Posted by BlackFox2 I see a lot of people here exploring abandoned buildings and mines which (to me) makes sense due to the wide variety of structures and history present in each location. I am a bit confused why storm drains are such a popular location type that people explore. Maybe I haven't gone down the right drain or it might not be for me, but storm drains seem a little repetitive in nature. The two that I have been down were fun but I felt they lost most of their vanity after the second iteration. It was mostly crouching and walking with occasional graffiti. What's been your experience with storm drains? And if you love them, what makes them so special to you?

I could write pages on this, but I'll try not to (edit: I failed )

This is obviously just my opinion.

Drain Exploring is definitely not your standard type of Urbex. Drains aren't abandoned so it fits into the Infiltration side of urbex, however generally with Infiltrating active locations you need to travel light & engage in stealth exploring - this is definitely not the case with drain exploring Drain exploring is much more sociable than general exploring. This helps when you are exploring a repetitive drain (having a chat, catching up with someone you haven't seen since the last expo, etc.)

In regards to them being repetitive, I feel the same way about farm houses with a chair sitting in the middle of the room. When I'm exploring topside I'm looking for a prison, school, power station, hospital or the like - the other boring sheds, houses, gas stations, etc, are part of the challenge.

Finding drains (and underground locations in general) is part of the fun. Most of my Topside explores I just drive by & think "that looks abandoned and cool. There's a way in" (yep, I know many locations take much more work to find) whereas underground locations are often totally hidden.

When I find a new drain, I see a question mark: is it going to be a shrinker (a pipe that does nothing other than get smaller) or is it going to have stairways, slides or waterfalls? Will it get bigger, become Red brick, bluestone or sandstone? Will it change shape to square, rectangular, arch, hallway, coffin or other shapes I can't even name. Will there be old bridges now buried underground. Will there be a sign of other explorers (or as is the case in Melbourne, an Alf Saddlier tag from the 1950s - he built many of our drains.)

In regards to the history of drains, it's definitely lacking compared to the history of a Boys Home, prison, psych hospital, etc, however there is history if that's your thing. Most drains were once creeks or rivers that had names. You can find out when & why they were put underground.

There's also the exploring history of drains. Drains tend to last longer than many abandoned structures - especially in areas where real-estate is valuable. I know drains where people have died or injured themselves, had sex with a friend, fallen asleep drunk, dodged a storm (not all at once).

There are tributes in our tunnels to explorers no longer with us. The longer urbex exists, the more history there is in the artificial underground.

I almost forgot - the victory of rebirthing When you go so far up a drain that doesn't end & it's getting smaller and you don't want to walk all the way back so you end up crawling up side pipes to try and find a safe manhole cover to exit. In those scenarios finding a way out is such a rush - a victory. You defeated the drain! Everyone is all smiles

People say it's more dangerous than Topside urbex. You definitely need to be aware of the dangers, but when exploring Topside, one slip could be your last, so there are dangers everywhere (even abandoned farm houses if you get shot at for trespassing

I'm definitely not saying draining is better than other types of urbex - I love exploring just about anything - draining is just different.

Cheers

Posted by MrBungle That's pretty funny lol, what was she talkin about?

To be honest with you I have no idea what she was saying (LOL) All I know is she was talking on her phone.

I work in an industry where we actively jet, flush, and find some questionable things in city storm and wastewater collection lines. The city is mostly aware of a lot of these abandoned sewer lines and sometimes we try to integrate them into future designs.

A lot of time with these old systems we run into a lot of I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) and repairing this costs more than just building an entirely new line.

Posted by Doug I could write pages on this, but I'll try not to (edit: I failed ) This is obviously just my opinion. Drain Exploring is definitely not your standard type of Urbex. Drains aren't abandoned so it fits into the Infiltration side of urbex, however generally with Infiltrating active locations you need to travel light & engage in stealth exploring - this is definitely not the case with drain exploring Drain exploring is much more sociable than general exploring. This helps when you are exploring a repetitive drain (having a chat, catching up with someone you haven't seen since the last expo, etc.) In regards to them being repetitive, I feel the same way about farm houses with a chair sitting in the middle of the room. When I'm exploring topside I'm looking for a prison, school, power station, hospital or the like - the other boring sheds, houses, gas stations, etc, are part of the challenge. Finding drains (and underground locations in general) is part of the fun. Most of my Topside explores I just drive by & think "that looks abandoned and cool. There's a way in" (yep, I know many locations take much more work to find) whereas underground locations are often totally hidden. When I find a new drain, I see a question mark: is it going to be a shrinker (a pipe that does nothing other than get smaller) or is it going to have stairways, slides or waterfalls? Will it get bigger, become Red brick, bluestone or sandstone? Will it change shape to square, rectangular, arch, hallway, coffin or other shapes I can't even name. Will there be old bridges now buried underground. Will there be a sign of other explorers (or as is the case in Melbourne, an Alf Saddlier tag from the 1950s - he built many of our drains.) In regards to the history of drains, it's definitely lacking compared to the history of a Boys Home, prison, psych hospital, etc, however there is history if that's your thing. Most drains were once creeks or rivers that had names. You can find out when & why they were put underground. There's also the exploring history of drains. Drains tend to last longer than many abandoned structures - especially in areas where real-estate is valuable. I know drains where people have died or injured themselves, had sex with a friend, fallen asleep drunk, dodged a storm (not all at once). There are tributes in our tunnels to explorers no longer with us. The longer urbex exists, the more history there is in the artificial underground. I almost forgot - the victory of rebirthing When you go so far up a drain that doesn't end & it's getting smaller and you don't want to walk all the way back so you end up crawling up side pipes to try and find a safe manhole cover to exit. In those scenarios finding a way out is such a rush - a victory. You defeated the drain! Everyone is all smiles People say it's more dangerous than Topside urbex. You definitely need to be aware of the dangers, but when exploring Topside, one slip could be your last, so there are dangers everywhere (even abandoned farm houses if you get shot at for trespassing I'm definitely not saying draining is better than other types of urbex - I love exploring just about anything - draining is just different. Cheers

This should be the last word on the topic right here!

Well said Dougo

Whenever I explore storm drains, I always go out the way I came in (manhole covers/outfalls) unless I'm hanging out with someone who doesn't want to do that, so we end up going out a different way. On the plus side, we might find another good manhole cover into that drain for the future. That's one thing I like to do when I'm with someone who knows how to pop manhole covers from underneath is I'll ask them to check a bunch of other covers to see where they are then drop a pin on it, then ask them to send the coordinates to my cellphone, so I can look for that cover location on my computer. I found a lot of great ways into my favorite drains by doing this and it really helps for safety reasons plus just for fun! I always try to find the deepest shafts with ladders/rungs just because the shafts look very cool with rungs and ladders plus, I enjoy climbing ladders as long as they look and are safe to do (no rusty/missing rungs etc).

I used to have a similar mindset, that storm drains aren't that interesting since you're either crouching or just walking up to some graffiti.

However, I had a friend way back who "basically" lived in the storm drains and took me too some amazing spots, that just had different features in them.

To name a few:
- One drain opened up into this massive opening where people had put up climbing routes. While it wasn't high by any means, it was cool seeing
- History within a few hundred feet. There was one tunnel that was clearly built on an existing line and it was so interesting to see. We found dates going back to the 50's, then incrementally up to somewhere in the 90's, all within a few hundred feet. It was almost like walking in a time machine.

I like to explore storm drains because, as Doug said, it's more socially. You can listen to music, talk to people and have a lot of fun.

Also, many drains and sewers here in Europe have a rich history, a lot of old brick works and unique forms and constructions. You find beautiful and hidden places, you do not find outside.

As an example, the Ruhr area, where I live: There is a drain here, which was used as air raid shelter during the Second World War. At that time, the civilian population helped the forced laborers, who also sought refuge there, to escape.

When you research drains and sewers, you also learn a lot about your city, its history and how it is structured

Also, draining is not such a popular phenomenon in Germany, so you have the freedom to shape the space.

All in all, if you know what you do it is easy to do, fun and interesting.

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I might of mentioned this before but I have explored other stuff like buildings, caves, sewers and drains but storm drains and sewers are the most interesting thing I've seen and I've been interested in drains and sewers since I've been 5 years old. Since I was a kid I've always enjoyed walking around and looking down all the storm drain grate just to see how deep they were. In fact I did that so much that I ended up getting a black nose from sticking my face too close to the dirty grates (LOL). Whenever I saw city workers popping manhole covers by my house I would always ask them if I could look down there and surprisingly enough they let me do it but now a days I don't need to ask them if I can look down the manhole covers because I already pop them myself (LOL).