For sale: Eurotunnel Tunnel Boring Machine 444
BabyDave writes "BBC News reports that Eurotunnel are selling one of the 580-tonne Tunnel Boring Machines used to dig the Channel Tunnel on eBay, with proceeds going to charity. The auction closes on the 12th of April, and bidding currently stands at 1300 pounds. Anyone who's interested should note that the buyer must collect the item themselves, and returns will not be accepted."
Use for this? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Use for this? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Use for this? (Score:5, Funny)
So don't buy it unless you wanna be bored.
Re:Use for this? (Score:5, Funny)
MOD UP! (Score:3, Funny)
You know, Osama... tunnels... evading allied forces... he could use a tunneling machine... get it? ha ha. ha. ha? anyone?
Re:Use for this? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Use for this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Use for this? (Score:5, Interesting)
It's been talked about. It's not very feasible though. There's virtually nothing up there. The climate is harsh, the population is sparse and the terrain is impassable in many areas (both in North America and Asia). Back in the 1860s a group of companies attempted to string telegraph wire across the Bering straight [fortlangley.ca] to connect North America with Europe (using existing or new telegraph wires across Siberia). However the successful deployment of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph wire ended these efforts. It was literally cheaper to lay undersea cables then it was to attempt to build (not to mention maintain) telegraph wires in the harsh Artic environment.
If it's too harsh to lay wire think about what you'd need to overcome to lay railroad tracks. Plus where would your high-speed trains go? The nearest Russian city of any significance would be Vladivostok -- thousands of miles away. According to Travelocity I could fly there from LAX for about $1,300. Why would I take a multi-day train ride across the Arctic and the Bering straight?
Freedom Tunnel (Score:3, Funny)
Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
2) Attach nuclear warhead
3) Point down
4) Threaten the leaders of the world
5) ??????
6) Profit!
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
5) Ward off team of rag tag heroes and/or MI6 agents
who try to stop you, sent as a last ditch effort to save
the planet, accomponied by inspirational music and/or
excellent camara editing. Either them or.... Austin Powers.....
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
5) Melt.
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Evil Uses Anyone? (Score:2, Funny)
Profit! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Profit! (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine... (Score:5, Funny)
Getting it home (Score:2)
Re:Getting it home (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Getting it home (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Getting it home (Score:2, Funny)
A beowulf cluster of helicopters.
Re:Getting it home (Score:5, Funny)
How would I collect the item? (Score:2, Funny)
If that machine is so boring ... (Score:5, Funny)
Can get that elsewhere for less... (Score:4, Funny)
if only (Score:5, Funny)
Re:if only (Score:3, Informative)
Link on Slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Link on Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:Link on Slashdot... (Score:2)
Wonder if we can /. the counter.
retro comment... (Score:5, Funny)
Shipping Plan (Score:2, Funny)
I'm in Australia too! :-)
Ah, memories... (Score:5, Funny)
[*: don't ask...]
What I read.. (Score:5, Funny)
I knew there were too many holes on eBay..
*on-topic* sig response... (Score:5, Funny)
So when the only tool you own is a 580-tonne Tunnel Boring Machine, every problem begins to resemble... what?
The English channel?
Can't resist..... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:*on-topic* sig response... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:*on-topic* sig response... (Score:4, Funny)
When the only tool you own is a 580-tonne Tunnel Boring Machine, every problem that doesn't involve large-scale excavation certainly becomes a lot more interesting.
Stuff them! (Score:5, Funny)
TBM? (Score:2)
Re:TBM? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:TBM? (Score:2)
Re:TBM? (Score:3, Interesting)
So this is presumably the French one, reassembled, but at the British side?
Re:TBM? (Score:3, Funny)
the left side of the roads
Re:TBM? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, I'm hoping that the one on eBay is the French TBM that is now resident in Britain, because if it's the British one then the "buyer collects" clause is a real bitch!
Yeah right.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yeah right.... (Score:2)
I like the whole bit about payment methods too.
Re:Yeah right.... (Score:5, Funny)
Bering Strait (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bering Strait (Score:2)
In other news today... (Score:4, Funny)
His last words were "Goatse, I'm home."
I need one of these... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I need one of these... (Score:2)
Collect it youself? (Score:2, Funny)
So baby... (Score:2, Funny)
Just what I need (Score:2)
Oh wait..
Oh boy! (Score:2)
so... (Score:2, Funny)
because if we can't mod this thing, what's the point?
Why would you want this for any useful function? (Score:2)
No Feedback? I don't think so... (Score:5, Funny)
Understatement of the Year in an Ebay Auction '04 (Score:5, Funny)
I think they should have allowed postage, just required it be DIY. They could have finally determined the LD50 for stamp glue, and collected payment several times over when each successive bidder kicked the bucket(payment up front, right?)
i read the news today, oh boy (Score:3, Funny)
and though the holes were rather small,
they had to count them all,
now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall,
i'd love to turn you on.
Hmmm... (Score:2, Informative)
China (Score:4, Funny)
Finally, I'll be able to fulfill my childhood dream of digging to China.
Re:China (Score:3, Informative)
Sex Aid (Score:2, Funny)
Is this the one in the photo or not? (Score:5, Interesting)
driven off diagonally into perpetual oblivion in order to let the other one go past because they aparrently do not have a reverse gear.
I thought the buried one was on offer for 1 pound to anyone who could retrieve it.
I guess this one (if it's truly the one in the photo) isn't the one that's buried.
Well, either way, they don't tell you the state of the bodywork or how many miles it'll do to the gallon.
Re:Is this the one in the photo or not? (Score:5, Funny)
I think you mean gallons to the mile
Re:Is this the one in the photo or not? (Score:2)
Re:Is this the one in the photo or not? (Score:5, Informative)
However, there were multiple TBM's used at the shore end(s) of the tunnel to dig the tunnels from the coast(s) to the terminals. (IIRC, something like 10 TBMs overall.) This auction is most likely the cutter head from one of those TBMs, or a spare cutter head for one of the main TBMs. It emphatically *isn't* the whole machine.
Re:Is this the one in the photo or not? (Score:5, Interesting)
Certainly isn't. The whole machine was something like 400-500 feet long, including the spoil collection kit, the hydraulics to steer it all and the kit to insert all the segments. There was a control booth of sorts, concrete spraying apparatus, conveyers, and all sorts of other fun things. These TBMs were collossul. I've seen this TBM head from the motorway passing the Eurotunnel Offices, and it is pretty big.
Underground Travel (Score:2)
Ooh! (Score:2, Funny)
Neato!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Neato!! (Score:5, Funny)
Shipping's a bitch (Score:2)
Re:Shipping's a bitch (Score:4, Interesting)
Heavy-lift rockets (Score:2, Funny)
That's just the front end of the TBM (Score:5, Informative)
Eurotunnel used eleven TBMs. The main four TBMs that drilled under the channel were not recovered. The other TBMs were used for the access tunnels at each end, and for the service tunnel. These look like TBMs used under land for the access tunnels.
If it were in anywhere near working condition, it could be sold on TBM exchange. [tbmexchange.com] Here're a large TBM in working condition for sale. [tbmexchange.com] Only has 6Km of mileage on it. Through solid rock.
A TBM isn't just a drill. It builds the tunnel. Up front, there's a cutter head, but that's just the front end. Behind the cutter is the machinery that lines the tunnel, usually with precast concrete segments. The cutter advances the width of one segment ring, and then a circle of big wedged-shape segments is inserted behind the cutting section. Once those are in place, the hydraulic cylinders that push the machine forward can push against the new section of ring for the next advance. This also squeezes the ring against the previous rings, sealing up any gaps. No more than one ring width of roof is ever unsupported.
Then there are systems for debris removal, moving segment rings up to the TBM, laying railroad tracks on which the segment ring cars travel, grouting between the rings, and such. The whole rig can be several hundred feet long.
Note that the inside of the finished tunnel, with liner in place, is smaller than the TBM. So if you bore from both ends towards the middle, as Eurotunnel did to save time, you don't get your TBM back. You have to cut it apart and remove the pieces.
Re:That's just the front end of the TBM (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:That's just the front end of the TBM (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. Each ring is made of segments. In newer sections of the London Underground, you can see metal ring segments bolted together, and it's clear how this all works. TBMs typically use six to ten segments per ring, and have a big hydraulic arm to lift them into position. The segments travel up to the rear of the TBM on narrow gauge railroad tracks, which are also used to remove the dirt.
If anybody really cares, see Segmental Concrete Lining Design and Installation [mines.edu], which will tell you more about this process than you ever wanted to know.
Re:That's just the front end of the TBM (Score:3, Funny)
Self Delivery? (Score:5, Funny)
delivery not included...... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm going to wait. (Score:3, Funny)
Life is too short to be bored.
If these things reach Zion... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm going to go work on my Mech battle suit now.
What's the cost to operate? (Score:3, Interesting)
It probably wouldn't be cost effective, but wouldn't it be cool to catch a train from one coast to the other and have the trip last about six hours? :)
Worth remembering (Score:3, Interesting)
When I worked on the Jubilee Line Extension in London and went down 20m (that's below the water table) to see a slurry tunnelling machine I was amazed a) at how hot it is even that far down and b) how dangerous it is.
There are pressurized fuel and bentonite (a kind of rock lubricant) lines everywhere and large carbide tipped cutting teeth which can jam and flip the entire machine at it's rock face.
People work inside these machines when they're working and as a consequence this TBM will have killed more than a few people.
Re:Wow! (Score:2)
By the time you raise it to the surface its worth will be negative.
Re:Wow! (Score:5, Informative)
Well, considering the it's probably mostly steel, and that Baosteel Group [china.org.cn] "has purchased 50,000 tons of the scrap steel from "Ground Zero," the ruins of the September 11 terrorist attack, at no more than US$120 each ton"
I guess the scrap metal for the 580 ton thingy should be worth $50-$100 K.
Operative Phrase "Shipping Not Included" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Operative Phrase "Shipping Not Included" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Operative Phrase "Shipping Not Included" (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not sure of how many of the 6 sent towards the middle were buried and how many dismantled, but certainly th
Re:Lets hope... (Score:3, Funny)
Akin to digging a hole in a bucket of diarhoea...
Re:location (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:location (Score:2)
Re:location (Score:5, Interesting)
When the boring machine was first put by the visitors centre, it had a painted sign on it saying "FOR SALE - APPLY WITHIN". I think they honestly thought someone would buy it for some other large scale tunnel project.
There were two boring machines, one starting at the French end, and one starting at the English end. When the tunnel met in the middle they were a matter of millimetres apart. Pretty impressive engineering feat!
The boring maching in Folkestone is actually the one that started at the French side, with the one that started in England dug off to one side and left below the channel. (When they met, they could not pass, obviously
I also beta tested the tunnel, but our train didn't stop because it was on the pre-opening "locals go free" trips to convince us that digging up all the local countryside and destroying small villages was a good idea.
It's amazing how you forget: I use the tunnel all the time now and until writing this message had forgotten all about the anti-tunnel pressure groups at the time.
Re:location (Score:3, Interesting)
The part that they are selling is *NOT* a machine. The orignal machine was more like 300 ft long. They are selling the cutting head.
There was still the jacking sections, the placement of tunnel sections, the spoil removal, and power and guidance sections.