grafton steam crane

tillage · Post #1 by **tillage** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 5:00 pm

some photos of our grafton steam crane. it is circa 1889 and maybe one of the oldest to survive.it was fitted to a pontoon barge in 1928 by the southern railway and used for harbour dredging on the isle of wight at st helens quay.it then passed to medina borough council in 1958 and used fo dredging the river medina.it was taken out of service in 1970 and the crane removed and stored by the iow museum services. it lay at a depot until 2009 and as a group we retrived it. it is currently being restored for demonstrations. it originally worked with a "chandalier" grab but unfortunately this has gone.i am currently repairing the boiler and others in the team are restoring the main machinery. a few photos

martyn williams · Post #2 by **martyn williams** » Sat Dec 17, 2011 8:45 pm

I can remember the Salvage Squad TV programme restoring a Grafton.
Please keep us updated on this interesting project :thumbup:

I have done a bit on Cowans Sheldon rail steam cranes years ago.
Martyn

MGI · Post #3 by **MGI** » Mon Dec 19, 2011 7:00 pm

Must be a very determined bunch!

brainscott · Post #4 by **brainscott** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 6:19 am

This steam crane seems to be very old.
Have you got anyinformation of the year when the crane was built?

martyn williams · Post #5 by **martyn williams** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:25 am

I think that these cranes were built in the mid 1930's. for rail work 8 to 10 ton perhaps, most of the ones I worked on were 12 ton Smith Rodley which were used for track construction at various yards.I can remember working on one in the summer of 1976 at Radyr. They were withdrawn from service in the late 1970's being replaced with diesel converted ones. of diesel electric type.The other cranes on that site had Maclaren 4 cylinder diesels in them.You could alway tell which fitter had been working on one as they had oil spots on their faces :lol:

Martyn

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