Nubrick
2nd
February 2001.
Located
in the industrial heart of UA City, the Nubrick brick yards is HUGE! The place
is great. It has about six major buildings and four minor ones.
The Main Shed
When we first entered the plant, we were in the large main shed, shown in the panorama above. This huge shed houses the kiln (which we climbed into), smaller kilns, some offices (sadly vandalized) and some small storage rooms. A series of small rail tracks along the floor make this the second site we have discovered a miniature railway at. There are some thin sheeting over some of the oil filled pits in the floor. Not a good thing to step into.
The main shed is one of the best attractions of the entire site. It is huge, running most of the length of the site. It is divided into two main areas. When I first visited the site we found a whole pile of old junked electrical parts lying around, including sensors, optical fibres and even an old dot matrix computer printer. Also strewn about were piles of old manuals, magazines and other material. Happily there were also a number of warning and danger signs piled in a heap which we obtained a few souvenirs from.
We wandered through one of the smaller firing kilns into the second part of the main shed. This was huge, with a number of gantries and a huge hot air pipe running most of it's length suspended from the roof. Don't go into this pipe as it is asbestos lined. There are also a series of heavy brick lined doors into the big main kiln here that you can poke into. The floor of the kiln is full of holes and covered in soot so you may want to avoid going into it.
Inside the main shed, close to the main kiln is a small control room which probably controlled the kilns. The control panels were mostly intact when we visited first and second times, but when we did the Q-Bert catch up Expo they were damaged.
Inside the main shed.
The interior of part of the main shed
Looking through the main shed towards the small upper office
There are plenty of these pools full of nasty smelling oil and muck. Note the rail tracks on the floor
Good view of the interior of the main shed
Washing station for the wagons that once pulled the bricks. Note the tracks and chain pull system.
The really evil smelling pits of muck
Offices inside the main shed, full of junk
Looking towards the middle part of the main shed.
The upstairs office.
There are several offices in the main shed. This one is on the roof, in the southern part of the shed, by the gantry. When we first explored the brickwords there was a stairway to access it. This was cut away later. Then there was a raised walkway. One night when exploring, some bastard had removed part of the floor of the walkway, resulting in one of us falling part way through it. No serious injuries, but a nasty fright.
Missing floor from the walkway
Looking up through the hole in the floor
Small office on the roof of the main shed by the gantry
The same office
View onto the roof of the main
shed.
The roof is asbestos sheets, and is not at all strong. You would fall right
through it.
See what I mean
Northern end of main shed
Looking along the northern part of the main shed
More of the northern part of the main shed with admin building on the right
One of the control rooms inside of the main shed in 1996
Panels in a the same control room in 2000
Outside the little control room
A big pipe
Another big pipe, once part of the blower system for the kilns
Pipes near the middle kilns
Old rusted vent pipe
Middle of the main shed looking towards the Coke Machine building
Middle of main shed, loading bay
Holes in the wall for ventilation
Chains in the floor of the middle kiln area
The northern section of the main shed with the big main kiln on the left.
The Kilns
Entrance in side of the main kiln
Inside of the huge 70 metre long main firing kiln. Bricks were pulled through and fired from gas jets beneath the kiln
It looks a lot like a rail tunnel, as essentially that's what it is
Standing on top of the huge kiln
The sides of the kiln are insulated
with some sort of powder, maybe fired sand.
It is very deep, and things sink into it like water. We threw in this brick
that disappeared from view fast.
Lots of blower fans on top to extract hot air
View off the side of the kiln into the control room
Old leaking asbestos lagging
An explorer about to step into a hole in the top of the kiln.
Roof
from the top of the kilns it is possible to get into a small shed on the brick-works roof. It offers good views over the complex. The roof itself is not stable, and walking on it would be suicidal.
The group take a breather
Looking back towards the 'Pyramid' from the admin building, the main shed on the right and one of the big ones to the left.
Outside the main shed looking towards the admin buildings. A washroom building is on the right. The 'Pyramid' is right behind this area
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