Modderfontein Bike Park - what's happening

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

That area is fenced off - They are the current bunkers used to store explosives by AEC

 

In the area we ride their are buildings built behind large embankments - these are the old bunkers currently being used as stores by some companies - One is being used by Sea Scouts I think.

 

There is also a section near the river run with the old dynamite mixing stations where the old management built a trail through the old buildings - cool to ride through - Looks like old WW2 bomb shelters - Hopefully new guys will keep this section as well

The ruins are also one of my favourite parts! Pity they aren't cut as well there is so much potential and it feels like Jurassic bike park! 

[madmarc]

 

Wow! Is this still current ? - I wonder how many residents are aware or even seen this

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Wow! Is this still current ? - I wonder how many residents are aware or even seen this

I have seen a different poster at Oakes Coffee Roastry. The above may have been by Flamingo or online, I don't recall where I got it. Yeah current or not, it's good to know 

[Muttley]

Wow! Is this still current ? - I wonder how many residents are aware or even seen this

Can you share more info with us (if possible) about the plant..? 7KM radius seems massive- is there a reason for it being so large?

[Dexter-morgan]

I personally knew one of the survivors of one of the blasts there, he unfortunately passed away about a year ago.

[Eldron]

I'm also pretty sure the evergreens planted in concentric rows around the facility are to arrest the blast wave in case of an "uncontrolled energy release".....

[Long Wheel Base]

I have seen a different poster at Oakes Coffee Roastry. The above may have been by Flamingo or online, I don't recall where I got it. Yeah current or not, it's good to know 

Sjoe I fall within that 7km radius easily and have never seen or heard of any precautions like this. Scary.

[Long Wheel Base]

Called the ROSE Alarm used to evacuate the factory  - Gets tested every Friday at noon. I'm surprised they still test it - Not much happening there now that would result in an emergency evacuation.

 

I was present when some terrible accidents happened

 

In the apprentice training bay practicing for trade tests when a mixing station blew up which was about 1.5km away - Bricks and debris came through the roof luckily no one got hurt. The percussion blew out most of the windows

 

working in the compressor room on the Urea plant - a pump exploded in the power station approx 900m away - what was left of the pump impeller cam through the roof and killed one of the Engineers.

 

In the detonator manufacturing plants all machinery and tools were made of wood to ensure there were no sparks generated.

 

On the Nitric acid plant there was a round flat filter approx 5m in diameter that had to be changed once a year. The filter mesh was 100% palladium - there were 2 armed guards inside the room and 3 outside. When the fitters went in they had to strip down kaalgat and wear a white paper like overall. When you finished you removed the overall and got dressed in your normal overall in a separate room - the paper overalls had to be incinerated. When the filter was transported to the plant for installation it was escorted by same armed guards - the fitters doing the installation were changed every 30 min.

 

Clearly they never trusted us  

Sjoe that's hectic. I am not surprised you started working with those German farming machines. Much safer. Are you still doing that? Travelling to Germany as much as you used to?

[I FLY]

Can you share more info with us (if possible) about the plant..? 7KM radius seems massive- is there a reason for it being so large?

in the 90s I remember a large explosion at this factory.

 

I lived about 25kms away at the time and could hear the blast and see the smoke.

[Muttley]

in the 90s I remember a large explosion at this factory.

 

I lived about 25kms away at the time and could hear the blast and see the smoke.

I think I recall this too 

[madmarc]

Can you share more info with us (if possible) about the plant..? 7KM radius seems massive- is there a reason for it being so large?

 

The 7km radius is mainly for chemical fallout - I wasn't aware they still manufactured chemicals as most plants were shutdown.

 

When i worked there the main most dangerous were

 

Ammonia

Sulfuric Acid

Nitric Acid

 

From there the clever scientists developed all kinds of products like fertilizer - pool acid - chlorine etc etc

 

In the process their largest production was Ammonium Nitrate (Ammonia + Nitric acid) which when mixed with Lime becomes LAN that you buy for your grass. It's not volatile but can be used for homemade bombs when you add an accelerant  and an ignition source - If you wanna know how ask Timothy McViegh, he blew up some building in Oklahoma using the stuff.

  

But when mixed with diesel becomes the white granular explosive used in open cast mining. Think it was sold under the name Energex at the time. This is where the mixing stations were used, the recipe had to be exact or it would explode and the reason why the stations were unmanned during mixing and where most of the Modders explosions happened. Once its mixed its fairly safe to handle and needs a detonator to set it off.

 

Other explosives were cable type called cordite mainly used in underground mining - this type never exploded per se but rather burnt very quickly (40 000 ft/sec) so when wound into a coil and inserted into a hole in the rockface it had the same explosice effect.

 

Another was PE4 which is a putty based explosive like you see in the movies - This is mainly used in demolition with shaped charges for directional demolition. Also mainly used by military - lots of bridges and buildings in Mozambique & Angola no longer exist thanks to this stuff.

 

The other main fertilizer manufactured was Urea (Ammonia + Liquid Carbon Dioxide) used to boost crops for agriculture, it ends up containing over 50% nitrogen - So if you don't have an icebox to keep your beers cold - throw 1/5 a kilo Urea into a bucket of water and chuck your beers in - within a few minutes the water temp reduces down to about 3 deg C  just make sure you rinse the bottle before you open the beer or your hair will grow 1 inch per day.

 

Other chemicals were

 

Copper Sulphate - Water treatment

Aluminium Sulphate - Host of uses

Lead Sulphate - Not sure

Copper OxiChloride - Wood treatment - Thats the green colour on wooden poles

Arsenic Acid - The sh%t your wife will use to kill you one day.

CO2 - Dry ice. Here they produced CO2 for 29c / ton and sold it for 290 ronds / ton 

 

Okay history lesson over 

[Muttley]

The 7km radius is mainly for chemical fallout - I wasn't aware they still manufactured chemicals as most plants were shutdown.

 

When i worked there the main most dangerous were

 

Ammonia

Sulfuric Acid

Nitric Acid

 

From there the clever scientists developed all kinds of products like fertilizer - pool acid - chlorine etc etc

 

In the process their largest production was Ammonium Nitrate (Ammonia + Nitric acid) which when mixed with Lime becomes LAN that you buy for your grass. It's not volatile but can be used for homemade bombs when you add an accelerant  and an ignition source - If you wanna know how ask Timothy McViegh, he blew up some building in Oklahoma using the stuff.

  

But when mixed with diesel becomes the white granular explosive used in open cast mining. Think it was sold under the name Energex at the time. This is where the mixing stations were used, the recipe had to be exact or it would explode and the reason why the stations were unmanned during mixing and where most of the Modders explosions happened. Once its mixed its fairly safe to handle and needs a detonator to set it off.

 

Other explosives were cable type called cordite mainly used in underground mining - this type never exploded per se but rather burnt very quickly (40 000 ft/sec) so when wound into a coil and inserted into a hole in the rockface it had the same explosice effect.

 

Another was PE4 which is a putty based explosive like you see in the movies - This is mainly used in demolition with shaped charges for directional demolition. Also mainly used by military - lots of bridges and buildings in Mozambique & Angola no longer exist thanks to this stuff.

 

The other main fertilizer manufactured was Urea (Ammonia + Liquid Carbon Dioxide) used to boost crops for agriculture, it ends up containing over 50% nitrogen - So if you don't have an icebox to keep your beers cold - throw 1/5 a kilo Urea into a bucket of water and chuck your beers in - within a few minutes the water temp reduces down to about 3 deg C  just make sure you rinse the bottle before you open the beer or your hair will grow 1 inch per day.

 

Other chemicals were

 

Copper Sulphate - Water treatment

Aluminium Sulphate - Host of uses

Lead Sulphate - Not sure

Copper OxiChloride - Wood treatment - Thats the green colour on wooden poles

Arsenic Acid - The sh%t your wife will use to kill you one day.

CO2 - Dry ice. Here they produced CO2 for 29c / ton and sold it for 290 ronds / ton 

 

Okay history lesson over 

Wowzers.. thanks for lesson and epic reply!

[madmarc]

Sjoe that's hectic. I am not surprised you started working with those German farming machines. Much safer. Are you still doing that? Travelling to Germany as much as you used to?

 

yep still working for them - I went from the chemicals used to provide your food to the machines that plant and harvest your food.

 

Havnt been to the Vaderland since end of Feb - As soon as Oom Cyril says its okay i be on the 1st flight to my other office - Not on SAA though 

[Long Wheel Base]

yep still working for them - I went from the chemicals used to provide your food to the machines that plant and harvest your food.

 

Havnt been to the Vaderland since end of Feb - As soon as Oom Cyril says its okay i be on the 1st flight to my other office - Not on SAA though

Haha, it will be a while before we fly there again anyway. Having said that, Germany would be one of our first routes that we fly to again. Once the borders are open we won't be the first to cross them so you would definitely need to fly with someone else.

[Dieter ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

The 7km radius is mainly for chemical fallout - I wasn't aware they still manufactured chemicals as most plants were shutdown.

 

When i worked there the main most dangerous were

 

Ammonia

Sulfuric Acid

Nitric Acid

 

From there the clever scientists developed all kinds of products like fertilizer - pool acid - chlorine etc etc

 

In the process their largest production was Ammonium Nitrate (Ammonia + Nitric acid) which when mixed with Lime becomes LAN that you buy for your grass. It's not volatile but can be used for homemade bombs when you add an accelerant  and an ignition source - If you wanna know how ask Timothy McViegh, he blew up some building in Oklahoma using the stuff.

  

But when mixed with diesel becomes the white granular explosive used in open cast mining. Think it was sold under the name Energex at the time. This is where the mixing stations were used, the recipe had to be exact or it would explode and the reason why the stations were unmanned during mixing and where most of the Modders explosions happened. Once its mixed its fairly safe to handle and needs a detonator to set it off.

 

Other explosives were cable type called cordite mainly used in underground mining - this type never exploded per se but rather burnt very quickly (40 000 ft/sec) so when wound into a coil and inserted into a hole in the rockface it had the same explosice effect.

 

Another was PE4 which is a putty based explosive like you see in the movies - This is mainly used in demolition with shaped charges for directional demolition. Also mainly used by military - lots of bridges and buildings in Mozambique & Angola no longer exist thanks to this stuff.

 

The other main fertilizer manufactured was Urea (Ammonia + Liquid Carbon Dioxide) used to boost crops for agriculture, it ends up containing over 50% nitrogen - So if you don't have an icebox to keep your beers cold - throw 1/5 a kilo Urea into a bucket of water and chuck your beers in - within a few minutes the water temp reduces down to about 3 deg C  just make sure you rinse the bottle before you open the beer or your hair will grow 1 inch per day.

 

Other chemicals were

 

Copper Sulphate - Water treatment

Aluminium Sulphate - Host of uses

Lead Sulphate - Not sure

Copper OxiChloride - Wood treatment - Thats the green colour on wooden poles

Arsenic Acid - The sh%t your wife will use to kill you one day.

CO2 - Dry ice. Here they produced CO2 for 29c / ton and sold it for 290 ronds / ton 

 

Okay history lesson over 

SUBSCRIBED 

 

That was awesome!