# RAF West Raynham October 2010 (Pic heavy)



## Lazarus (Oct 20, 2010)

I won't bother with the history of the place because it's been very well covered by previous posts. The airfield is strange and eerie when visited in the slanted light of a cold October morning. Our only entry point was a miles worth of uphill slog away from the buildings and we didn't know that a model aircraft club was using what remains of the runway. Let me tell you, when you're strolling along a runway and you hear a jet engine winding up you get a feeling of butt clenching, abject terror and I'm not ashamed to say a few seconds later I was hunched in the sodden grass next to the runway as a metre and a half long red arrow model trundled by. Anyway, pics ahoy. (These pictures were taken on two separate weekends 1st Visit was the tower, 2nd was everything else. Also sorry for the poor quality of some, on the 2nd visit we travelled light so I only had my iPhone handy for pics.)

One of the service roads.







On to the runway.






More runway, you can see where the developers are ripping it up to use as foundation hardcore for buildings elsewhere.






Some geese, because.






Nearly there.






On to the dome.






The exterior of the dome. No interior pictures I'm afraid, to dark. The acoustics are, as previously reported spectacular. The beep of my phone echoed for a good thirty seconds.






The hanger closest to the dome was unlocked, upon entering we were confronted with something we didn't expect. Bonus points to anyone who can identify the type of plane. Needless to say we gave it a VERY wide berth, it had a camera pointing at it and we didn't want anybody thinking we were up to no good.






The hanger's are truly VAST. 






The plane from the side.






Hanger service ladders. I was going to climb but it would have put me in full view of the model plane flyers.






The impressive hanger doors. They have notices informing people they're welded shut.






A poster on the door of an interior hanger room. Looks like a few souvenir hunters have tried to peel it off.






These next few are all the boiler rooms. Note the extremely precise wiring, obviously done by a craftsmen.


























Revised 1976






Behind the hangers the builders fences leave little to explore except the boilers and the water tower supplying them. This is the base of the tower. We were going to enter but a buzzing sound that turned out to be a transformer the size of a mini cooper still live made us think twice.






The base buildings.


























Motor pool.






Anyway on to the real glory of the trip, the heavy bomber control tower. This was the ground floor relay room.











The fire station. The wind was moving the doors around and the sound permeated the entire tower scaring the crap out of us on more than one occasion.






Nice to see yet more original equipment intact. This is the pumping equipment in the fire station.











Further up the tower, cracked paint and what we believe to be the compressor for a VERY loud siren.











The obs room. The wooden main console still exists though it lacks anything really cool.






The jewel of the obs room is the runway lighting panel. This panel is largely intact although the local chavs have taken their toll on it.











The view from the obs room.











To finish, some exterior shots of the obs room.











Well that's your lot. As one last safety note to any wishing to visit. The internal steps leading up to the obs room made some VERY distressing noises as we climbed them. For safeties sake use the external access across the roof which is easy to find atop the main staircase. I'd hate to revisit and find a collapsed ladder and a chalk outline. Also the wooden flooring on the third story of the building seems creaky and dodgy, skirt around the outside of the room if you want to enter, but to be honest there's nothing in there worth risking your life over.


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## rockhopper (Oct 21, 2010)

Interesting photos!

By the way, the plane is a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell

http://flightlinesnewspaper.wordpress.com/2010/06/27/fairchild-pt-1/


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## rockhopper (Oct 21, 2010)

The compressor thing - not sure about that. D D Lamson (now known as Barloworld) make those air tube things that you see in Sainsburys for taking cash from the checkouts to the accounts office, they have been doing that for years so it might be something along those lines.


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## MD (Oct 21, 2010)

some nice shots i was there yesterday !!!
ill stick a report up when i get back


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## Lazarus (Oct 21, 2010)

rockhopper said:


> The compressor thing - not sure about that. D D Lamson (now known as Barloworld) make those air tube things that you see in Sainsburys for taking cash from the checkouts to the accounts office, they have been doing that for years so it might be something along those lines.



We did think that as well but we can't see any other evidence of a vacuum tube system.


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## Lazarus (Oct 21, 2010)

MD said:


> some nice shots i was there yesterday !!!
> ill stick a report up when i get back



That dome is freakin' AWESOME isn't it? The acoustics really are something special.


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## losttom (Oct 21, 2010)

I love this place, shame to see develpoment is starting. Did you get to see the sports hall?


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## Lazarus (Oct 21, 2010)

losttom said:


> I love this place, shame to see develpoment is starting. Did you get to see the sports hall?



No the fences had encroached to much. It's not that I have an issue with going beyond the fences, it's just that last time we were there they had guys working even on Sunday and to be honest I didn't want to run into an angry builder as, from experience I know they tend to react less than favourably to guys with cameras and things wandering through a site. I'm planning one last visit so that'll probably be my foray into the halls and things. I wanted to see the tower, dome and hangers before risking getting caught.


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## Alansworld (Oct 21, 2010)

Love the geese!

Incidentally, the hospital where I work has an extensive vacuum air tube system for shifting samples to the pathology labs. Every time somebody doesn't firmly close a bottle of wee or blood and it leaks they have to shut down the whole thing for decontamination! Just by the by.

A


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## losttom (Oct 21, 2010)

Lazarus said:


> No the fences had encroached to much. It's not that I have an issue with going beyond the fences, it's just that last time we were there they had guys working even on Sunday and to be honest I didn't want to run into an angry builder as, from experience I know they tend to react less than favourably to guys with cameras and things wandering through a site. I'm planning one last visit so that'll probably be my foray into the halls and things. I wanted to see the tower, dome and hangers before risking getting caught.




 the domes where i got caught......

Was it this fencing around the site? if so its not changed for a while


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## Lazarus (Oct 21, 2010)

losttom said:


> the domes where i got caught......
> 
> Was it this fencing around the site? if so its not changed for a while



What day of the week did you go on?


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## oldscrote (Oct 21, 2010)

rockhopper said:


> The compressor thing - not sure about that. D D Lamson (now known as Barloworld) make those air tube things that you see in Sainsburys for taking cash from the checkouts to the accounts office, they have been doing that for years so it might be something along those lines.[/QUOTE
> 
> 
> nice photos mate.Here's a picture of a ww2 lamson tube system.
> ...


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## losttom (Oct 21, 2010)

Lazarus said:


> What day of the week did you go on?




A sunday last winter if i remember correctly


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## UrbanX (Oct 21, 2010)

Ace report dude! And kudos for getting in 

it'll probably pain you to know that when I went, there wasn't even an external fence, nor a door to the dome! 

losttom: I too was caught in the dome. I was quacking. Y'know too see if a quack echoes? Slightly embarrising.


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## Lazarus (Oct 21, 2010)

UrbanX said:


> Ace report dude! And kudos for getting in
> 
> it'll probably pain you to know that when I went, there wasn't even an external fence, nor a door to the dome!
> 
> losttom: I too was caught in the dome. I was quacking. Y'know too see if a quack echoes? Slightly embarrising.



We seem to have been quite lucky, we were making a hell of a racket in that dome playing with the echoes. Hopefully my next visit will be as uneventful. I've got a nice list of places lined up for future reports to.


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## losttom (Oct 21, 2010)

UrbanX said:


> Ace report dude! And kudos for getting in
> 
> it'll probably pain you to know that when I went, there wasn't even an external fence, nor a door to the dome!
> 
> losttom: I too was caught in the dome. I was quacking. Y'know too see if a quack echoes? Slightly embarrising.



 haha, thats got to be a 'unique' situation to be caught in!!


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## historymadd (Oct 24, 2010)

losttom said:


> haha, thats got to be a 'unique' situation to be caught in!!



excellant report i have been trying to see a few views of thew cold war airfield tower light set up knwn as the a centre 

b c ents were on each end of the runway 

cheers


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## echo. (Oct 24, 2010)

Awesome Dude, Good shots!


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## hydealfred (Oct 26, 2010)

I really like derelict control towers - looks a great site with plenty to see


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## Lazarus (Oct 29, 2010)

hydealfred said:


> I really like derelict control towers - looks a great site with plenty to see



It is freakin' awesome. I go there quite a lot because its good practice for moving quietly and keeping out of site. I'd be happy to give a "tour" to anyone who comes to Norfolk and fancies a splore.


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