So this is called sub-tropolis, it is a large former salt mine / limestone deposit that was turned in to a very large underground business center. And to answer what maybe your first question, no it is not nuclear war proof due to the massive ventilation system that exchanges air with the outside. A lot of companies have their disaster recovery site here though from headquarters around the country. Also pertainent to TRAINS Discussion Forum, it is served by a Webtec shortline and yes there are railroad spur lines that serve these caves as well as you can see from the locomotive underground with the WAMX reporting marks. There are quite a few manufacturing businesses in this former mine that depend on rail service (pretty cool…huh??..where do you see that elsewhere in the country?).
If I had to guess because I do not know for certain but I think the servicing railroad is Kansas City Terminal Railway? Just a guess. Someone that lives there might know better. I saw the three track main running through or next to the complex which is probably a collection of UP and BNSF railroad mains. Anyway, enjoy the videos…
Entering the complex (long video showing railroad access):
The caves are above the water table and local river levels it seems from the triple track mainline view. The tracks are at cave entrance level and the caves only descend slightly from there. It is more like they are inside a bluff then underground…I think.
National Archives has a facility in SubTropolis along with BNSF. UP has a facility in another salt cave further north. Hopefully UP and BNSF do not go PSR stupid and throw some of that stuff out*, but rather make some of it more accessable.
Both railroads pitched materials they should not have let go of during the 1990’s mergers. It takes an act of god to retreive materials out of either site. Could have stopped several lawsuits with access to materials stored in the caves. Even their own lawyers are prevented from accessing some of the material stored there.
Railroads apply more security to property and use agreements than just about anything I know of.
When the department I was a part of had issues concerning the lease for the building we were operating a office out of - we could not get a copy of the lease, we had to ‘sight unseen’ identify the specific articles of the lease we needed to see. How can specific articles of a lease be evaluated on their own without understanding how those articles work in concert with the other articles of the lease. CSX in the early 80’s, Lord only knows what it is like these days.
The graphics in their leasing brochure leave a lot to be desired, but if you look at the following partial site plan, I believe the dotted lines depict rail sidings.
Noteworthy, most of the blocks of space depicted on this sketch are not among the portions currently being offered as available. Either that’s because they are already occupied (if so, then good for them), or because they have not yet been made into marketable areas (utilities, lights etc)
I’d love to see their ventilation system. With a big diesel belching exhaust deep into one of their caverns, you’d think OSHA would have some “air change” requirements to be reconned with.
Miningman can elaborate or correct me on this, but it is my understanding that diesels are preferred for underground operations because they do not produce a lot of carbon monoxide, unlike gasoline engines.
Propane or natural gas engines produce even less CO, but then you have the added risk of a gas explosion from a fuel leak.
Dude-- Onky Diesel engines allowed to operate underground. Scoop trams, ore trucks, long hole drills, personnel carriers, geologists, survey crews, shift bosses and mine captains all zipping around drifts, x-cuts and ramps in Diesel powered Kubota’s. Gasoline powered anything is 100% banned at all times, by Law and common sense.
Mine Ventilation is serious business and an entire department within engineering, with specialists and technologists working in Mine Ventilation only. There are special doors that seal off a Mine into sections and Diesel equipment is limited in numbers at any time.
You log in on a large panel sign and log out when you leave. Sometimes you cannot proceed down a ramp or enter an area until a piece of equipment comes out. So you wait in front of the doors, kind of akin to waiting in a siding.
2,000, 3,000 or 7,500 feet down any gasoline engine will result in carbon monoxide death.
Ventilation in a Mine is very robust and Diesel fumes are carried away fairly quickly, although I have seen the air blue with exhaust from a ballet of 4 scooptrams mucking out multiple drawpoints in a stope.
Ventilation is exceptional in an Uranium mine, with multiples of redundancy and each working area separately exhausted, it is not passed on down the line and then out.
If you get lost underground and get confused a good rule of thumb is to lick your finger and hold it up and feel the way the ‘wind’ is blowing and follow that… it will get you to the shaft where you can call for the cage.
It’s more like a ’ tunnel’ … large surface openings on either end and obviously serious exhaust ventilation. The vehicles also could be all Diesel engined. You simply cannot run gasoline engines in any enclosed space.
I don’t mean to be off-topic but I was following along until I hit this sentence and then I was thinking about A Clockwork Orange for some reason. [8-|]
The vehicles shown in the photograph are at an upfitter.
New vans, pickups, etc are brought from OEM manufacturer (GM, Chrysler, Ford, etc) and are “upfitted” for final delivery to the end user with interior racking and graphics.
