Homemade Snowmobiles

English Russia has a gallery of snowmobiles made from scrap and repurposed materials. The one above is arguably the most awesome:

This bulky machine constructed by one enthusiast retiree from the Russian city of Kirov is powered by the old Yamaha motorcycle engine and is entirely made of scrap. Fiberglass seat was formerly a part of a small carousel, gear shift lever was a part of an unidentified old Coca-Cola souvenir. The front skies are covered with fluoroplastic, a material with extremely low friction factor. The main distinctive feature of this snowmobile is a big wheel instead of a regular for such kind of transport rubber heavy caterpillar made of metal and rubber. For this reason this monster is very light which allows it to drive on fresh crumbly snow.

They also note that heat from the engine will warm both the passenger and the fuel tank. There are a number of other interesting contraptions in the gallery, several of which incorporate propellors in the style of a swamp airboat (the last one at the link uses a rotary lawnmower blade mounted on an inflated innertube!)

Link. Via: Neatorama

Abandoned Nuclear Lighthouses

The Northern Soviet waters were equipped with a string of lighthouses to mark the treacherous passages through the dark times of the years. To make these remote beacons autonomous, they were powered by small nuclear reactors. EnglishRussia has the fascinating story of how that all turned out, along with some pretty cool photos.

Then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unattended automatic lighthouses did it job for some time, but after some time they collapsed too. Mostly as a result of the hunt for the metals like copper and other stuff which were performed by the looters. They didn’t care or maybe even didn’t know the meaning of the “Radioactive Danger” sign and ignored them, breaking in and destroying the equipment. It sounds creepy but they broke into the reactors too causing all the structures to become radioactively polluted.

Link, Via: Neatorama