SCMC Gadgets - Winch

Under construction for the past 30 years, the Club winch has become famous for being nearly ready.

It has undergone many design changes, over the years. At one time the main engine was based on a washing machine motor, but Members were concerned in case it should enter a fast spin cycle at the wrong moment - so it has been replaced!!

Despite years of cynical abuse, Alan Taylor (the current Club President, who has built the winch single-handed), finally completed it in early November 1995.

Main Gadgets

• The 'Bipod'
• The Club Winch
• Underground Radios
• Underground Electronic location device
• MineCam - Remote controlled video camera for shaft exploration
• Borg - helmet mounted video camera

On November 25th 1995, the first test runs of the winch, headframe and cage were made at Chapel Shaft on Lords Hill, Snailbeach (South Shropshire).

Considering that Alan had only tested it in his garden by raising the cage about 1 metre, the outfit coped really well with the 130+ metre deep shaft.

True to his word Alan was the first person to be wound down in the cage (yes it has a real miniture mine cage!).

The only snag was when he reached the bottom we lost radio contact with him. At that moment the winch engine decided to cut-out. We then realised that the only person who knew how the engine worked was frantically blowing a whistle over 130 metres down an inaccessible mine shaft!!

However the massed (?) brains of the Club clustered round and found the HT lead had dropped off the coil, it was replaced and the engine started up straight away. On the second run, going down the driver managed to get the winch into 4th gear - an impressive speed for the on-lookers, and quite smooth for the person in the cage (if a little hairy).

The cable on the winch is 400m of 9mm wire rope, counter-wound to prevent spinning (the smallest non-rotating size we could get).

On the engineering side, the whole outfit is most amazing. It is compact, can be towed easily by a 4x4, and the headframe is designed in kit form, so that it can be easily assembled over the hole. At the end of the day it can be dis-assembled and packed onto the winch trailer.

Pictures: Kelvin Lake

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