on Flickr

Picture 134 by rescueme1060, on Flickr

page2 202 by rescueme1060, on Flickr

As far as exploring campus steam tunnels within university/college aged explorers, it's alive and well, at least in my neck of the woods. I think people don't talk about it as much anymore because:

1. It's pretty easy for a university/college to increase security for their steam tunnels, so people try to avoid mentioning them outside of their circles

2. There might not be a lot of current university aged students on UER that are active, and getting caught exploring campus as a student is a lot less harsh of a punishment than a non-student

3. Most steam tunnel stories will be very similar. Pipes, it was hot, I walked a lot and had to crawl a bit. This isn't very exciting to talk about.

I personally love steam tunnels, they're especially nice in the winter (haha). As far as when and would I do it again, a bit before lockdown and yes.

The college I went to, the tunnels were difficult to access. There was a POE in the basement of the library, but it was alarmed and the tunnel network was not that interesting in any case.

The college an ex-girlfriend went to grad school at had a relatively easy to access tunnel system that spanned about 90% of the campus. Some of the POEs were alarmed, but not all of them. There were also traps in the tunnel to catch explorers.

The way the traps worked was in the tunnel you came to a door with a push bar like you would find on a fire exit door. After you went through the door, it would close and lock behind you. Another 50 feet down the tunnel, you come to a similar door which is locked. About the time you discover that you're trapped between 2 locked doors, you notice the cameras and motion sensors. It takes about 30 minutes for the campus police to show up.

My former college campus had a whole system of underground tunnels - steam and other types generally used for storage - that I never really got to explore. I remember a professor specifically instructing us amateur filmmakers to not shoot short films in the tunnels so they wouldn't have to deal with the campus PD (apparently this was somewhat of a regular occurrence).

What was fun, however, was when they moved all the classes and staff out of one particular building so that they could move everything out and renovate it from the ground up. 99% of the doors in that building were left unlocked, whether or not there was stuff being stored inside. Someone even had a working (and active!) HAM radio setup on the top floor. Exploring that building probably would have been my best chance to see those tunnels.

When I was studying fine arts in 1986 one of my classmates introduced me to her father who was the chief engineer of the steam plant. He basically let me drive one of those electric carts through the underground maze of tunnels whenever I had time. I mounted a video camera vertically on a tripod fastened to the cart and spent hours exploring and recording. It was amazing the way the steam and water pipes extended out for miles, the different junctions and hubs, dead ends and strange exits to other underground tunnels. Our visual arts building was located in an old church monastery constructed in 1800's and I eventually discovered a secret entrance with vaulted ceilings and large steel doors probably used for wine or food storage. Will never forget that wonderful adventure. I eventually put together a video installation and soundtrack with the footage using field recordings I made in the tunnels, layered with analogue electronics and displayed it on a large monitor placed vertically on it's side so it looked like a virtual trip though the underground. This was my introduction to the joys of urban exploration. Wish I still had that old Beta tape. It would be great to go back with a high resolution camera ... wonder if they would let me back in?



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Posted by Radio2600 The way the traps worked was in the tunnel you came to a door with a push bar like you would find on a fire exit door. After you went through the door, it would close and lock behind you. Another 50 feet down the tunnel, you come to a similar door which is locked. About the time you discover that you're trapped between 2 locked doors, you notice the cameras and motion sensors. It takes about 30 minutes for the campus police to show up.

That's genuinely terrifying, but pretty clever on the university's part. I'd fall for it

Remind me to post some photos later tonight. They're not as much tunnels, but they definitely have steam. The campus I studied at does have tunnels connecting a lot of the dorm halls, and then another tunnel system that connected academic buildings. These often doubled up as steam tunnels just because the infrastructure was already there. Great for walking in the Winter when you don't want to go outside!

Posted by Radio2600 There were also traps in the tunnel to catch explorers.

Ahahaha same with my local campus--luckily, most of the undergrad explorers know about it and can avoid it. It's not unheard of to get a call or dm for help in the middle of the night from someone stuck though.

I walked in about two feet, saw construction workers, and left.

At NCSU there was a pedestrian tunnel which ran under the railroad tracks. The tunnel was a designated legal graffiti spot so it was always populated by at least a hand full of artists, or trolls, at all hours of the night. There was also a hatch at the midpoint of the tunnel, like a half height door, that connected to the steam tunnels and was unlocked from the steam side. We always left the steam network via that hatch and always did weird shit to spook the normies in the Free Expression Tunnel as we piled out of the opening. Usually screaming gibberish and scattering in all directions to meet up back at the car.

Posted by uLiveAndYouBurn as we piled out of the opening. Usually screaming gibberish and scattering in all directions to meet up back at the car.

That reminds me of of a time we were exploring some subway tunnels in NYC and exited the system through a sidewalk hatch into a crowd of 20-something folks.

One of them asked "Whoa, what are you guys doing?" One of the guys I was with blurts out: "there's a rave party down there." Of course, they all take off down the hatch. We just left. Hopefully nobody got run over by a train.

To give an idea of what the sidewalk hatches look like:

https://gothamist....omb-into-bar-pitti

actually laughed out loud at that

We had those same "Student Traps" in my college tunnels, didn't realize they were so common! I found a few of them but never got stuck, we'd always prop doors behind us unless we knew there was another exit.

This is my old steam tunnel website from UAF (Fairbanks, AK):
http://drainfreak.com/df/uaf.htm

Posted by Freak This is my old steam tunnel website from UAF (Fairbanks, AK): http://drainfreak.com/df/uaf.htm

You put a lot of work in to that, nice!