Rail Mounted Steam Crane

7 ton lifting capacity built 1890

This was the first crane to be made by Coles brothers under the name Henry J Coles Ltd, an independent company in London. It is a railway mounted crane which was built about 1890. The railways were everywhere and where most lifting would have been done.The railways were the main form of goods transport.

The finished model
built 1:12 scale
23"x8"x26" high. (575x200x650mm)

The configuration is a fairly standard one for the day. Steam powered everything on the railway.
Here an almost standard vertical tube boiler, possibly bought in, gives steam to a double expanding cylinder pistons.

These power a series of gears and by selection through a series of levers, which dove by direct drive to the crane winding drum, jib lift drum and the wheels of the railway bogie.

All the these things were controlled along with the stoking of the boiler by ether one or two men standing on the platform, an instinctive sense of timing was needed by the driver so as not to damage the gears.

Apart from being converted to diesel instead of steam the machine was still in its original condition although a bit worn and with fifty years of accumulated grime.

The grey painted crane (left) is one on these origonal cranes now used as a showpiece outside Grove works in Sunderland.