The "Macro" Drains - Sept 08 - 15pics

On sunny saturday we'd planned to meet up with awwrisp, ultrix and phil.d.
Now phil.d had slept in so he didnt make this one, im sure he's kicking himself too, lol
Off to Bradford for a day of underground crazyness, that is the bradford drainage system.
Now im totally oblivious to why its called "macro drains" as im sure we never went near a macro, im probably getting the wrong end of the meaning though.
At about 9:30 we met the guys and went off to the end to drop a car off, bloody good job we did to as its a long way. Got back to the start after a quick bit to eat, at about 10:15ish, geared up and set off. Instantly realising that mine and mikes wellies where probably not the best of things to be wearing. Then at the first bridge awwrisp stood on some glass which went right through into his foot. So out we can to find a fishing shop to get some more waders and tidy up. Luckily 5 mins up the road was a fishing shop.
At which point mike bought some waders too and left me to suffer with just wellies. So off we went again at about 11:30.
10 mins in I could tell i was going to get wet. Wellies people are not the best thing to be doing draining. lol....I got very wet.
Now im pretty sure while in there we missed a hell of a lot of things. Was still a good trip and has got me right into this draining business, its a totally different world down there.

Enough babbling on with the pictures.

Now id forgot the tripod and I had the shakes big style so got nothing underground, but still managed a few dark ones if not a little blurry.































So im not big on history or anything, and I couldnt really find anything out about this monster. Still its old and new. Parts must date back to Victorian times and some of the newer parts cant be older than a few years. Its really varied and from what ive read one of the best in the UK. Good way to start of my draining explores.
Im really gutted now that we didnt go further up on of the off shoots as im guessing it held a great treasure im yet to see.
Still was a top day and thanks to awwrisp and ultrix for sorting this one out. Would have got lost without you guys.
My first proper report in a while so sorry for talking crap, really enjoyable though. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I did taking them.

Nice one mate. It seems like not only was it a good explore, but a good laugh and there were two accidents. Brilliant! The photos gice a good feel of what it was like. The idea of picture 1 is really good, and I love the last pic, you get a nice feel of the day from it. Nice report and good to have you back at the helm of UrbexLeeds. Good work.

Cheers bud, was a great day, many more in the pipeline I hope (no pun intended)

Nice one MM...did you see many floaters!

**Topic Merge This MSG in Reply to Awwrisp's Pictures Below**

Mate, some awesome pictures there. Really very cool. Love that one where it changes to a rectangular tunnel. First couple are really good too. The water looks surprisingly clear. Did you see any fish or eels?

Finally managed to get this done at the weekend, had a really good day and was great to meet the monks.
Started off just before Bradford Odeon and came through to the outfall Took us about 3hours to get through.
Not alot of underground shots as the water level was quite high and fast so no safe places to get the tripod down.



















if any one would like to go on a proper photographic trip and spend a couple of hours doing the upstream part upto Forster Square station get intouch.

Nice work guys.... good shots. shame about that finger!

meanwood_monks wrote:

Now im totally oblivious to why its called "macro drains" as im sure we never went near a macro, im probably getting the wrong end of the meaning though.

Macro means big mate, Makro is a shop

Some really nice picture there

Meanwood, have you got a tripod yet? LOL

Nice pics guys & well done for getting this under your belts!

Is Macro the drain with the big underground vaulted section? or am i thinking of another bradford drain?

KingElvis wrote:

Some really nice picture there

Meanwood, have you got a tripod yet? LOL

Yup we're just useless at remembering it. lol

dkmn wrote:

Is Macro the drain with the big underground vaulted section? or am i thinking of another bradford drain?

As far as im aware this is the one, but like I say I really dont understand the names for these places. Macro, Masticator etc, all seem very random.

Masticator is named because it has a big poo munching screw setup.

Dunno why this one is named Macro, I'll check on darkplaces and report back. Apparently a side tunnel joins which takes you too a big sewer overflow? which is pootastic.

LoL ok explains a bit.
Yea we started to go up, but turned round as it was really slippery. Wish we hadnt now looks crazy some of the pics ive seen.
Next time

KingElvis wrote:

Some really nice picture there

Meanwood, have you got a tripod yet? LOL

That's actually how he sees the world

dkmn wrote:

Masticator is named because it has a big poo munching screw setup.

Dunno why this one is named Macro, I'll check on darkplaces and report back. Apparently a side tunnel joins which takes you too a big sewer overflow? which is pootastic.

What big poo munching screw setup ?? Didnt see anything like that on the way through meanwood beck... Theres not even any side tunnels for it to be down ??

Dunno where it is. Somewhere in middle? near some big cso chamber? Most of the reports on darkplaces show these big screw thingys

are we talkin about meanwood here or bradford??
If bradford we missed it but I think I know where it is, we started to go up one of the off shoots but never made it to the end.
As far as meanwood goes I thought it was just drainage. Though Im often wrong.

meanwood_monks wrote:

are we talkin about meanwood here or bradford??
If bradford we missed it but I think I know where it is, we started to go up one of the off shoots but never made it to the end.
As far as meanwood goes I thought it was just drainage. Though Im often wrong.

Dunno, but masticator is meanwood? Holbeck is Duplo and Bradford is Macro ?? And Masticator was mentioned