How Tube Trains Are Lifted Into The London Underground | Huge Moves | Spark

in england an entire subway line is about to take to the skies the challenge to thread a fleet of trains into a tunnel sealed at both ends the deadline 24 hours away quite stressful as i'm looking at it in canada a salvage team battles to raise a plane that's been at the bottom of a lake for 75 years they are miles away from civilization so when things go wrong they're on their own we got fouled it happens both moves are vulnerable to bad weather there's a lot more wind up there than down here two massive machines okay up another ten going up two teams with a mission to move two tough endeavors that will test the nerves of the people who dare to risk huge movements [Music] london one of the most frenetic cities in the world every day over three million people descend into the oldest longest and one of the most overstretched subway systems on earth the underground like a sprawling spider's web 272 miles of track chris crosses the capital thirteen lines link almost everywhere in london through a multi-layered labyrinth of tunnels one of the busiest and shortest lines begins at bank deep in the financial heart of the capital the waterloo and city line runs under the thames to the international transport hub of waterloo station 40 000 people a day made this short one and a half mile journey until april 2006 when engineers decided it was time to shut the line for an overhaul originally built in the 1890s the line has been showing its age so the old track has been replaced with new after five months the engineers are almost ready to reopen there's just one thing missing the trains all the cars are being refurbished 190 miles to the north in the rail town of doncaster there is just time for some last minute checks before this gleaming flotilla of waterloo and city train sets off for london getting them back down the tunnel is the responsibility of alf arnold i've got these 20 carriages here and that comprises the whole fleet of the waterloo and city line worth about a million pounds each and the problem we've got is that we've got to get them back to london safely without any marks or anything else to get them working for the waterloo and city line return to service [Music] the most obvious way back to london is to use the overground railroad that passes right by the yard the cars could be back in the city in a few hours but this idea is flawed there are only a few places where trains can cross from the overground rail network onto the underground [Applause] this allows direct access onto every line except the waterloo and city line how about transferring trains between lines six lines converge at bank station it would seem like the obvious transfer point but going underground reveals why this will not work all the lines are at different depths with no linking tunnels between them it is physically impossible to transfer trains onto the waterloo and city line at bank what about the other end of the line at waterloo station it's a similar problem none of the other lines connect the waterloo and city line is completely cut off from both the overground and underground networks so the movers must use a different strategy there is only actually one way to get anything larger than a rucksack into the waterline city line depot and that's through this hole here if you look over the side of the hole you'll see it's actually 15 meters into the depot and we've got to land the trains on the rails which are only seven centimeters wide there's only one piece of machinery we could use in a situation like this and that's a crane but dangling a train into such a narrow opening will be like threading a needle at arm's length the margin of error is tiny if they scrape or damage any cars they will have to go back to doncaster for repair and delay the reopening of the line john must come up with a precise plan which sights the crane as close as possible to the entrance shaft without causing damage to the surroundings the obvious place is the road right next to the hull but putting the crane here might lose john a few friends this road is actually a bridge over the waterloo and city line train depot and it's only strong enough to carry a few cars not hundreds of tons of crane so if the driver placed the crane here he would soon find himself crashing through into the depot below not a good start to the day so john chenery must find an alternative location that can support hundreds of tons the nearest area that's strong enough to sit the crane on is down by the zebra crossing in front of us the only snag is that this is 36 meters from the hole a long way away to dangle a 23-ton train they will need a crane with a long reach and a big crane means a big weight but this move is happening right in the middle of london with so many shops and houses in the area there are some hidden hazards that john must avoid the whole area is crisscrossed by water mains gas pipes electricity cables sewers i need to be extremely precise as to the exact position that'll set the crane up having sorted out how to get the trains into the tunnel all they have to do now is bring the trains down from doncaster with no direct rail links they will have to move the trains along britain's notoriously crowded motorways alf arnold knows that he must thread the line of 20 cars into the tunnel in exactly the right order because half have engines and half don't if he gets it wrong the line won't run to help him each car has a five-digit code it must have made sense once upon a time what's the easy way of working out the numbers obviously right we're gonna make sure we'll get the right one in the right place the numbers must mean something well first of all six five is the motor car number o3s is the unit number but also if you take this six five and go down to the next carriage it's six seven which is the one that runs this is stable mate and they must all stay together three and fours go together and five and six right the way up to ten because we've got ten units it's clear as mud okay [Music] far away from urban bustle deep in the canadian hinterland lies an isolated lake charon lake is 220 miles northeast of winnipeg and 50 miles from the nearest settlement it is an unlikely setting for a nail-biting move yet this remote lake holds a long-lost secret on december the 10th 1931 a lone focker standard universal transport plane was battling against a thick snowstorm spotting a frozen lake from his open cockpit the pilot decided to risk landing the plane was ferrying heavy equipment to a gold rush so when it taxied to a halt it broke through a thin area of ice [Music] the crew escaped but rescuing the plane in the middle of winter was impossible [Music] with the coming of spring the ice broke and the plane disappeared into the lake 75 years on pat madden a retired mountie has come to this remote part of canada to try to recover this historic aircraft you know it's just an amazing sag of canadian exploration and of aviation history there were only 44 of them made and they pretty much opened up a good part of the north for exploration and for mapping and everything they were a real hardy bush plane and this is the last one pat has assembled a team of friends and keen amateurs to help him realize his dream including his wife annette spalding who shares his obsession for this aircraft they've been coming every summer for seven years in a row they even spent their honeymoon searching for the fokker we have everything planned we have all the equipment to do it all we need is mother nature on our side and that's what we're really hoping for we are not leaving this lake without that point it's been an arduous task this lake is huge with 35 million square meters of muddy bottom to explore using sonar they scoured almost the entire lake finally in the summer of 2005 they had a lucky break and i'll stop the record right here there's our target in the process of running some lines back and forth we were able to get much better pictures of of the of the target and here we have one screen capture which certainly looks like spires of the wing the tail structure you can actually see the steel lattice of the fuselage intrigued by its eerie aura on the sonar they now call the plane the ghost of charon lake the team has just one week to complete the mission before the volunteers fly back to their day jobs if they're successful the canadian air force chopper will fly in to take the aircraft to an air museum in winnipeg for restoration charon lake is very remote there are no roads for miles the only way in is by float plane and this makes diving operations risky there's no medical help and only air evacuation so they've taken the decision that it's too dangerous to dive they will carry out the underwater salvage by remote control they must rely on a pair of aquatic robots known as remotely operated vehicles or rovs [Music] there are several ways they could raise the plane the first is to use the rovs to find the best places to cut the fragile airframe into sections and then winch them to the surface but to make restoration easier pat would prefer to keep the airframe in one piece a second option is to attach inflatable lifting bags and float the airframe to the surface but as it's difficult to control the rate the lift bags rise towards the surface there is a high risk that the plane will fall apart instead they decide to make use of an original feature of the plane there are four lift points just above the wing designed for lifting the aircraft when swapping summer floats for winter skis by attaching a line to each of these the team hoped to winch the plane safely to the surface but they've based this rescue plan on blurry sonar images they don't know the true state of the wings the position of the engine or the condition of the four lift points the only way to check is to carry out a full reconnaissance of the plane's remains using cameras on their rovs we're seeing part of the frame and there's some of the original fabric that's still on the plane which is quite interesting and we're just looking now to find the engine mounts see if the engine is actually still attached to the airframe [Music] thank god we found it though holy [ __ ] [Music] thousands of miles away knight draws in over london john chenery braces himself for the arrival of the giant crane that will lower the cars into the waterloo and city line tunnel the crane is going to block the road and i've got to get these wagons out before the crane blocks the road they'll be trapped in block the road off stop the traffic coming down so the craig can come in do his job in less than two hours john must throw a cordon around this busy street and transform it into a safe work site not what everyone wants on a friday night i've got to block the area outside the uh the bar bang on schedule the lumbering giant arrives trying to position the crane now so just bringing it in even though they've worked out the best position for the crane there's still plenty that can go wrong once they start the move full of planning to this has happened in previous months and this now is just the final bits trying to get it together in this position the crane's arm must be extended to reach the tunnel 36 meters away this greatly increases the risk of toppling a crane needs perfect balance with everything pivoting around a point at the base of the arm the full crew [Music] when a car is lifted its weight generates a force known as a torque this torque has to be balanced by a torque coming from the other side of the fulcrum if these forces are not equal five million dollars worth of crane and train will come crashing down to get the balance right they must add massive blocks of ballast to the back of the crane but it's not just weight that generates torque it's also distance the load is much further away from the fulcrum than the ballast and this greatly increases the torque exerted by the car so they must add an incredible 165 tonnes of ballast to counteract just 23 tons of car but adding all this extra weight creates another problem the combined weight of the extra ballast the train and the crane is over 300 tons this much weight is too much for the tires to bear so the crane is fitted with four special outriggers that extend out of the sides of the crane powered by hydraulics these sturdy struts lift the tires clear of the ground but this transmits all the weight onto four small areas the pressure is going to be enormous far too much for the street to support all those fragile underground pipes will be at risk so the movers need to spread the load over a larger area and decrease the pressure to a bearable solution is to slide in a series of massive steel pads all resting on a thin layer of foam [Music] this is the standard mats with the crane which are three meters with 2.5 that reduces the loads the actual burning pressures to the ground so the low going through these mats will actually be less tongue per square meter than what it would for a lady the average side lady walking down the road in her aisle shoes with the eel going through the ground when you've probably got approximately 100 and odd ton going through the outrigger and spread over these maps [Music] once the crane is fully balanced and locked in position they can start extending the boom oh yeah it's stressing me out this lifting leviathan is now almost ready for action but with only 18 hours to lift all 20 cars the team know the night of the flying trains could become a nightmare meanwhile the team in manitoba is planning how to rescue a plane that's been stuck at the bottom of a lake for 75 years they're reviewing reconnaissance footage taken by their remote vehicles 127 feet below the surface those are your main spark but there's ribbing so there's intact ribbing yeah we have intact ribbing we have wings yes so the integrity of the wing root is his looks looks pretty good the pilot's windshield that's it that is look at it because there's a bracket there there's the bracket that's the car we have the whole windshield that's the cowlick broken that's the cowling oh my god that's awesome that's the engine i'm so afraid we lost the engine that's great the team are surprised by how much of the plane has survived although the outer canvas is rotted away the metal framework remains intact the only concern is that the engine has broken off the fuselage we're very excited to see that the engine's there but our whole plan to bring it up um is all based on the engine and now we have to change and modify a lot of things it depends on if you're an optimist or a peso the team will have to rethink the lift plan because the 650 pound engine is detached from the airframe the rear of the aircraft is now heavier than the front so if they tried to winch the plane using its lifting points the tail would smash down into the lake bed [Music] to avoid this an rov will attach an additional line to the rear of the airframe this will prevent the tail section from dropping down [Music] the team lower the small rov to check where they will attach the lift cables this aquatic robot is piloted by james snellgrove but in his quest for the perfect close-up james pushes too far too fast [Music] then the unthinkable happens the video feed from 127 feet below the surface suddenly cuts out and james is left blind oh [ __ ] the situation rapidly deteriorates back at camp annette and pat received the radio message they've both been dreading what has happened we're not totally sure but it somehow got knotted itself around the airframe and the attempts have made it tighter and they're trying to get that off over okay we're on standby um please let us know immediately when it's detangled what has happened is the rov remote operated vehicle is on a long long cord that goes down um so at about 127 feet the debris has um made zero visibility and by mistake the rov drove into the inside of the the plane go ahead bail over they're seeing oil slicks on the water now oh god i'm just really worried about this this is a very expensive instrument when you're dealing with these kinds of operations you're going to run into snags you deal with them and you get them cleared and move on so that's what we'll do we find the snag and it might be just on one cross you know one piece of tubing that's not it's not going to hurt it to to snip one piece of tubing that much i'd certainly like to do without having to do that and i'm i'm hoping the second rov will be able to pull them free pat heads out to assess the situation and offer help not only could they lose a machine worth nearly a hundred thousand dollars but also their dream of salvaging the plane could be over in england it's move day the trains are speeding down the m1 back to london to begin their descent underground soon the streets behind waterloo station are bursting with cars and trains not many times you have an opportunity to see them actually out of the ground fantastic quite shocked actually it also gives out a chance to check the trains and see if you can explain the all-important numbering system to his staff let's do the second train first yeah that one's next shunting back up and it's number six and i believe that's the seventh unit up there which is tens so the first one down to be six five then six no yes six five then six seven and then seven nine eight seven let's try again get it right six five seven oh five six seven seven oh five six 68 6508 and six six nine six seven and that's the final one that's not car number 12. this is actually going to turn into a comedy of errors you can see it [Laughter] as long as we check with elf and make sure that things are right you can't afford to make any mistakes so better sometimes you take them over twice even three times would you like it again [Music] undeterred by the apparent confusion alf decides it's time to lift the first train [Music] but there is one last issue they need to overcome with the crane now set in position the operation should be straight forward ideally the crane driver would like to swing the cars in a smooth arc straight to the shaft but there's a problem 25 meters from the crane and right in the middle of a smooth swing there's a three-story building [Music] using this trajectory would not be the best way to impress the neighbors so the crane driver must perform a complicated multi-stage maneuver guaranteed to increase the stress on both man and machine he will lift and swing in two distinct stages first he will slew the car in a shallow arc to avoid the cafe and then lower the arm for the final approach to the hole hardly a hole in one but certainly par for this obstacle course keeping a wary eye on the cafe the driver begins the first lift there it is it's clear now it's the world's first flying train [Music] it's amazing she's now coming in between the gap between the building and the lamppost [Music] million pounds is just floating in space we're bringing it into a very small aperture which has only got half a meter either side quite stressful as i'm looking at it the next key part is actually engaging the wheels with the track we have a banksman down there who's actually organizing all this we're down it's down on the tracks perfect absolutely spot on fantastic job he's just done one down 19 to go over the next few hours the sky is buzzing with flying trains but the efforts to raise another flying machine in manitoba are not running quite so smoothly they face a difficult problem one hundred thousand dollars worth of rov is wrapped around the spars of the fokker float plane they're trying to lift [Music] we were planning to look at the left side jacking point and the bite tightened up we got fouled it happens with the light fading and rough weather forecaster they need to mount a rescue mission fast or risk losing both the rov and the aircraft waiting at base camp annette hopes for the best but the stress is beginning to show this plane it really does mean a lot to me we're trying to do all this in a very short time frame probably four days we have everything else in place everything on the floating pontoon mark steers the second rov towards the plane following the umbilical of the trapped rov down to the aircraft his camera soon reveals what has happened in the low visibility james the pilot of the other rov has managed to tie his umbilical in a knot around the fuselage mark will have to work out exactly how the knot was tied then james can work backwards to untie himself [Music] this is a slow nerve-wracking process especially for those back at base camp waiting for news i don't like to see anybody lose their equipment that's an expensive piece of equipment they don't like to see anybody lose anything like that at the bottom of the lake now let's just hope for the best back on the barge and pat thinks he's found a way to free the trapped rov the little rov is ensnared by just one thin piece of the airframe the second rov can rip it out of the way it will damage the plane but the team have no other choice annette is feeling the tension and looks for any positive sign remember the rainbow where we found it the rainbow came out when we found it and the rainbow celebrated i hope it's the same meaningful things [Applause] you guys are unbelievably awesome over with the small rov free james the pilot can breathe a huge sigh of relief the vehicle was 100 functional before we surfaced it no signs of real damage to it so we'll get it cleaned up we'll check the umbilical make sure everything's all right and call it a day not only is the rov free but the team is about to receive an unexpected bonus the first pieces of the plane to feel the air in 75 years have been liberated they were tangled in the lines powering the little rover they have pulled up one of the planes landing lights and its condition is incredible even the light bulb has survived after three quarters of a century spirits are high but the ghost of charon lake has some more surprises in store back in london and after eight hours of lifting they've loaded eight of the 20 trains into the tunnel so far they haven't damaged any in their incredibly tight descent through the entrance shaft but the bad weather on the horizon threatens the whole operation joe could just give us a reading on the wind speedplay fluctuating today anything between two and 11 meters per second thank you mate i'm actually taking the wind speed and at the moment just standing here in spur road it's nearly six miles an hour but it's not here that's a problem it's actually up there because there's a lot more wind out there than down here alf has good reason to be concerned all the roads converge at the point where the crane sits although they won't be channeling any traffic they will be channeling the wind the car has two long flat sides which will act like a sail any gusts will make the train more and more difficult to control as the wind speed increases the car will start to swing if the wind catches the car as it enters the narrow shaft it could smash into the concrete walls or even worse it could become jammed in the entrance with so many cars needed to be lifted in such a short time frame this could derail the whole operation [Music] but alf's team have a secret weapon to combat any sudden gusts a guiding device known as a pogo stick which they attach to the front and rear of each carriage [Music] as long as wind speeds don't exceed 22 miles per hour these bars will stop the cars crashing into the sides there's two channels over in the hole over there and these wheels run up and down on there they cast her up and down so as the vehicle moves from side to side swaying this takes out the sway and just drops it down like that oh look at this we're gusting now goodness me as we just lifted it's now up to 10 mile an hour this is a very bad gust coming now 6.2 this may stop lifting at the moment look at this despite the blustery conditions the pogo sticks keep the move right on track having rescued the trapped rov the team in manitoba is preparing to go ahead with the lift but they've just seen some rather disturbing video footage during the rescue mission the on-board camera on mark's rov discovered that the lift points vital for lifting the plane are either corroded or missing he's just corroded that's that's the uh starboard aft lift lug yeah so mark you you think that the angle you wouldn't be able to get it through there okay yeah without these lift points the team need to find alternative places strong enough to support raising the plane they soon identify an obvious target so looking at it from this angle right here you're talking about this right here yeah connecting right here yeah they think the landing strut attached to the ski may be strong enough yeah that's the heavy axle do we have that heavy axle free of silt down to that point we have the silt is up to there so this is out of the silt this part is out of this part but your problem is you've got to tie it around i don't see a rove solution for hooking one tonight that's a diver job diver can do it in zero viz and rov can not with any effectiveness because you don't know where you're driving it's just bam bam bam and it's bam bam bam changes divers are now their only hope of rescuing the plane pat puts in a call for volunteers willing to risk diving in such an isolated location [Music] two days later the cavalry arrives [Music] they're a crack team of divers from the canadian amphibious search team a group of volunteers more used to pulling dead bodies from lakes than rescuing sunk aircraft [Music] there are only two days before the helicopter comes to pick up what they've retrieved so the divers get straight to work they have two objectives confirm the engine is completely detached and check the airframe is strong enough to withstand a lift let's go do it [Music] even though they are all experienced divers used to working in low visibility this is a serious undertaking at a depth of over 120 feet they can only afford 20 minutes on the wreck any longer and they're risking the bends as the nearest decompression chamber is 220 miles away misjudging their dive time could be fatal i'm just reaching out to touch something right there that's really solid stuff right there nothing moves around when i shake on it top side blue diver gather up red diver and prepare to travel right on schedule the divers return to the surface with some encouraging news on the surface [Music] if i'm standing so the airplane goes that way and the wings are the best front motors now down here these corners right here where there's a whole bunch of things coming together yeah i could give that a pretty good shake yep just get your hand down and get my hand down and touch the actual ski okay how much mud is how much there's not a lot of stuff laying on top of the skis the divers are confident they can retrieve the engine and immediately return to the bottom to attach a nylon strap and lift bags [Music] pat starts to crank the heavy engine off the bottom but will the flimsy looking boom be able to cope with all this weight the signs are not good the only option is to attach more lift banks despite the boom's groans and protests the team finally get the engine to within a few inches of the surface well this is the big step one they are running out of light as they tow the engine to a nearby island in the hope they can winch it ashore by the time they erect the boom it's dark okay the boom is designed to lift in excess of a thousand pounds yet it's clearly struggling to cope with the 650 pound engine even with the help of the support boats crane they still cannot lift it out of the water in the end it's down to good old-fashioned brawn to finally hold the [ __ ] engine ashore well there was some serious concern but hey it worked it all worked hamilton hamilton propellers that's the company what do you want to find next [Music] early the next morning there was a chance to admire the engine but with the helicopters due in just six hours pat has to make a tough decision about the rest of the plane we've got the engine and we've decided not to bring the fuselage up at this time the bottom line is we'd be rushing it and i'm not prepared to jeopardize this aircraft for the sake of getting it up in in a short order of time after so much effort it's hard to leave the plane behind but only the engine will be leaving on this airlift back to winnipeg this is incredible this is awesome there he is he's on jumping away 75 years is back in the air [Music] in london the team attempting to return all 20 cars to a subway line are right on track [Music] but as fatigue sets in they make an inevitable mistake someone misreads the five-digit number on the side of a train oh for god's sake you've lowered the wrong one he says it's the wrong carriage they've got to take that one out this one's got to go first just operational issues down in the tunnel someone's getting tired upstairs hadn't spotted it and then one of us has just looked here said it's the wrong one [Music] mixing up the numbers the team have inserted a driver car instead of an ordinary car they are left with only three quarters of a train if the depot had more space they could shunt the cars around and deposit the road car on the adjacent track once the correct car is lowered in they could then join the other cars to form a complete train but this is the penultimate car and the depot is so full there is no room to maneuver the cars around [Music] with the deadline looming their only option is to lift the wrong train back out and insert the correct car just blame me everybody else does blame me for everything i painted the numbers wrong on the train i backed you in the wrong way round blame me everyone [Laughter] with their sense of humor intact the crew go into overtime and overdrive to swap the rogue car with the right one 20 plus one in the morning every car is in that's it everybody's now saying had enough we're gonna go home i'm relief no damage no accidents no real problems all that remains to be done is to seal up the hole and the waterloo and city line is once more ready for passengers to coin an english phrase the jobs are good three months after leaving the ghost of charon lake the volunteer salvage team are back it's october and they've managed to get some more time off work to make a final attempt to raise the plane before winter sets in after the previous failure using rovs they've decided to dispense with the robots and rely solely on divers pat and annette have persuaded them to risk the lake's dark waters once more they are assembling an improvised rescue sling to place under the plane's crumbling carcass fearing that the rear part of the plane is too fragile to survive a conventional lift the divers will descend to the wreck and cut the plane in half just behind the wing after encasing the fragile tail section in a cradle made of snow fence they will then winch this section to the surface leaving the remaining fuselage to be lifted later once again they don't have much time the helicopter is only available for the airlift on one day and the weather is looking distinctly unsettled with their snow fence cradle at the ready the dive is dropped straight down to the wrecked planet but working in charon lake even the slightest disturbance of the lake bottom plunges the divers into a world of confusion they can't even see their own hands let alone the plane they will have to slice and dice by touch but despite these awkward conditions the divers managed to encase the tail in the cradle once the cradle is in place they begin to winch the tail section away from the bottom is that thing secure in there or do we have to do something i don't think we want to let this thing the tail section has slipped out of the cradle and their hopes of salvaging the fokker are literally hanging by a thread it's almost too much for pat and annette to bear perhaps a hastily improvised sling can save the day with this extra support connected to the plane's tail the team now feel confident to tow it to shallow water ready for the final lift just before the helicopter arrives a quick dive under to check the tails condition and the net's reaction signals that everything is a-okay they want to press on but with the sun setting they have no choice but to wait until the next day next morning they have a rude awakening winter has arrived suddenly the wind is whipping up three-foot waves across the lake and the outlook is not encouraging it's gonna drop to about minus four degrees tonight so that little skiff of frost you had this morning will be nothing compared to what you have tomorrow we have to get everybody out because you cannot fly when the snow is coming and the winds are blowing it's not safe to be here [Music] facing evacuation pat and annette take one last desperate look for any improvement in the weather they're not in luck oh the barge is really bouncing around quite severely and you wouldn't be able to even stand on it uh waves are crashing up over the bow of it and about all sides actually there's no way anybody could work on there it's just too rough i mean with that kind of rocking and rolling we would jeopardize the integrity of the structure to bring it up i'm so disappointed with their new plan clearly working they have been beaten by the weather pat and annette have to once more concede defeat in their battle to move this historic plane but they will be back they will never abandon the ghost of charon lake

Channel: undefined

Views: 117,584

Rating: 4.8399029 out of 5

Keywords: Spark, Science, Technology, Engineering, Learning, How To, education, documentary, factual, mind blown, construction, building, full documentary, space documentary, bbc documentary, Science documentary

Id: 1R2cdiFb71w

Length: 49min 46sec (2986 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 09 2020