...and for my next trick...
Now the L&TR has three flat wagons which can take some pretty meaty loads it really needs a rail mounted crane to lift them on and off.
Enter the Minitrains crane. Bought from Brian at Sparsholt this is a rather nice little crane and now I've bought a flat wagon to use as a lifting tackle store and runner wagon I thought I'd see what I could do.
First thing is to take off the crane. Underneath is a cross-head screw and once this is out it all breaks down into its component parts, wagon, screw, washer, crane and a rectangular etched spacer.
The operators need a platform on which to stand so a disc of 20 thou styrene was cut to 28mm diameter with a 3.8mm diameter hole which is a nice interference fit on the crane boss. This is thin enough to allow the boss to fit the hole in the wagon and be secured by the original screw.
I'm toying with a clutch so the handles can be disengaged from the hoist and engaged into a slew drive. I've experimentally fitted a hand lever to the crane front but things may change yet.
That's nice, David.
Are you going to put outriggers on it, too?
Thanks Hugh.
I'd thought of outriggers Hugh but the jib and load have a counterbalance weight (and on the model it does actually slide!) so no, no outriggers. The hand lever has come off again as there's no engineering way it could work. I have another idea for slewing the jib which I'll show once I've done it. I've also added a representation of a screw thread and handle for winding the counterbalance weight along its track.
Incidentally, all those extra vehicles I built last year are very nice but it does mean longer trains nowadays. As I couple and shunt two trains at Llanmynach that means that a few nights ago I was reversing a seventeen vehicle goods train into the goods bay! And successfully over my rotten trackwork, too! ;D
Progress on the crane has been bits and details. This shows the brake gear. I used some spare brakes from (I think) old Meridian Penrhyn slate wagons. I had to remove the existing mounting lug and this left a tiny sliver for actually attaching the brakes to the crane bogies. I supplemented the join by using sections of the mounting lugs. The runner wagon has a different underframe so the modification to the brakes was slightly different to allow for the channel frame. Brake levers came from the same source as all those for the recent batch of wagons (again, Penrhyn wagons I think) and were modified to suit.
The counterbalance weight is wound along its track on a screw thread attached to a handwheel, represented by a length of 0.45mm brass wire and an etched handwheel for cab detailing. The crane frame was drilled to take the wire and the bottom of the weight was relieved to allow the wire to reach to the crane centrepost. For turning the crane I've attached four 'U' brackets from etched brass rivet strips. Into these can be slotted 1mm dia round rod which can then be pushed manually as levers to turn the crane with the brakes on or to push the crane and its load along the track with the brakes off. I'll post some demo photos when I've finished the crane.