Steel Castors and Wheels for Olympic Bobsleigh hopefuls
Next Year, in February 2014, Russia will play host to the twenty second Winter Olympic Games, and the British bobsleigh team are hopeful to qualify by being in the top fourteen teams.
Next Year, in February 2014, Russia will play host to the twenty second Winter Olympic Games, and the British bobsleigh team are hopeful to qualify by being in the top fourteen teams. But what caught my eye in a recent newspaper article was a magnificent picture of the female and male athletes training in Bath during the summer. I know you are now asking yourselves, in Bath, in the summer, and on a bobsleigh, how can this be? Well the ingenious British Team have had a specially constructed metal fabricated bobsleigh running on rail track on steel casters and wheels. Bath University houses a one hundred and forty meter push track for bobsleigh training as part of their Sports Training Village. This track consists of rail track upon which fabricated bobsleighs on steel castors and wheels runs smoothly. This facility has been designed to help athletes train and improve their bobsleigh push starts.
Bobsleigh as a sport originated in St. Moritz in Switzerland over one hundred and thirty years ago. The first known originator was an hotelier named Mr Badrutt, who sold a winter sporting season to English tourists. He strapped two sleds together and enthralled his English tourists by pushing them down a street. Years later, the sled developed, and a purpose built track housed the first races in 1884. As a sport, the first winter bobsleigh appeared in the Winter Olympic games in 1924, and since then the teams and sleighs have become more streamlined and aerodynamic, in order to reach speeds of over 150 miles an hour, on icy tracks.
Traditionally Nordic countries excel in this sport, having the appropriate climate to train successfully. The article in the paper highlighting the training of Team GB, at Bath University shows the ingenious nature of our athletes, and their competitive sporting attitude. Having investigated the bobsleighs on steel wheels a little more, it seems there are quite a variety of designs, suitable for training individuals, teams of two, and teams of four. From authentic looking bobsleighs on steel wheels, to just a fabricated steel shell on steel castors. Each weighted down with steel weights, in order to aid the training process.
Using steel castors and wheels, in particular flanged metal wheels, is ideal when running equipment or machinery on rail track. Usually flanged wheels are used on industrial gates, heavy duty moving cranes and gantries and industrial equipment. Not only do these steel wheels and castors take high loads, and high temperatures, but they are strong and durable. I guess they also take a few knocks on the Bobsleigh track. So with the Russian Winter Olympics around the corner, our twelve men and nine women in the British squad are hoping for qualification by January 2014. High hopes are on Team GB, as the last Winter Olympic medal was won back in 1998, and we hope that training on steel castors and wheels will help the team achieve their goals in 2014.
