# Into the Magic Mountain



## Newage (Dec 14, 2013)

Hi all

This visit was set up with members of the Airfield Research Group, many thanks to "Tocsin Bang" and "Winch it in" for the company and banter on the day.

Magic mountain was a bunker built during the cold war at USAF Alconbury, it was built for the 17th Reconnaissance Wing as there command bunker and
a location to decode inteligence data from the TR1 aircraft. This is the only one of it`s kind, and its the only bunker I`v had to drive in too....
So let see a few pictures.

The first shot is of one of the entrance doors, its the smaller of the two.







Looking in through the main entrance, the large brown structure is a steel and concrete portcullis which leads in to a very large decontamination area.






Enterance to the bunker proper, last set of blast doors.






To the right of the first set of blast doors and portcullis is this extra heavy blast door, its a personnel entrance in to the decontamination suite.






The next series of pictures are all taken in the decontaminati suite, there is a large main room and off of this are a line of 4 corridors each of which
is again split in to smaller and smaller decontamination rooms, each room has showers and also each room is fitted with an intercom system so that
anybody inside and comunicate with the decontamination operator.

















The Upper floor of the bunker is now just a mass of empty rooms they all vary in size









But there is one room which is much much bigger, you can`t get a real scale of the size of this room but it`s massive. There is an emergency exit in one wall it`s also protected by a
very heavy steel and concrete blast door.






The lower level of the bunker is where the plant rooms are, there are rooms for the main electrical switch gear, Air conditioning, Air supply for
keeping the bunker at a constant over pressure, water supply.






These are the very high pressure air tanks that supply the bunker to keep it at an over pressure.






This is the Air con plant room.






Well thats just about it, the last shot is in one of the outside corridors, the iron steps lead up to the surface, inthe shot one of the emergency
exits can be see along with more over pressure valves.






Well thanks for looking, all comments are most welcome, there are more pictures on my FlickR page if you want more bunker goodness pop over
to http://www.flickr.com/photos/newage2/

Cheers Newage


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## tumble112 (Dec 14, 2013)

An amzing place this and good amount of info too. Thank you.


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## UrbanX (Dec 14, 2013)

Whoa, never seen such a comprehensive set of pics from this place. Looks a fab day! 
Glad to see it has been kept in such good condition too. 
Great stuff, thank you fir sharing your pics.


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## P Bellamy (Dec 14, 2013)

Great shots.

Sorry about leaving the lights on in the plant room mezzanine level, I thought you were joking at first. 

PB


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## Newage (Dec 14, 2013)

no props P, I just like shooting these places in the dark, Next time I come up to Alco-pops Id like to get some outside shots
I didnt get any at all.

Cheers Newage


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## krela (Dec 14, 2013)

Very nice indeed.


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## MD (Dec 14, 2013)

Awesome stuff 
I'm so jealous of this


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## night crawler (Dec 14, 2013)

Well a superb set of photos, wondered where it was when I saw a preview on Flickr


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## chazman (Dec 14, 2013)

top set of pics.had to look after a similar site once.makes you feel weird thinking about what may have happened had these needed to have been used for real.


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## steve2109 (Dec 14, 2013)

very interesting and a great report


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## flyboys90 (Dec 14, 2013)

Splendid report & images very informative indeed,looks like no expense was spared building this site- lots of $$$!


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## professor frink (Dec 14, 2013)

Good job fella, all this stuff seemed a brilliant idea in the cold war era.


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## King Al (Dec 15, 2013)

Superb pics Newage, really enjoyed this report  That place is awesome!


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## oldscrote (Dec 15, 2013)

great stuff matey I love these things.

QUOTE=flyboys90;277513]Splendid report & images very informative indeed,looks like no expense was spared building this site- lots of $$$![/QUOTE]

Apparently cost on completion in 1989 was $69 million,and was rendered redundant pretty soon after by the end of the cold war


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## GPSJim (Dec 15, 2013)

Great pics! I love these old Cold War bunkers, I'm just waiting for one to come up on eBay


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## sYnc_below (Dec 16, 2013)

Newage said:


> Many thanks to "Tocsin Bang" and "Winch it in" for the company and banter on the day.



You are more than welcome 
Props for beating me to it with the pix, will post some up soon.

Some externals from a few years ago if anybody is interested: http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=20604&highlight=magician


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## Newage (Dec 16, 2013)

Just been looking through all my pictures form magic mountain and discovered that I'v got no external shots
At all, guess i should of been taking pictures rather than cadging roll ups of off wintchitin...

Ops


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## P Bellamy (Dec 16, 2013)

I'm sure we can sort external access for you pretty easily.


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## sYnc_below (Dec 17, 2013)

chazman said:


> makes you feel weird thinking about what may have happened had these needed to have been used for real.



this was used for real...LOTS !!


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## krela (Dec 17, 2013)

All the USAF facilities were used extensively, the US were in a constant state of alert with 4 minute response readiness for a decade or more.


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## rapidman (Dec 27, 2013)

I love this post!!  Thank you 

I can almost see RAF Alconbury from my house and always wanted to see inside Magic mountain building 210 
Closest ive got was i was caught "Pretending to have a wee" by security looking around it when i was there for the open day. They gave me lift back to the car park but it saved me walking or waiting with 100's of ppl for 2 busses lol ;-)


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## Harry (Jan 7, 2014)

That is a cracker!


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## Ace5150 (Jan 8, 2014)

I LOVE Cold War bunker pics, these are among the best I have ever seen.
Well done, fella


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## sYnc_below (Jan 9, 2014)

This reminds me, I need to get my pix up from the day...


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## dora_marquez_86 (Jan 11, 2014)

really great site ....well done


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## Hendreforgan (Jan 13, 2014)

. . . and not a Coke machine anywhere.


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## urbexlady (Jan 23, 2014)

Fantastic report. Very informative and great shots. Thanks for sharing.


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## bodrick (Jan 28, 2014)

carried out an ex here back in the 80's, when the USA bomb'd some country in the middle east. Where the hell did all the aircraft come from.


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## godzilla73 (Feb 3, 2014)

Very good stuff chaps...I'll be angling for an invite next time!
Godzy


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## steveT (Apr 10, 2014)

Great pics! I was stationed there from 82 - 85 and was escorted though the "mountain" once to fix some equipment. Great memories!


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