Mystery bit of P.Way kit - any ideas please ?

[Wheatley]

This is a snip from a much larger picture posted on a Facebook local history group. The rest of the  photo shows a Black 5 making up an Engineer's train at Newton Stewart (ScR) at some time in the late 50s, scattered around the rest of the station are at least 2 dozen empty Sole wagons and a solitary Dolphin. 

Then there's this thing loaded on what looks like another Sole (or possibly a Long Low or similar). It appears to be some sort of 4 wheeled machine but can anyone suggest what please ? Crane ? Tar boiler ? The vertical pole going off the top of this clipping is a telegraph pole in the yard behind and not part of the thing on the wagon. 

 

Incidentally, if you're modelling a real location and you're on Facebook then have a rummage around (or actually join) the local history and 'Memories of ...' groups. They tend to be much better at identifying people than bits of railway equipment, and half the comments will be along the lines of "Beeching should never have closed it ..." but there are some absolute gems on there. "Here's our Johnny with the camera he got for his 12th birthday". Little Johnny is standing in front of the one bit of the station building I didn't have a photo of 🙂

 

Thanks !

. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by Wheatley

[Mark Forrest]

Coles crane or similar, possibly with jib removed for transport?

[Wheatley]

Mmm, possibly. I looked at Iron Faries but it didn't look like any of those, forgot about Coles, thank you.

 

There might actually be two things, there's looks to be another wagon in front just peeking into shot. So not everything visible is necessarily on the nearest wagon. 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Wheatley

[Wickham Green too]

May be nothing to do with the railway - other than a source of revenue !!?!

[KeithHC]

Could be a wheeled compressor of some type.

 

Keith

[didcot]

Early dumper truck perhaps 

[Nearholmer]

Light crane, or one of those excavators that used cables, rather than hydraulics, to activate a back-hoe. 
 

You can see the counterweight facing towards us (not very big, so light jib and load), and on the right is what I think is the engine compartment, probably containing a chugging little Lister or the like, as per a contemporary dump-truck.

 

I suppose it could be an Iron Fairy or similar early hydraulic, rather than cable/rope. There is a bit at the top that might be a telescopic jib viewed end-on from the rear.

 

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Nearholmer

[Wheatley]

Thanks all, plenty to go at there. 

 

Possibly revenue earning, but it looks a lot like an engineer's train being re-marshalled to me, and almost every road except the goods yard proper has engineer's wagons on it. Here's the full pic: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2754467651530734&set=gm.774894996796898

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by Wheatley

[phil_sutters]

Could it be a cherry-picker, with the operator platform to the right and the boom up the centre?

[kingfisher9147]

I would say a generator. Seen some similar used in ww2 etc. 

Mike 

[Wickham Green too]

4 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Could it be a cherry-picker, ...

Back in the 50s I think cherry pickers were just people who picked cherries ! 

[Mark Saunders]

It looks out of gauge height wise and could be in connection with engineers use. The wagon looks a bit like a Sole!

[Pandora]

I think it is a rubber-tyred crane which has been placed on a wagon,  the wagon and crane  never leaves the yard ( it is out of gauge) the wagon is shunted into position and the crane is set to working loading and unloading wagons where there is lack of access for the crane to be operated from roadways alongside the sidings, look at the image  note the platform and three sidings which are hard to access and think about the reach of the crane jib

[Wheatley]

An ad hoc static crane is not something I'd  thought of, thanks. The furthest left line of Soles is on a siding with road access, and I think there's a ladder leaning up against the wagon with the Thing on it so it's clearly not going anywhere just yet. 

 

This is the layout, the Thing is roughly where the pencil 'X' is, the photo is taken from the footbridge at the top of the map:

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Wheatley

[phil_sutters]

4 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Back in the 50s I think cherry pickers were just people who picked cherries ! 

They were invented in the USA in 1944 and first marketed in 1953. Nevertheless I concede that it would have been unlikely to appear, looking rather work-worn, in the UK so soon after.

[John M Upton]

Early model combine harvester viewed from the rear?  My Dad drove a couple of what would have been the next generation of those in the 1970's open controls with no cab and actually quite small compared with the modern day behemoth version.

[Wickham Green too]

Doubt it - looks to have four wheels the same size ! 

[Artless Bodger]

Looks like a Jones KL15 - images on google.

[Wheatley]

Thank you ! Looks like a fairly straightforward scratchbuild too 🙂

 

I'm dying to know what the job was which needed a small crane, a Dolphin and two dozen empty Soles...

Edited April 3, 2022 by Wheatley

[Nearholmer]

I’m not convinced it’s that particular model of crane, but ……. Those tiny cranes were, still are, often used when digging narrow shafts and constrained excavations for things like drainage catch-pits, access to very tight tunnels for drainage or cables etc.

 

They are used to lift/lower a big bucket that I think might be called a kibble, which brings up spoil and is used to lower tools and materials.

 

Sometimes, on hand-dug tunnelling, there is an 18” (or even less) gauge railway at the bottom and the kibbles are carried along the shaft on little flat wagons - some kibbles actually have wheels themselves.

 

This sort of work is all very “Seven Dwarves”, pretty much the same as C15th mining.

 

So …….. a job for a little crane in a wagon might be drainage catch pits, either digging or cleaning.