Titan I - Epitaph ++ Launcher Air Filtration Facility ++

Major Locales of the Titan I Complex

Launcher Air Filtration Facility

This area is essentially a miniature version of the power house air handling facility with the exception that it is intended to supply the complex itself and not 4 very large diesel generators. Now that you've squirmed through the sphincteresque access tunnel, you find yourself crouching in a 5' diameter tunnel with primer-red walls that look just a little too much like a view through a colonoscope. Having emerged somewhere in the middle, the passage leads off into darkness in 2 directions. Unless you represent the Lollipop Guild, you'll find moving through these tunnels awkward and uncomfortable.

Fig. 6 Launcher Air Facility

Looking at the figure above you can see how this structure supplies air to to the blast locks. The air is drawn in at the intake shaft at the lower left and is conditioned and forced out into the complex where a multitude of blowers force it onward to the rest of the facility. Blast valves are shown as circles entering through the ceiling: 1 in blast lock #2, and 2 in blast lock #1 at each end of the 'T" tunnel at the top of figure 6. The personnel access you need to squeeze through to get where you are is just north of the bend in the tunnel.

Oh sure, it looks roomy... well it's not! Note the sheer walls in the lower portion of the shaft-- not much to grab onto is there? There's the electrical cable again, running right up the shaft.

The join visible between the smooth section and corrugated section is a flexible join between the tunnel and blast lock #1 below. The thick, black rubber visible in the join is one of the water stop seals designed to flex a great deal without tearing and hopefully keep water from infiltrating. As you can see, the alignment of the 2 sections has skewed quite visibly over time along the flexible join as the 2 structures slowly drift and settle.

This area is actually in fairly good shape. There is some rust, but further down the tunnels it is surprising how clean this area is. It is probably due in no small part to the fact that it's hard to get here and there's not much to mess with until you reach the filtration area.

Is that a polyp up ahead? Looking towards the filtration area, this is the view pretty much in both directions. Mind your head. Those protruding bolts and corrugations can smart a lot. Did I mention the 5' clearance?

Visible once again, is the standard household electrical cable (noted earlier at blast lock #2) snaking out of sight towards the surface and defying logic as it takes the path of most resistance out of the complex.

Heading north the tunnel splits to send air to different sections of blast lock #1 (see fig. 6 above). I imagine it was once quite breezy in here with the fan operating. Better keep moving, the CHUDs come when you sit still too long.

Ok, it's a T-shaped tunnel junction. Not much to say about this really...

Moving on, we arrive at the blast valves that lead to the blast lock below. If I'm not mistaken, the hose leading down in the next picture is the compressed air conduit that supplied the blast valve (hey, what else could it be? If you have a better guess, let's hear it.) and is attached to a nearby pressure accumulator (at right) maintained at somewhere between 200 and 300psi.

The tunnel dead-ends at the blast valves. Although I didn't see any condensation when I visited, clearly the rust at the bottom of the tunnel is coming from somewhere. Must be seasonal.

Looking down at the 36" blast valve.

The other tunnel looks the same so let's head to the filtration area where there's a lot more to see. A rusty grating covered the drop shaft to another blast valve at blast lock #2 but I am distrustful and stepped over it carefully. Look! There's that electrical cable resting in the bottom of the tunnel!

Looking back down the tunnel from the filtration area. Hot water supply and return lines drop down to the blast lock and another blast valve is just beyond the pipes.

A first look into the filtration area. The blower is directly ahead and used to move air at over 28,000 cubic feet per minute along the tunnel. It's safe to assume that this unit was shut down before anyone came through here.

This really blows! - The gaping maw of the centrifugal fan.

This was an interesting area to see (for me anyway) because very little salvage had taken place. This was not a surprise given the difficulty in reaching this area even before they put a huge concrete block (swiped from one of the launcher seal chambers-- basically a sump discharge) over the surface entrance. Only small items like detectors and environmental controls and damper actuators appeared to have been removed. Sadly, its not the most interesting area of the complex. Now if only scrappers had missed the Control Center and Power House! That would be something to see!

See more of this area by clicking below:

Launcher Air Facility Cont. or Go to Main Map

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