Huge thank you to @KM_Punk for inviting me along and it was great to meet @Yorrick, @elhomer12 and @Snake Oil (and the other chap, whose real name I know, but not his forum name if he is on here).
Megatron is the infamous combination of two Sheffield culverts (the Sheffield station culvert and the Ponds Forge culvert), which takes the River Sheaf under about a kilometer of Sheffield city centre to meet the River Don. We joined Megatron through the Porter brook tributary.
Had I known the Porter brook was named after the beer - because of its iron-ore stained brown colour - I would have got myself an appropriate safety brew. So for that reason alone I’ll have to go back...
There was a fair on when we rocked up, and a police van parked right on top of the access. The easy walk down to the Porter brook by its stone walled bank or through the proper stepped access were both temporarily fenced off. This left one route paved with hundreds of used hypodermic syringes, made even more interesting with a few jumps and hurdles. The pedestrians of Sheffield weren’t expecting to see a wadered edition of ninja warrior, but that’s what they got, and might explain why some of them stopped to watch.
This small slippery stretch of open brook was probably the most treacherous of the whole explore (with the exception of the suddenly disappearing floor)…
…but soon gave way to the two stoopy tunnels peppered with the chilled out cave spiders that populate every culvert. And this is where KM Punk cranked up the tunes…
The two stoopy tunnels direct the flow of the Porter into the culverted Sheaf, which at this point runs through three arches. There is an antenna here and another someway downstream. Google hasn’t helped me understand why they’re there, but trying to put the pieces together from what I could find out they may help monitor the flow of water (or something that travels in the water, like fish). Either that, or it’s tellie for the junkies. There is plenty of river debris throughout the culverted sections of the Sheaf, just in case you were wondering how high the water gets.
We headed upstream through one of the arched culverts. These start off lined with concrete and turn into brick, ending at an open concrete boxed section. This then morphs into two broad brick arches that run to the inflow. The boxed section must be right underneath the station, because that’s where the thuds of trains rolling over the tracks were loudest.
Looking upstream...
Looking downstream from the concrete box section (with evidence of flooding)...
Broad arch leading to the inflow. There was another man hole access at the other end and a sealed inflow.
By now my camera was starting to get wobbly on it's tripod because the bolt that holds the platform on had worked loose. I thought it was just bent at the time. If I’d realised, I probably would have put my camera away then instead of carrying it around by its tripod. I tried to compensate for the wobble by over-emphasising the opposite position and letting it flop back down, hopefully into a decent enough position to take a capture.
Off we went downstream back to the Porter brook tributary and the weirs leading into the culverts, themselves lined with many arches. I think this was my favourite bit of the whole system, and somewhere I intend to go back to with more stuff to light it up. It’s also where I got a plunking and double wader breach. I’d seen a football in a pile of sticks and thought it might make a nice photo. As I confidently strode towards it on the nice solid concrete floor, the nice solid concrete floor suddenly disappeared into nothing but just above waist height water.
Looking down the weirs
Blue Arch
Coloured Arches
As the triple arches of many little arches ran into the outflow, the natural light entering the culvert lit up the brickwork.
The short open section reveals that photo opportunity. Maybe it's the combination of the gradient of the land and the water flowing over it....
Group photo in front of the triple culverts and a cracking opportunity to empty both waders water. These stone walled tunneled sections with brick ceilings are huge at first and then reduce in height as you go further in.
We took the centre tunnel. If the last section was anything to go by, picking your tunnel is a little like Russian roulette. The walls separating the tunnels start out being punctuated by arches so you can move from one to another no problem, but the walls soon become solid and you're left with your mystery obstacle course (which might contain another disappearing floor)...
Happily for us we made it through without any difficulty. The three tunnels now give way into a huge arched section. I took one shot here and then put my camera away, because it was now so wobbly it was pointless trying to take a shot. Unfortunately, I missed the epic arched section as a result, but hopefully one of the other reports will cover it. And as we waded out to meet the River Don, the water got deeper, the cave spiders got fatter, and more waders were breached…
Thanks for reading (I appreciate there are plenty of reports on this already) and thanks as well to everyone on the day for letting me tag along.
Cheers,
EOA
Megatron is the infamous combination of two Sheffield culverts (the Sheffield station culvert and the Ponds Forge culvert), which takes the River Sheaf under about a kilometer of Sheffield city centre to meet the River Don. We joined Megatron through the Porter brook tributary.
Had I known the Porter brook was named after the beer - because of its iron-ore stained brown colour - I would have got myself an appropriate safety brew. So for that reason alone I’ll have to go back...
There was a fair on when we rocked up, and a police van parked right on top of the access. The easy walk down to the Porter brook by its stone walled bank or through the proper stepped access were both temporarily fenced off. This left one route paved with hundreds of used hypodermic syringes, made even more interesting with a few jumps and hurdles. The pedestrians of Sheffield weren’t expecting to see a wadered edition of ninja warrior, but that’s what they got, and might explain why some of them stopped to watch.
This small slippery stretch of open brook was probably the most treacherous of the whole explore (with the exception of the suddenly disappearing floor)…
…but soon gave way to the two stoopy tunnels peppered with the chilled out cave spiders that populate every culvert. And this is where KM Punk cranked up the tunes…
The two stoopy tunnels direct the flow of the Porter into the culverted Sheaf, which at this point runs through three arches. There is an antenna here and another someway downstream. Google hasn’t helped me understand why they’re there, but trying to put the pieces together from what I could find out they may help monitor the flow of water (or something that travels in the water, like fish). Either that, or it’s tellie for the junkies. There is plenty of river debris throughout the culverted sections of the Sheaf, just in case you were wondering how high the water gets.
We headed upstream through one of the arched culverts. These start off lined with concrete and turn into brick, ending at an open concrete boxed section. This then morphs into two broad brick arches that run to the inflow. The boxed section must be right underneath the station, because that’s where the thuds of trains rolling over the tracks were loudest.
Looking upstream...
Looking downstream from the concrete box section (with evidence of flooding)...
Broad arch leading to the inflow. There was another man hole access at the other end and a sealed inflow.
By now my camera was starting to get wobbly on it's tripod because the bolt that holds the platform on had worked loose. I thought it was just bent at the time. If I’d realised, I probably would have put my camera away then instead of carrying it around by its tripod. I tried to compensate for the wobble by over-emphasising the opposite position and letting it flop back down, hopefully into a decent enough position to take a capture.
Off we went downstream back to the Porter brook tributary and the weirs leading into the culverts, themselves lined with many arches. I think this was my favourite bit of the whole system, and somewhere I intend to go back to with more stuff to light it up. It’s also where I got a plunking and double wader breach. I’d seen a football in a pile of sticks and thought it might make a nice photo. As I confidently strode towards it on the nice solid concrete floor, the nice solid concrete floor suddenly disappeared into nothing but just above waist height water.
Looking down the weirs
Blue Arch
Coloured Arches
As the triple arches of many little arches ran into the outflow, the natural light entering the culvert lit up the brickwork.
The short open section reveals that photo opportunity. Maybe it's the combination of the gradient of the land and the water flowing over it....
Group photo in front of the triple culverts and a cracking opportunity to empty both waders water. These stone walled tunneled sections with brick ceilings are huge at first and then reduce in height as you go further in.
We took the centre tunnel. If the last section was anything to go by, picking your tunnel is a little like Russian roulette. The walls separating the tunnels start out being punctuated by arches so you can move from one to another no problem, but the walls soon become solid and you're left with your mystery obstacle course (which might contain another disappearing floor)...
Happily for us we made it through without any difficulty. The three tunnels now give way into a huge arched section. I took one shot here and then put my camera away, because it was now so wobbly it was pointless trying to take a shot. Unfortunately, I missed the epic arched section as a result, but hopefully one of the other reports will cover it. And as we waded out to meet the River Don, the water got deeper, the cave spiders got fatter, and more waders were breached…
Thanks for reading (I appreciate there are plenty of reports on this already) and thanks as well to everyone on the day for letting me tag along.
Cheers,
EOA
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