1880 's Channel Tunnel Attempt (photo)· Page 2

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exspelio
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9 years ago

#21

Ahh yes, I did wonder if that was it, thanks 😉

Always remember, nature is in charge, get it wrong and it is you who suffers!.

Peter Burgess
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9 years ago

#22

The propulsion of trains through the tunnel was planned to be on the pneumatic railway principle. There was one other scheme of this kind that was planned which would have run under the Thames from Waterloo but was never started as far as I know.

grahami
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9 years ago

#23

Thanks Peter, of course the compressed air locomotives etc. were only used during the boring. I've not come across any descriptions of the movement of the spoil from the borers to the shafts, but I presume the actual trackwork and layout was based on conventional mining practice of the time.

In passing it is said that Beaumont cutter(s) were used during the driving of the Mersey railway tunnel in the early 1880s, but from the illustrations in the Graphic which are frequently pictures, the actual boring head looks much more like English's modification than Beaumont's original. The source I quoted earlier does not say what happened to the modified original machine after the new ones arrived - so I suppose its possible that it was subsequently employed on the Mersey tunnel!

Grahami

The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.

rufenig
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9 years ago

#24

Crystal Palace pneumatic railway
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Palace_pneumatic_railway

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/11/26/londons-lost-pneumatic-railways/

jones the slate
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9 years ago

#25

It is a very interesting place, or at least it was! After repeated break ins, I've heard the access door has now been welded shut!

When I spoke to Rail track many years ago, they said that even their engineers were no.longer allowed into the access adit, due to the condition of the roof etc. The adit was also used for drainage of the rail tunnel above( Dover to Folkestone line).

Any offers over a fiver....

ttxela
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9 years ago

#26

Oh dear, well that doesn't bode well for my trip then 😞

Yorkshireman
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9 years ago

#27

Hope I'm not repeating information already posted, but this could be interesting:

http://tinyurl.com/pxbw9hr

Ooops - looks like grahami already posted some of this!

Cheers

derrickhand
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9 years ago

#28

I would have considerable reservations about Victorian compressed air locomotives being up to the task... Same for compressed air powered TBMs, at that range.

Electrical equipment transformed mechanised tunnelling.

plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose

NeilR
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9 years ago

#29

In the early 1970s I did a bit of work in Col. Beaumont's tunnel. We were drilling from the old tunnel to put in situ stress meters into the path of the TBM on the trial drivage for the current tunnel. We were certainly out under the sea because I remember being pretty pleased when my stress meter showed an excellent trace of the changing load on the rock as the tide rose and fell.

I also spent a couple of weeks in test galleries on the Sangatte side. I suspect that these galleries were developed from the remains of the 1880s works.

I'll see if I can find the photos.

ttxela
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9 years ago

#30

"NeilR" wrote:

I'll see if I can find the photos.

That would be excellent :thumbup:

sinker
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9 years ago

#31

"ttxela" wrote:

"NeilR" wrote:

I'll see if I can find the photos.

That would be excellent :thumbup:

Wow, yes please! :flowers:

Yma O Hyd....

grahami
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9 years ago

#32

"derrickhand" wrote:
I would have considerable reservations about Victorian compressed air locomotives being up to the task... Same for compressed air powered TBMs, at that range.

Electrical equipment transformed mechanised tunnelling.

The tunnels on both sides of the channel are an existing fact - and done by England's design of compressed air tunnelling machines, not on the scale of a modern TBM perhaps - but obviously up to the task they were set at the time. If politics had not interfered, they would I am sure, have completed the job.

Grahami

The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.

NeilR
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9 years ago

#33

May take longer than I thought - currently decorating and can't get at all of the cardboard boxes yet!

allerdene
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9 years ago

#34

Compressed air locos of standard gauge were designed for the tunnel . Illustrations can be seen at the institute of mining engineers Newcastle on Tyne (see NEIMME website or call the library) Illustrations are also available of the Lismore narrow gauge locos used in the driving of the tunnel . these wer made in a durham foundry and some were used at th Lampton collieries. Recently a replica has been made (Called "hissing Sid" which operated a couple of years back at Beamish steam festival) Colonel Beaumont who was the mastermind behind the tunneling machine was an past president of NEIMME

NeilR
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9 years ago

#35

I've uploaded some of my pictures taken in June 1974 at La Descenderie at Sangatte. Sadly I can't find any pictures of Col Beaumont's efforts at Shakespear Cliff. I left the project a couple of weeks after we had done the job to join the NCB and it appears they never sent me a copy of the report!

davetidza
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9 years ago

#36

A Compressed air loco outside the Bochum Mining Museum

Adit Surfer
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4 years ago

#37

Last time I went down the Beaumont tunnel was in 1987 when there was open access directly through the retaining wall at Folkestone Warren. There was a short entrance adit which then intersected at a right angle the main lined tunnel.

There was also the remains of an old TBM sticking out of a spoil heap alongside the railway, which a TBM expert friend of mine had researched and identified as Beaumont's machine. Not sure whether it subsequently got reclaimed for the Eurotunnel Exhibition centre...

We also intersected the Beaumont tunnel about 2 miles offshore with the current Chunnel Service Tunnel around 1988, where we dismantled the old cast iron lining and backfilled with weak concrete for 50m either side. This was so the main running tunnels either side of the service tunnel could just bore straight through.

I spent all my money on wine, woman and song. The rest I wasted.

grahami
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4 years ago

#38

Sorry to disappoint, but the TBM sticking out of the spoil heap was not a Beaumont, English or a Brunton (or even a Hunter) but was a Whittaker patent from the 1920's attempt. I've got some very small shots of it somewhere, though I can't remember where I trawled them from... I'll upload them later.

Grahami

The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.