Another place for a base?

[tsofian]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1535129069/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzR1VDV0RMMk5IM1hFJ mVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzExNDg2QjlFMTdLSlk4UU5DJmVuY3J 5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4MTQ1MDEyNEZQVFVCUlRQTVdIJndpZGdld E5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmR vTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

How many other abandonned rail tunnels are there in the US?

[dragoon500ly]

Just some random thoughts...

Rail tunnels (and mines) generally have paper trails that will reveal their locations. Tunnels also have the old rail beds that can still be traced. One tunnel near my home has been abandoned since shortly after the Civil War, and the road bed can still be traced from the neighbouring mountains, this is mostly the blasting work used to construct the bed, but you can see the problem.

To utilize the tunnel, besides a massive purge of records, it would require an extensive deconstruction of the road beds, that will attract attention. IMHO I'd avoid tunnels, at the very least, in the more heavily populated sections of the country.

Mines, especially the older ones that didn't pan out might be a useful alternative, but the drawback is these dud mines, would not have extensive tunnelling, thus requiring major work.

So what to do?

One approach might be to have a university 'sponsor' a new laboratory/experimental station, that for environmental reasons would be placed underground. After several years, the experiment concludes and the university, demolishes the lab for "environmental reasons". Then have a couple of groups of urban explorer's confirm the total destruction of the lab. Move along, nothing to see and here are the YouTube videos to prove it.

Now the Project can move in through a secret entrance and occupy their base.

Another possible use of a tunnel would be building an off-shoot to conceal a bolt-hole or a cache, this would depend on the size of the mountain, of course, another drawback would be future expansion...

Some arguments have been made to use military bases/test ranges for Project construction. With the levels of satellite surveillance during the Cold War, I'd recommend staying as far away as possible!

[mmartin798]

The mention of a university just triggered a thought. As I live near one and my spouse works at it, that is one place I hadn't considered for a base but could be useful. One advantage is that many are constantly under a state of change. Add onto and/or remodel the stadium, road construction, build a new research lab/accelerator/hospital, road construction, a donor wants to expand their legacy, road construction, need more green space, road construction, etc. It's not perfect since you still have the potential paper trails and lots of Looky Lous, but there is plenty of cover for heavy trucks, slow-building, and the like. Might be able to strike a compromise there.

[dragoon500ly]

Hmm older buildings that were once heated by steam often have quite extensive tunnels for the pipe runs and for maintenance, not to mention the old steam power plants and coal bins...

[mmartin798]

Indeed. Campus is riddled with them. This year's construction is a little heavier than most years, with more work on the FRIB being done, two research and teaching hospitals being built, about 15 miles of roadway under construction on the campus and probably a couple of other projects I am forgetting. This does not include the three 5-7 story tall apartment buldings being build in the surrounding city.

[CraigD6er]

Hi everyone. Long time lurker and newly joined member here!

Many moons ago when I ran my UK based campaigns, I located my main base under a motorway service station. I chose Maidstone services on the M20 in Kent because it is nearby, I knew it quite well and it needed only very slight modification. Physically it is located on a triangular patch of land that sits on the opposite side of the motorway from any large habitation, it isn’t overlooked being both slightly higher and behind a large embankment and the access roads are high level, crossing the motorway and adjacent embankments to reach the site. One side is bordered by a railway line. With the 6 lane motorway and embankment one side, the straight open rail line another and woods and then open fields on the third it was defensible and fairly secret for a public place! Small hides could be located on each side to keep watch on the perimeter and the access road blocked quite easily. The surrounding countryside, whilst hardly mountainous or even truly hilly, is rolling and I felt it could provide a degree of shielding from any bombs targeted on Maidstone (rail links and County town), which was about the only nearby target likely in a general war. In various campaigns it served for The Morrow Project, where at different times it provided both a project base akin to Prime and a government one, and in Twilight 2000 where it also became a government bunker. Being basically a lazy gamer it suited me that the design would also have served for a more general WWIII game where it becomes a modern RSG (Regional Seat of Government), as a base in a superhero campaign, in a spy game for any form of secret organisations that needs a base (UNIT, THRUSH etc). As such it was a bit of a hybrid, having features less likely for Morrow, but they could be easily removed/ignored/modified.

In my world I modified the services at the building stage, having my version of the Morrow Project build a secret base underneath as the groundworks for the topside work was done, using a proxy construction firm that they owned. They then ran the motel through shadow companies. The main base is underneath the motel (which was unobtrusively strengthened anyway and for the government version could have provided barracks for extra personnel) and an ancillary base (a secret additional area, open to all sorts of uses as required; lab, prison, command centre etc) was built under the adjacent shops and fast food outlets. Access was via the motel basement storage area – I’ve no idea if the real one has a basement but mine did - and an outside grounds keepers hut, as well as an emergency exit or two. The ancillary base had an access point hidden in the shopping area and a secret tunnel into the main base. The service station fuel tanks were larger and slightly deeper than normal for such places and in the government version I fudged the old WWII oil pipelines that linked many airfields in the South and East to allow a spur to run here too. I put a staff stop on the railway line (basically just a narrow concrete platform similar to those seen in rail yards over here) so a train could stop and offload personnel there too; this allowed government personnel to be evacuated from London in an emergency. Being located on a busy main road (also part of the UK’s Essential Services Route/Military Road Route – codenamed STAG) vehicle access is going to be kept clear for emergency use as long as possible in any situation, which suits the idea of using it as a government site. During peacetime it is easy for duty staff to arrive, mingling with the regular traffic. In the same way, supplies and equipment could be bought in amongst the large number of trucks that stop there each day. I toyed with the idea of making the motorway serve double duty as a landing strip but decided against, although helicopters could always use the lorry park.
For use as a secret government bunker, I added a small police traffic division control room with a tower that overlooked the motorway because that added justification for a good camera and communications network to the site that could then become the hub of base/region security and I also poached an asset from another local services on the M2 motorway, which had a small yard for highways maintenance gear, which I thought would be a good thing for an official base to have on hand and could quickly be taken over by a detachment of the Royal Engineers.