Caterpillar tractor ferry of 1935
In August, 1935, the good folks at Science and Mechanics reported on this remarkable caterpillar-tractor "ferry" that took holidaymakers in Bigbury, Devonshire, a quarter-mile out to sea to the Burgh Islands. If only all ferries were like this.
Link
NOT a boat, but a caterpillar-tractor car, is this public utility, located at an English seaside resort. As shown, it holds its passengers above the waves, while picking its way over the bottom. A 24-horsepower engine operates it.
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It's still going.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgh_Island
Burgh Island is a fantastic place
It's still in operation! Maybe not the same tractor, but the same type of vehicle.
http://www.bristolnomads.org.uk/assets/pics/location_pics/bigbury/tractor.jpg
The "ferry" can be seen in Google Earth at: 50.28037°, -3.89785°.
Neat! Also on Google Maps: it's the grey rectangle at the end of the tracks in the sand.
Very cool, you can even see the tracks on the seabed!
I went on this many times as a kid, was fascinated by it (although it was painted bright orange rather than red then I seem to remember). Great to see it is still going.
short wheel-base + high center-of-gravity = whoopsie-daisy!!
Similar design to oyster harvesting vehicles on the Gulf Coast of USA.
If you want to see this in action, but can't get there in person, you can see the tractor ferry taking Hercule Poirot to the island in "Evil Under the Sun" (2002, A&E in US, David Suchet -- not the older Peter Ustinov version).
Had SUCH a GREAT holiday at this hotel when I was a kid - it's still fantastic, only thing is I can't afford it now! Go if you have the moolah, it's a wonderful experience.
This vehicle was also featured on an episode of Teletubbies -- it's one of the random videos they watch on one of their tummy-screens. If you happen to catch the correct episode on TV, you get to watch the slowly-paced, minimally-narrated short documentary "again! again!"
The center of gravity isn't necessarily all that high, as long as the base is sufficiently weighted down.
If only all railways were like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_and_Rottingdean_Seashore_Electric_Railway
At first sight, this seems awkward, unstable and unnecessarily complex. On the other hand, how WOULD you transport people across a short distance of shallow water of variable depth (tides)? It's too deep to walk and too shallow for a boat. As far as the stability issue, it would only require a relatively flat and level path to run on, which would not be much of a challenge to provide. It's not like it's got to go exploring cross-country. It's cool looking and now I want one.
Married to the Sea comic waiting to happen?
It looks like a bizarre fantasy-vehicle created out of legos or tinkertoys by a child. Imaginative and nifty.
Although they aren't ferries, there are vehicles like this down in Cholla Bay, Mexico. The tide is so extreme there (up to 20 feet), that there is no pier long enough to reach out to navigable water at all times. Instead people beach their boats at low tide, and walk into town. Later when the tide is in, they use a vehicle on stilts like this (but without the cool tank treads) to take them back to their boat, now floating.
I can't seem to find a picture of one of these, so you'll just have to trust me on this.
steampunk, baby!
Looks like the mechanized version of the "bathing machines" mentioned by Mr Dodgson of Oxford, when looking for snarks, I believe.
When I was a teenager I spent a summer living on Burgh Island, working as a general dogs-body in the pub, called the Pilchard Inn. (My eldest brother was the manager at the time.) I have many fond memories, and one of them was riding on the 'sea tractor' - only when the tide was in, of course: you could walk across to the mainland when the tide was out. The tractor's driver was Jimmy, a short, stocky guy with a wild, red mutton-chop beard who liked to drink cider (the lethal kind: cloudy, lumpy, and warm). It wasn't the tractor in the picture, of course, but a huge affair with four massive truck tires. I think this is it: . Occasionally he'd hit some soft sand and we'd have to carry the 'grockels' (tourists) off the tractor, then dig the beast out once the tide had receded. Anyway, the hotel and the island were in a sorry state when I was there; the hotel was pretty much empty year-round, and the 'staff' that ran the restaurant, the pub and worked as lifeguards were a wild bunch. (We all lived in an old wooden shack with straw mattresses.) Looks like it got tidied up in recent years, but the hotel has a storied history, with guests like Agatha Christie and Noel Coward (so they said).