Antarctic Transport

The good old push bike, used by some people around Scott Base during the summer months.. We have two of these mountain bikes that people often push from Scott Base to McMurdo. If you want to know how well they ride out on the sea ice, you just need to ask the Green Peace Crew who used them when they had a base in Antarctica (just up the coast).
 
 
 

Four wheel drive motor bikes are great for getting around and about during the summer months. They don't cost as much as a snow mobile but they also aren't as good in the cold or deep snow. They do have certain advantage in that they can be driven on snow, ice or gravel. For lighter towing and general runabouts they are ideal.

In this photo Jonathan is sitting outside the garage and about to go around the back of the base to the storage containers and bring back some small but heavy equipment.
 
 

This is one of our Toyotas. They are a four wheel drive vehicle with a back seat and four doors with the functionality of a ute. This makes them an excellent all rounder sort of vehicle. They will go through a surprising amount of snow (until you get stuck) so we use them alot at the beginning of the season for traveling on the sea ice (when the ice is in really good condition !!).

In the winter you've to be vary careful about pre checking your vehicle before starting it. What you see is a little snow under the bonnet and if the motor was to try and turn over now it would snap the fan blade.  Pre checking the vehicle includes unplugging the vehicle, oil and fluid checks, fan blade clear of snow or ice, radiator warm, tires inflated and any other checks that may be required, peculiar to that vehicle. For example it could be anything from a loader to a motor bike or skidoo which you have to check before starting.
 

They come in diesel (JP8) or petrol (MOGAS) around the 2.5litre size motor. Not big by American standards but more than adequate for what we need. And we don't go through near as much fuel as the Americans. You will notice in this photo that the vehicles are plugged into a hitching rail. All our vehicles need to be plugged into the mains voltage so that the small electric heaters we put into the engines and inside the cabs can keep the vehicles warm while they are not running. If we didn't do this, the vehicles would be near to impossible to start and if we did get it started, it would be hard on the motor as the oil in the motor would become thick and not lubricate the engine. We use synthetic oils which work better in the colder climate. We also wrap a special mains powered element around the battery to keep it warm. All vehicles are factory standard apart from the heaters we put into them and wider wheels. It's amazing they do so well.
 

These are some of the vehicles that we wont be using for the winter. We have them parked out of the way and because we wont be starting them up till next season we don't have to plug them in to the mains or keep them warm. If we did want to use them then we would have to put a "HERMY" (a big blowing heater) under the bonnet (hood) and wait till the motor had warmed up

This is our Isuzu truck. We use it to get large quantities of gear from one place to another. Mainly, it is used to get gear from the American base (Mactown) over to our place (Scott Base) or visa versa.
 
 
 
 

The loader is a very versatile piece of equipment. It's our main heavy lifting vehicle and with a bucket on the front it is also used for shifting a bit of snow when the D3 dozer is out of operation. It is also plugged in to the base but you can't see it as the plug is behind it.
 

Hagglunds are our all terrain vehicles that we use for sea ice travel or when the weather and environment is a bit more inclement. Originally designed and used by the military it is also well suited to the conditions we live in. They are not cheap though. They cost around $300,000 dollars NZ, and parts for them are not cheap. They also have a few other good features that make them excellent. For example, they float. They where made for all conditions and all terrainincluding amphibious travel.. You will also notice the vehicles come in two parts. Both front and back tracks are driven, and the steering is in the middle. It gives them the ability to literally craw over most terrain.

You may ask why anyone would buy such an expensive vehicle. Vehicles are cheap in comparison to the loss of life. And lesser vehicles in similar conditions have killed people. In these two photos one of our Hagglunds fell through the sea ice. If you were one of the scientists in the back, you would have been slightly amazed to notice that the vehicle had stopped, and peoples feet where visible at eye level. Not many people get to experience the full effect of an amphibious Hagglunds and so the first time would have been a bit scary for most. There was no real danger and the situation was under control.

The Hagglunds stayed in this condition for about 45 minutes while another one came from Scott Base and winced it out of the water. A side window was opened up and the passengers set up a temporary camp (standard practice in case the weather changes). The baggage on the top of the Hagglunds rear compartment are all survival bags. Each one is a total survival kit for two people and they have enough food to last several days. They are required to be carried if you go outside the bounds of Scott Base or McMurdo. These pictures were also shown in the local papers back in NZ so hopefully no one will make a fuss about me showing them here. As I said, vehicles dropping through the sea ice doesn't happen very often, but when it does, you want to be in a vehicle that is capableof saving your life in the situation, so that's what we use !!.
 

This is a Nodwell tracked vehicle that has been modified with the addition of a small crane. It can't carry much but it is handy for small jobs.
 
 
 
 
 

How would you like this as a waterfront view when you park you vehicle? The box contains transformers to convert our New Zealand 230 volt mains to 110 volts so that the Americans can plug their vehicles into it. Just another hitching rail, in other words. Beside it is the parking meter, but strangely there isn't much money in it. In front of the green pipes is sea ice that is only about 3 inches thick at the moment (later, during the winter it will get to about 1.8 meters thick and built up with pressure ridges ). Behind that you can see Black Island to the left, and to the right, I think, is Mount Discovery (whatever, Ill find out and update this later). Nice view !!
 

The American all terrain fire truck. Built very similar to the Hagglunds, although after talking to the fire crew,they are not nearly as good. These things don't travel on soft snow very well. They have a tendency to be to heavy and get stuck. They are also not amphibious. I hope that if there is ever a plane crash it isn't to far from the runway.
 

These are some of the small buses that the Americans use for getting around the place. Transporting people from McMurdo to the air fields is their main priority. On the left hand side is the smaller Scott Base passenger carrier. It's just a Toyota Land cruiser but it does the job OK.
 
 

  This is a stretched D8 low ground pressure bull dozer. They were specially made by the manufacturer for the Americans down in Antarctica. They were built in 1957, I think, and there were only 15 ever made. This is the only place you will find them in the world. The idea is that with the long tracks and reduced pressure per square foot then there is less chance of them sinking too deep into snow or falling through the ice.
 

Here we have people get getting off the Star Lifter, many of them new and fresh to the ways of Antarctica. People who have been here a while call the new people "FINGYS", Fabulous New Guys. There is also a more derogatory meaning for the same term but this is my home page and I can say what I want. (More about aircraft in the aircraft section.)Notice how there hot air hose jammed up and under the landing gear of the plane. Its to stop the landing gear from freezing while its sits on the ice.

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This is the Terra bus as seen in the kids Quest page. As you can see, it's up on blocks and winterized at the moment . Without the blocks underneath the tires could become permanently deformed with flat spots during the extreme cold of the winter, especially if theywere to go flat. This vehicle is used to transport large numbers of people to and from the air fields. On the side it has been nicknamed IVAN THE TERRA BUS.

There are some more photos that I want to put into this, but I will have to do that later. Some is better than none.

We have other specialized vehicles allocated to the Scott Base Antarctic NZ program, but these have been seconded to a remote project called "Cape Robert's," where they are drilling for ground core samples farther north. The vehicles are staying with the project until the drilling is finished, which will be another few years.
 
 
  Skidoos
They were reputedly going to be named ski dogs, but apparently the printers made a mistake and called them what they are known as today. These particular machines are real workhorses, and even though they can get up to 70 km per hour, its too dangerous and 30 Km per is recommended. They run on two stroke fuel and if they don't work with the key start switch you can use the pull start to get them working.
 
 

Even with all the safety equipment and other stuff we carry, it is often practical to use a sled. In this case, I used a bombardier sled (I think that's what its called) out to the "A frame" hut last time I went out. There are many different types of sleds we use, big, small, etc. Each type has a purpose.
Photos taken at about 10 am Sunday 12-4-97, as I was packing up to come home after a night of blissful isolation almost at the end of the world.
 

This is the Scott Base D8 and the to Scott base Troop Carriers. Chris, the mechanic, is warming them up before they can be used . He had the HERMY (the heater with the hose sticking out) warming up the engine 45 minutes before he started the D8. He then left the D8 running for a while before removing the Herman Nelson (Hermy) heater just to be sure it was warm enough. You can also see that Chris had to put batteries back into the vehicles after they had spent a winter without being used.
 

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   Edited by Shirley Baston Fred - [email protected] - ICQQ # 15167279