Down the Drain - a 3D printed diorama

[Dunalastair]

Small battery locomotives for mining and tunnelling projects are familiar, but how small can they get? For today's 'diorama a day' here is one of the smaller (smallest?) examples. If I remember rightly, the prototype was built by ISO Speedic for drainage tunnel construction, with the requirement that it fit within a relatively small pipe. There are a couple of articles in Industrial Railway Record from 1987 / 1988 describing such machines.

https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/back_issues.htm The driving position must have been less than comfortable...

 

So here is a printed model of the loco with limbo-driver.

 

 

The sewer pipe diorama allows a view 'down the pipe' ... the geometry made for interesting 3D design.

 

 

... and also 'down the access shaft'. This image was after the loco had been weathered and a matching spoil wagon had been added.

 

 

While not necessarily an appealing subject, this must be about as different a loco-powered railway to a GWR BLT as you can imagine. However, if the loco is dispensed with, then the crew access tramway running the length of a Convair B36 might just take the biscuit.

 

https://www.invisiblethemepark.com/2013/02/convair-b-36-bomber-cutaway-drawing-1950/b-36-bomber-cutaway-tunnel/

 

Not one for the claustrophobic.

[Dunalastair]

Rummaging around, I found my copy of Industrial Railway Record 114, with an article on ISO Speedic locomotives by Bob Darvill of the IRS. He visited the company, by which time 89 locos had been built. There is a drawing by Peter Holmes of one of the locos which I used for my model. The wheels had outside flanges, running on ladder-track. The article reminded me that there was an associated company Mini Tunnel, International, a name which lead me to a drawing showing how the locos were used. The larger image comes from a Google image search and might be ephemeral - the link below the thumbnail image should lead to a clickable version which might last longer. The article is in German but Google should translate.

 

 

https://www.unitracc.de/know-how/fachbuecher/instandhaltung-von-kanalisationen/sanierung/erneuerung/erneuerung-in-geschlossener-bauweise/schildvortrieb-mit-tuumlbbingauskleidung

Edited July 7, 2023 by Dunalastair

[ianb3174]

A friend of mine used to work in a diamond mine in South Africa during the 70's. Christmas day was when they closed and replaced the full size locos that worked exclusively underground. They had 1 year operational life before needing a complete overhaul. They were lowered down (vertically) the main shaft by crane and the old ones lifted out. One time they dropped a refurbed loco when the cable broke half way down. (think he said the shaft was nearly 1 mile deep). It killed a few people unfortunately. He didn't know much about the locos other than they were 'big' ones, like the ones that pulled expresses and big freight in the UK. It took them over a week to get it back out before the mine was reopened. 

[Dunalastair]

Scary story, thankyou. Similar activities at (I think) Silverwood Colliery were photographed.

 

and my 3D printed model of that mine loco

 

 

1cm squares and the N gauge Kato pantograph provide a scale for this small model. The printer was not working at its best when this print was extruded.

[009 micro modeller]

I like the diorama. Do you know what gauge they were? Are these ISO Speedic locos the same thing?

http://ukprsl.uk/first-results.asp

[Dunalastair]

Thankyou for the kind works, but sadly your link does not work for me. 

 

My model was (I think) based on the Speedic machines - the recumbent driving position is distinctive - but there has been a recent discussion on the Industrial Railway Society forum about similar and related machines from other suppliers. Minimum size locos operating in very confined spaces seems to have been one of the few areas where narrow gauge railways are still a useful solution. Even tunnelling contracts tend to use conveyors for spoil disposal and trains only for bringing in materials - particularly tunnel segments.

[009 micro modeller]

4 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

Thankyou for the kind works, but sadly your link does not work for me. 

 

My model was (I think) based on the Speedic machines - the recumbent driving position is distinctive - but there has been a recent discussion on the Industrial Railway Society forum about similar and related machines from other suppliers. Minimum size locos operating in very confined spaces seems to have been one of the few areas where narrow gauge railways are still a useful solution. Even tunnelling contracts tend to use conveyors for spoil disposal and trains only for bringing in materials - particularly tunnel segments.

If you go here and search ‘ISO Speedic’ as the manufacturer they should appear (oddly all seem to be in Hertfordshire, both preserved and in service): http://ukprsl.uk/home.asp

 

All are listed as 18” gauge although sadly there don’t seem to be any photos.

[Dunalastair]

Thankyou - that works. The photos shared on the IRS forum suggested that some had conventional inside flanges (to run on conventional track), some had outside flanges (to run on ladder track) and some had central flanges to be able to run on either, so 'gauge' perhaps has ambiguous meaning, rather in the manner of early plateways.

 

Another of the makers of mini-locos was Tunnequip - Steeple Grange apparently acquired a couple last year.

 

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/SGLRSOCIETY/posts/4855184531202149/?paipv=0&eav=Afbe8KXFAqwCfyKngiMh2O1cDIvLhsbKaKFqjjcbmAKgY_ub54DzxcJs5M270d3o8l0&_rdr

[009 micro modeller]

5 hours ago, Dunalastair said:

Thankyou - that works. The photos shared on the IRS forum suggested that some had conventional inside flanges (to run on conventional track), some had outside flanges (to run on ladder track) and some had central flanges to be able to run on either, so 'gauge' perhaps has ambiguous meaning, rather in the manner of early plateways.

 

Another of the makers of mini-locos was Tunnequip - Steeple Grange apparently acquired a couple last year.

 

 

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/SGLRSOCIETY/posts/4855184531202149/?paipv=0&eav=Afbe8KXFAqwCfyKngiMh2O1cDIvLhsbKaKFqjjcbmAKgY_ub54DzxcJs5M270d3o8l0&_rdr

They look very slightly larger than the Speedic ones. Is ladder track what I think it is? Literally made from ladders?

[Player of trains]

It won't have literally been a ladder I don't think but constructed in the same way with sleepers being rungs attached between two rails to hold it at gauge rather than the usual railway construction of rails on top of sleepers or fixings. 

 

What a fascinating topic this is though, I can think of rather a few uses of tiny tunnel railways like this in my Alnogg island project

[Dunalastair]

Ladder track is not unlike a guided busway - or indeed a camera dolly.

 

https://www.videomaker.com/how-to/shooting/camera-movement/a-beginners-guide-to-the-dolly-shot/

 

There are more ways to use rails for guidance than traditional railways ...

[009 micro modeller]

It would be good to see if anyone has taken a picture of a Steeple Grange Tunnequip next to one of their more conventional battery locos, just to see exactly how small they are.