Major Locales of the Titan I Complex

This is a log of changes and updates to the web site listed in descending order from newest to oldest.  This site is very much a Work in Progress and my work on it is ever on-going though updates may be slow.

If you are looking for what's new, you've come to the right place!  Links are provided to updated material when applicable, and postings are organized by date.  Check back often, you never know when I'll add something new!

Site Updates 2024

 

05/19/2024 - New document available in the Document Library.

Surrounded as I am by towering stacks of paper, each comprised of un-scanned documents, I have been laboring to reduce and digitize these misty mountains of aging tinder and get them online at last!

 

The new document is titled "Propellant Loading System Test Plans WS-107A-2 - Special Report No. 101" and is a detailed report on test plans for the OSTF (Operational Silo Test Facility) at Vandenberg AFB. This report details procedures, instrumentation, controls, simulations, comms, safety, and recommendations for the PLS (Propellant Loading System).

 

The files are available for download in the Document Library and more directly at the following link: Other Contractor Documents and you will find it among the documents there.

 

"But Pete," I hear you say, "documents are boring! I want to see pictures and videos." Well, I've got some of those coming up too. Just be patient dammit. I will be putting more historical photos on the Overpressure Archive soon and I have some old, Old, OLD video to share as well, and also some more recent footage which will be showing up here.

 

Furthermore, because I'm a scoundrel, I will leave you with a teaser that there are some big doings on the horizon, and if all goes well, you'll be seeing some pretty nifty stuff showing up here later this year. Thanks in advance to the folks who have made them possible and please keep up the good work!

 

And lastly, since I'm posting an update, I should mention that I'm going to do some housekeeping on the site here to clean up some clutter and out of date links etc. You likely won't even notice, but if you see anything wrong, broken or missing, please let me know. Thanks!

 

07/01/2024 - Some minor updates to the "Updates sections", and some Big Stuff coming soon.

I re-worked the Updates sections to hopefully provide easier navigation and a cleaner look. I also updated some dead links (but not all the dead links-- there are lots more I'm sure.) and noted they were no longer working.

 

While that's exciting and all, what I really want to tease about is some very interesting "Items" that will start appearing here this month. Because I'm a bit of a fiend, I won't say what just yet, but I think folks are going to really find the upcoming news and postings very interesting. Stay tuned!

 

07/25/2024 - After nearly 25 years, Titan I blueprints are coming to the site!

 

Cover sheet to the Lowry 724th SMS blueprints for the operational complexes.

Thanks to the ceaseless efforts of other missile fanatics like myself, blueprints for the Titan I sites will begin to appear here soon!

 

Massive credit goes to Gary of Siloworld and Dave from All Things Atlas, who have put forth considerable time, money and effort to digitize every last scrap of history regarding America's missile programs. Credit is also due others who have worked to preserve the history: The late Fred Epler and many others who sought out resources, made connections, collected documents and made phone calls to museums, to AF personnel both active and retired. All that work has finally yielded even further great results and has brought the very plans for the Titan I sites out into the light.

 

The blueprints will begin to be posted here shortly in batches, and will cover Lowry, Beale, Larson and Ellsworth Titan I squadrons. There will also be some technical updates drawings (design changes/corrections to problems) covering Lowry 725th SMS.

 

With these blueprints a horde of other photos of all stages of the Titan I sites' history have also been uncovered and will begin to show up in the Overpressure Archive as I add them.

 

Now I know I've been promising a lot over the past years, and haven't delivered much, but things will start coming together as I get them prepared. There's a HUGE amount of work behind the scenes getting all these items ready to post. Over the past few days I spent too many hours simply renaming files and optimizing them for uploading. I automate what I can, but sometimes you just have to do it by hand, and there are perhaps a couple thousand of drawings at this time, and more are likely to come later.

 

I will have to create a new place for the blueprints as the existing Document Library page is not a great place to jam many scores of new items. A new organized sub-section will house the drawings as they are added. I hope folks will be as excited about these drawings as I am. Keep checking back for their arrival!

 

11/24/2024 - At last! Blueprints and new photos are now online, plus some site navigation corrections.

As work continues on the blueprint preparations for posting, I have finally gotten around to sharing photos from a LONG time ago. Over a decade, in fact, as of this writing!

 

I'll be going with a Beale theme this posting, with both the photos and the blueprints representing the California Titan I sites of the 851st SMS. The photos will show the "B" site of the 851st SMS, AKA: Sutter Buttes. There's an interesting story behind the whole affair that I will document in detail in a future "Titan I Adventures" segment. For now, content yourself with the images taken by myself and gracious others to document this fascinating location.

 

Captions for the images may not appear immediately as they have to be manually added by myself-- a laborious task for any real number of images. But once in place, the captions will lend context and background about just what the heck it is you're seeing in any given photo.

 

About the Blueprints... (** WARNING ** CONTENTS MAY BE BORING!)

 

As the blueprints for the different Titan I squadrons were drawn up by different architectural firms, employing multiple independent construction contractors and consultants, there are differences in the nomenclature used, naming of some features, and the numbering conventions employed to organize the hundreds of drawings comprising the plans for a specific Titan I SMS.

 

The general indices to the drawings, if present, lay out the organization of the pages in logical groups divided by physical location and/or the type of information the page is focused upon.

 

These divisions usually were assigned an alphanumeric convention to refer to the vast complexes grouped by categories such as:

• Architectural - A
• Electrical - E
• Plumbing - P
• Structural - S
• Et cetera...

 

In the case of Lowry and Mountain Home, a number was assigned to a specific area or structure, for example, 59 for the antennas and terminal, 53 for the missile silos, 54 for the equipment terminals, and so on, such that organization yielded names like the following:

• 59-E-25 - Antennas, electrical, page 25 *
• 53-S-37 - Missile silos, structural, page 37
• 54-P-12 - Equip. terminals, plumbing, page 12

* The above designations are specific to the Lowry plans. Mountain Home used the same convention, but different numbers for locations. For example: 93 denoted the missile silos in the Mountain Home plans

 

The Beale blueprints were drawn up by a different architectural contractor and instead used another naming convention with the general format of : XX-Xnn. The first one or two letters designate the subject or location (eg: civil, entry portal, tunnel, etc.), and the next one or two alpha characters denotes Structural, Electrical and so on, followed by a number of two or greater digits in length.

 

This gave drawings named thusly:

• CC-S14 - Control Center, Structural, page 14
• MS-P5 - Missile Silo, Plumbing, page 5
• PH-M20 - Power House, Miscellaneous details, page 20

 

Very similar, you can see, but different. The Beale naming makes a bit more sense and is simple to follow without having to decode that "59" refers to the antenna silos, or "53" indicates that the page is about the missile silos, whereas TU-S28 is page 28 of the Tunnel Structural drawings. Simple!

 

Moving On: about the photos

 

It was long, long past time for more site photos to be added to the Overpressure Archive, and I'm pleased to say the time has come. This round of images heads west to new territory at one of the Beale 851st SMS sites: 851-C; otherwise referred to as the Chico site.

 

It seems impossible that it could have been a decade since I was fortunate enough to be invited along to see the Chico site, but yes, it was really over 10 years now, but it feels like it could have been half that.

 

The event was notable in that it was rather a whirlwind of activity and I was invited to join the ringleader of the event along with a sizeable group of other folks with an interest in the dark spaces underground.

 

There is nothing so wonderful as being allowed free roam of one of these magnificent spaces, and I assure you, I covered as much territory as I could, taking hundreds of (lousy) photos and (lousy) video before our coordinator gave the "Everybody out of the Pool" signal.

 

Immense gratitude is also owed to the owners of the Chico site for allowing us to, for one afternoon, invade and overrun their property in the name of curiosity, wonder and whimsy. I also thank them for their time as (let's call him Mr. R) gave us access and remained on-site for the better part of his Saturday when he could have been at the beach or grilling burgers instead of wrangling a horde of largely unfamiliar (though polite and courteous, to be sure!) people as they roamed unchecked through the many dangerous tunnels of Beale 851-C.

 

We began the trip with breakfast nearby, and then formed a lengthy procession of cars to the site that surely had people wondering whose funeral it was.

 

As we approached the site, I beheld a wonderous thing: there, poking above the trees was the radar test tower-- every Titan I had one, but before that day I had never seen one outside of photographs. Today, I would get to see one in person (but no, I could not climb it).

 

The collimation antenna-mast

 

After everyone filed in and emerged from their conveyances, cameras and camcorders in hand, we signed NDAs and waivers of liability to ensure our visit wouldn't be a risk for our hosts. We then fanned out like ants at a picnic and swarmed the surface of the Chico site.

 

Once Titan's Tomb was unsealed, I got a few more shots of the surface and, unable to hold off any longer, headed below as the familiar scents, peculiar to all underground facilities, enveloped me once more. It felt like I was arriving home after a long absence.

 

Witnesseth then, all ye present, these images chronicling another Titan I adventure. And ere long, photos far better than I could ever capture, taken by others with more photographic acumen and far better cameras will also be added. Enjoy!

 

An Update on the Update

 

In typical fashion, plans to roll out an update ended up being far more involved, and took far longer than expected. As an example, the above text was written about 3 months ago when I thought the update was mere days away from being posted. I was very wrong indeed!

 

Almost immediately I ran into issues that made plain it would not be so easy to shoehorn a major new section into the site, and now, with the goal of having the other shoe drop, let me bore you with the details:

 

Much of the heavy lifting is done, indeed, from the scanning and post proc work on the images themselves, to the organization of the resultant files and other details.

 

What remained was a terrible slog of tedious, manual tasks required to make posting the blueprints in an organized fashion possible, and hopefully, user-friendly. This was no small task and required several things, none of which could realistically be automated further, or done without simple raw effort.

 

First item to address was the fact that the drawings number in the thousands. Each scan produces a file with a computer-generated name having no connection to the contents of that image. This means every single file must be opened to see what it is, and then re-named with some meaningful identifier. Every. Last. File.

 

You truly haven't lived until you're spent a shocking number of hours over days, and yes, weeks, renaming hundreds and hundreds of files, one at a time, by hand. A quick looks shows that there are over 700 more files in just that one folder. There are a lot more in other folders.

 

It is deeply unsatifying work, believe me, but necessary to feel the satifaction of completing the task. There's no going back, I have to get this done! I want to get this done, if only to see it completed.

 

The next hurdle was that the web pages to house and offer the drawings did not yet exist. While I do all my own coding*, Web Developer is not a mantle I can claim without insulting the professionals out there. Nor do I have a team of young coders with their finger on the pulse of current design and conventions and the slew of never-ending changes to CSS to help me.

* I do however, borrow heavily from the web to find solutions for lots of things, and it's always been invaluable. I stand on the shoulders of Nerds!

 

Like many others, I'm my own worst critic, but from a practical standpoint I try not to let that stop me as long as the site works, more or less, and acheives its goals without being too clunky or infuriating in the process. And while to my eye, the site is ugly, outdated, poorly-organized and perhaps even confusing and difficult to navigate, I have continued to work on that with the knowledge that most people likely aren't concerned about my design hangups and just want me to get on with it already. Fair enough! I will continue working to improve and update the site while holding to the "Fugly-Yet-Functional" principal of design.

 

For now, the mis-mash of styles, new and old, inconsistencies, and just plain outdated and unsanctioned methods in the site will remain, but in the new pages some inroads toward modern demands are being made:

 

Responsive design, the ability of a webpage to adapt to differing display sizes automatically while still being readable and useable, has finally begun with the bluprints. That goal has, up to now, eluded me and derailed an effort to re-vamp the entire site a decade ago, but now sees life in the update today. But only in the newest pages where the blueprints reside. Going forward, that effort will be further applied, and with luck, expanded to allow greater access to the web site.

 

I have not rigorously tested the new pages, so you may encounter broken layouts and odd spacing on some pages. I did test basic functionality in 3 major Windows desktop browsers: Firefox, Chrome and (shudder) Edge. While there were some small, annoying differences, they were only cosmetic and didn't hinder use of the site. Apple and mobile devices, while I've tried to accommodate you, may encounter issues.

 

Another Appeal for Help

 

YOU are the frontline defense against mistakes, typos, errors, F-ups and just plain bad design and general issues and problems with the site. If you spot something that is inaccurate, hard to read, confusing or broken, I rely on YOU, the folks out there to tell me when and where I have erred. I do my best to stamp out errors and problems, but I can use all the help I can get! Keep me honest and on my toes and don't hesitate to let me know: Font hard to read, or too small? Let me know. Colors or contrast making things hard to read? Let me know. A paragraph states that the Cuban Missile Crises happened in 1982!? Let me know! Broken links? Missing images? Mis-spelled words? Terrible grammar? LET ME KNOW! (please!) Contact me.

 

Shut Up Already! Where Are the Blueprints?!

 

The blueprints are an offshoot of the Document Library, and so you'll find them linked there. All the blueprints will be found under a new main page here: Titan I Blueprints.

 

Because the work on the blueprints is ongoing, they will be released in installments. Beale 851st is featured first, with drawings covering the Antenna Silos, Control Center and Equipment Terminals. The rest will be added as they are completed and then drawings for Lowry 724th and 725th will follow, and so on.

 

Expect changes or revisions to pages without notice. Styles and colors or other changes may occur at random while I make more updates in the background**. Nothing endures but change!

** If not completely satified, return unused portion to receive a full refund.

 

12/07/2024 - More Beale blueprints & a few minor fixes you likely won't notice.

Now that the framework exists for posting the blueprints, it will make possible a more frequent cycle for updates for the foreseeable future. While it's still quite laborious to get them all done because each one must be added manually-- there's no good way to speed things up-- but at least there will be one or more updates per month instead of once or twice a year!

 

This time around I've continued to expand on the Beale 851st SMS blueprints and added 3 more areas of the complex: Civil, General and the Entry Portal blueprints are now completely finished and available.

 

The remaining 4 sections: the Power House, Missile Silos, Propellent Terminals and Tunnels should be complete early in the New Year.

 

Here are the links to the main Blueprints section and to the Beale Blueprints section: Blueprints, Beale Blueprints.

 

In other news, I fixed a couple missing image files that just vanished from the 3D Model section, removed archaic Google translation BS that is no longer needed (there's more of this to do), and fixed a couple old links that were wrong.

 

Additionally, I am slowly working toward bringing some aspects of the site being brought into the modern age of web dev a bit. The last post texted the waters of lousy responsive design, and so far, I've received no comments on whether or not this effort has failed for some users, been successful or otherwise impacted readers' use of the site. I DO welcome all constructive feedback, and there are a LOT of links in these new updates for me to screw up, so if you spot something broken or annoying or have any input, I'd like to hear from you, thanks!

 

12/21/2024 - My Misfortune Is Your Gain. More Beale Blueprints.

For the past 16 days I've been ill, first with some upper repiratory ailment, and once that was over, the lingering sinus issues may have given me a sinus infection to enjoy just for good measure.

 

Why would you care to hear about my sickness, you ask? Well, likely you don't, but as I am functional enough to sit at a desk typing away with a shocking percent of inaccuracy, I've been hard at work getting more blueprints up on the site. Otherwise, unchallenged by sinus headaches, and with the potential to infect other people keeping me away from other work, I am getting down to more updates right away instead of it taking me until January to get back to things.

 

The next 2 sections: the Power House, and the Missile Silos are done and now available for your viewing pleasure, and the last 2 sections: Propellent Terminals and Tunnels should be complete early in the New Year.

 

Here are the links to the main Blueprints section and to the Beale Blueprints section: Blueprints, Beale Blueprints. Only Beale prints are available so far, but more will be following as I get them ready so keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

 

Not much else to tell this time around since it's been a very short interval between updates. Likely Lowry blueprints will follow early in 2025 as I get them ready. It's going to be a hell of a lot of work!.

 

I haven't heard any complaints yet about the new updates so I can only assume that everyone loves everything about the new stuff right? Right? There are myriad opportunities for broken links with sooo many new items added, so I imagine it's only a matter of time before I make a goof, so if you spot something broken or annoying or have any other input, I'd like to hear from you, thanks and happy holidays!