Talking about unusual ships, we talked about the non-standard functional tasks of traditional ships and vessels. But technical progress sometimes moves along a very unusual trajectory. How would you react to a coastal navigation facility that moves along rails laid at the bottom, and receives energy from a contact wire, the poles of which are installed directly in the sea? This is not an invention of Jules Verne, but a real vehicle of the early twentieth century.
In this article, we will talk about the unusual technical solutions of the early twentieth century, and how some of them continue to serve until now.
Looking at photographs of this vehicle (it is not entirely clear how it classify – maybe like a sea tram?), it’s hard to get rid of the idea that this is an illustration for novels Jules Verne or Herbert Wales. But this transport system – let’s call it that – really existed and worked. Why did the author take it to the courts? Look at the photo – the flag is raised on the flagpole, there are lifebuoys and a boat. But this structure received energy for movement from an ordinary tram contact network.
The history of the creation of this miracle is as follows. In the 90s of the XIX century, an English engineer Magnus Wolf was engaged in the construction of a suburban railway in the vicinity of the English town of Brighton, located on the English Channel coast. One of the branches of the road was supposed to reach the village of Rottingdean. I must say that the height of the tides in this part of the oceans is quite high. Therefore, the terrain for the future road was difficult – it fell into the zone of action of the sea tide. In order not to design and build complex engineering structures such as overpasses or dams (and this significantly increased the cost of work), Volk proposed a new type of rail transport, which he called “Pioneer”. The gist of the proposals was as follows. A railway track was laid at the bottom (special rails on concrete sleepers), next to it on high pillars 7 meters high – above the tide level – a contact network was mounted, similar to city trams and commuter trains. A specially designed two-deck “car” was moving along these rails. On the upper open deck there were hard seating, in the saloon there were leather sofas and a sideboard – how could it be without it. The total length of the route was 4.5 km, the speed was up to 14 km/h (it depended on the time of day and the strength of the tide), the number of passengers carried was 150 people. The total weight of the “car” was 45 tons. Each leg of the “car” rested on a cart in a waterproof casing. Two carts were leading, each had a 25 hp electric motor, and two were equipped with brakes. Electricity for the Pioneer was generated by a special generator located on one of the piers – the terminal station. The power plant worked on coal, generated a power of 60 kW. The Pioneer went on its first flight in November 1896. The cost of the project was £30,000. Today it is 2.4 million.
The name “Daddy Long Legs” has firmly stuck to this sea tram. Literally, it translates as “Daddy long legs.” So in the UK they call haymaking spiders – pigtails. For obvious reasons, this miracle of engineering did not work for long. There were frequent breakdowns, and once, during a storm, the Pioneer lay on its side. It all ended rather trivially. 6 years after the start of operation of the line, the city authorities decided to build breakwaters along the coast, and the Pioneer line had to be moved more seaward. Magnus Volk considered this inappropriate, and the project was closed. He received compensation from the city authorities for closing the line. After another 10 years, the infrastructure (pillars and rails) was dismantled for scrap. Today, at low tide, concrete sleepers can be seen at the bottom.
Despite the short service, “Pioneer” in the UK has gained popularity. In one of the films of the series about Poirotthe main character played by David Suchetis transported to the island in the English Channel on a similar “tram”.
Few readers know that by the end of the 19th century in Western Europe there were about 20,000 km of water canals specially dug as transport highways. Of course, they are very different from our White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Moscow Canal, the Volga-Baltic and Volgo – Donskoy canals, built in the 30s – 50s of the twentieth century. The difference lies in the dimensions of the channels and gateways. Soviet channels are designed for the passage of cargo and passenger ships with a displacement of up to 6,000 tons (this figure is average, it may vary depending on the design of the ship). European channels are small, designed for cargo barges with a displacement of no more than 200 tons. But they spread out in a wide network in France, Germany, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland.
Slightly digressing from the topic, let’s say that these channels are still working today. Their transport value, of course, has greatly decreased, but cruise barges (!) go on them – old barges converted to transport 15-20 tourists who slowly cross the continent and get acquainted with the rural life of Europe. Curious moment. Bicycles are required on such cruise barges according to the number of passengers. Tourists can disembark and ride around the area while the barge slowly moves along the canal. The idea took root so much that they began to build special cruise ships in the hulls and dimensions of old cargo barges. Their length is about 40 meters, width 5 meters. Capacity 22 passengers and 6 crew members.
But back to channels. At first they were dragged by barge haulers. Yes, yes, ordinary barge haulers, which he depicted Ilya Repin. Only Western European. But by the 90s of the XIX century, their work became ineffective. It was impossible to drive barge caravans with ordinary steam tugs. One of the features of the European channels were tunnels in the mountains. Ordinary tunnels cut in the mountains when laying a canal. The length of the largest reaches 5.5 kilometers. The small size of the tunnel did not allow steam tugs to pass through. In addition, the smoke from the chimney made it impossible for people to be in tow and barges. Barges began to tow tractors along the bank of the canal. And then the engineers found an even more economical option. By the beginning of the 20th century, the countries where the canal network was dug were quite well supplied with electricity. An idea arose – to “cross” trolleybuses and trams, which were then rapidly developing in European cities, and small tugboats. The solution turned out to be elegant and workable. Instead of a steam engine, an electric motor was installed in the hull of a small tug, which, due to its dimensions, could work in the system of European canals, and a pantograph similar to a tram or trolleybus was installed on superstructures instead of a mast. Supports were installed along the bank of the canal and a contact network was mounted. One electric tug could pull several barges with cargo. This system has proven to work. She was sentenced by the dimensions of the channels. Small barges could not provide a large volume of traffic. In addition, barges with tugs could disperse only in certain places, which reduced the possibility of transporting goods along the canal. It was like a single track railway. All this led to the fact that in the 50s the mass use of electric tugs was completed. The electrical network has been dismantled and the canals are now used mainly for cruise tourism purposes, although some canals continue to use electric tugs.
Tuer is a special class of river vessels. The principle of their work is as follows. A chain is laid along the bottom of a river or canal, which is passed through a special gear with a drum on a tuer. The steam engine rotates this gear, and the tuer goes along the chain, as if sorting through it. Tuyers, or, as they were sometimes called, chain steamers, were widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Initially, they were created to replace barge haulers, and were widely used both in Europe and in Russia. Before the advent of electric tugs, they also drove barge caravans along European channels. As we said, steam ships were not the best option for canals in Europe because of the tunnels, which is why they were replaced by electric tugs. And in the 20s of the twentieth century, 3 electric tugs were built specifically for the Saint-Quentin canal, similar to electric tugs. They served until 2005, leading barge caravans through the tunnels on the canal. Tuyers worked on a 20-kilometer section of the canal, where the two longest tunnels are located. Such electric vessels carried from 10 to 40 peniches. Peniche is a river barge for the transport of goods through canals up to 40 meters long. Tuer with a caravan passed 20 km in 10 hours. Two caravans passed through the canal a day in the same direction. One of the electric tuers has become a museum.
The most effective was the use of tuers on straight sections of rivers or canals. If the channel was winding, the effectiveness of the tuers dropped significantly. Tuyers worked on rivers until the 30s – 50s of the twentieth century in those places where there was a strong current, and ordinary wheeled or screw steamers did not row against it. Today they are practically gone. We will discuss one exception below.
In Russia, the Tuyers worked on the Sheksna, the Upper Volga (from Tver to Rybinsk) and the Svir. From Tver to Rybinsk, a chain 395 km long was laid along the bottom of the rivers. There were 14 steamers-tuers operating on this route, and in total at the end of the 19th century there were 26 tuers in the Russian Empire.
In our time, the era of Tuers has passed, although in Russia there is one significant exception. There is a problematic place for navigation on the Yenisei River. These are the Kazachinsky rapids. There the riverbed crosses the spurs of the Yenisei Ridge. Because of this, the current speed reaches a record value for the lowland rivers of Russia – 20 km / h. Even modern river boats with their powerful power plants cannot move against such a current. The length of the rapids is 3.5 km. Since 1903, the Angara steamboat-tour has been operating on the Kazachinsky rapids. In 1964, he was replaced by a diesel-electric ship-tour “Yenisei”. This vessel has a displacement of 620 tons, a length of 58 meters and a speed of 31 km/h. “Yenisei” is still working, and so far there are no plans to replace it. A design feature of the Yenisei is that this ship can operate as a tug and as a regular tug. The Yenisei is the only operating tug in the Russian river fleet.