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Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 5:01 pm
by martyn williams
[video]http://youtu.be/iAZkvDKomhs[/video]

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 5:27 pm
by martyn williams
I was asked by my boss to film our breakdown gang at work. Two 75 tonne rail cranes were assembled in Cardiff Canton depot fot its rescue mission to Johnston, West Wales,the locomotive hauling a full petrol tanker train derailed at catchpoints.Nearly going down a 40 foot embankment.A plan was drawn up to recover the loco over a weekend. but was done in 8 hours
The film starts with us leaving Cardiff and setting up the heavy lift. A Caterpillar backhoe loader was used to dig away ballast to reright the loco before the lift. After rerailing it was dragged back to Cardiff where it was cut up.
The recovery was carried out by Canton Cardiff and Old Oak , London breakdown crews. filmed in April 1989
Hope you enjoy it :thumbup:
Martyn

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:57 pm
by Green Dragon
Can't watch as logo on screen say video private.

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive

Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 7:37 pm
by martyn williams
Reset ,can you see it now ? :thumbup:
Martyn

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 9:25 am
by XS650
Good film :thumbup: , thanks for posting it.
Craig

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 9:30 pm
by Gordon Wil
Thanks for uploading that video, found it really interesting.
Showing my lack of knowledge though, was the lifting slings only rated at 7.5tons? or did I miss read them?
Just wondered how it could lift the 109 ton engine? 15 tons each!
Best regards,
Gordon Wil.
Just replayed and see they are 74.ton sling.

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:10 pm
by martyn williams
We had a good breakdown gang. they attended most of the major incidents like Southall and Upton Nervet. The original plan was to dump the loco for recovery up the line but it was decided to take it all the way back to Cardiff,we arrived back at base at 2200,the train locomotive then took the London crew's section back home to Old Oak depot.It was a struggle for our loco to pull six coaches two breakdown cranes and a dead loco up the grades in the Swansea area.After filming I rode up front with the driver for the rest of the trip. A great bunch of lads to be with.The recovery went well in such a difficult spot.
Martyn

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 10:34 am
by Ianto36
great video Martyn!
They really were a good bunch and knew what they were doing!
Reminds me of the time we derailed our tamper 73911 right outside Great Malvern signal box, the rerailers from EWS margam came up and they were on about bringing the Cowans Sheldon up to put her back on but I think it was not available so in the end they jacked and packed her back on and travelled her back into the sidings and used two 100 tonners to lift her over the fence and onto a low loader and take it up to Plassers in West Ealing for repair, only casualty was the TQS mug which got smashed and 250k to repair the damage.
Always remember the smell of creosote and burnt metal smell where the axle tubes had run along the top of the rails.
Signalman came in in the morning and asked what had happened, I just looked at him in disbelief!
TQS was away on his toes once he knew the shift was cancelled because he was having new teeth fitted the next day, funny how stupid things stick in your mind from accidents!
Thanks
Ian

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 7:19 pm
by martyn williams
Thanks Ian
The loco could have been repaired and put back into service but the gypos has removed all the copper air pipes and the traction cables.
It was great fun filming this , I had to hire a generator to keep the camera battery charged up. Early days of VHS.
I will post some more on youtube soon.
Martyn

Re: Rescue of a 109 tonne locomotive with two 75 tonne rail cranes

Posted: Sat Jun 01, 2013 9:12 pm
by Ianto36
I was wondering looking at the video if she had been stripped, did they take one of the Air horns off the roof?.
Amazing how hard people will work illegally!

Looking forward to more nostalgia Martyn

Thanks
Ian