Building an Enormous Dockside Crane

[HonestTom]

Hi all, so this is a slightly mad idea I had. I’m planning to build a dockside layout, and of course for that I need a crane or two. The venerable Dapol travelling dockside crane is nice enough kit, but it’s a bit small for my purposes. I want something that towers over my trains. So I decided to take another classic kit, the girder bridge, and do a good old-fashioned kit bash.
 

The raw material. I’m a big fan of those old Gerry Anderson shows, and they used these kits all the time. I figured if it was good enough for them, it’s good enough for me.

The dockside crane base is warped. I think this will cause trouble later on.

 

I played with different configurations for the jib and ended up with basically a complete inversion of the bridge. My inspiration is the hammerhead cranes on the Clyde.

 

The control cabin is from the original kit and a second bridge is providing the tower. I must confess here that my design philosophy can be summed up as “just stick stuff on until it looks about right. No doubt someone with knowledge of the subject could point a hundred flaws out in my model.

 

I’m hoping to get more work done later today.

Edited July 12, 2020 by HonestTom

[HonestTom]

Well, no photos yet, but I've done a bit of painting on the bits of the model that will likely be difficult to access once I've added more gubbins. These things are a real pain in the backside to paint, even not fully assembled, because there are so many odd little nooks and crannies.

 

(If you're curious, I painted it grey. So to recap, it was grey, it's now a slightly darker grey)

[HonestTom]

A little more progress, recorded through terrible photography. I’ve started building the tower and added the things in the jib that the hook runs on, whatever they are.

Edited July 15, 2020 by HonestTom

[Clagsniffer]

I like the look/ sound of this idea!

 

will follow with interest.

[HonestTom]

Oh yes, forgot to add - the things-in-the-jib-that-the-hook-runs-on are taken from the Dapol signal gantry kit. Dapol are pretty good for easily repurposed girder-looking things.