That's no moon...

[ffutures]

...it's the Giant Tunnelling Machine of Doom

Some time last night they raised the footbridge again and got the first tunnel building machine under it - I'm not sure how complete it is at this stage, I suspect that they're still finishing assembly and tests. And will be proved wrong if it starts work tomorrow, of course.

I saw it looming through the mist this morning, but it was too misty to get good photos - tonight things were a lot clearer. This thing really is BIG, about 100 metres long - I've just taken successive pictures starting with the full visible length of it and ending with a zoom in on the cutting edge of technology.

There are trains on two of the six older lines passing the house - the red one is a Hammersmith and City underground train going off and down into a tunnel to the left, the other one is on the nearest or second nearest of four main lines - there's also a siding even nearer the wall, but it's rarely used now because it isn't electrified.

Pictures are on Wikipedia Commons if you follow the links.



I forgot to add wikipedia category tags for the pictures I uploaded on Sunday and can't figure out how to do it - can anyone tell me?

Comments

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I saw this today and thought of you.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know how they make the GPS work underground - mine has trouble if there are trees in the way.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Dwarves... damned clever little buggers.

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

Did they build this machine specifically for this project, or is it a machine that they've rented from Giant Tunnelling Machines Of Doom R Us?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, usually these things are built for a single job and are pretty much clapped out by the end of it, so they salvage any useful bits and scrap the rest (for example, there's one busied under the tunnel floor in the Channel Tunnel). They cost about 10 million a shot to build, and the project is going to take five years or so, and I would imagine that renting them would cost considerably more.

There are eight in all being used for this, so it's a fairly expensive project!

[johnreiher.livejournal.com]

The Beeb has an article on your mole problem Marcus:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17365934

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's linked in the first comment ;-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

forgot to add that since there are generally two machines meeting in the middle of each length of tunnel, and they narrow the tunnel by lining it as they work, they pretty much have to do it that way since there's no way of backing out.