[from the scrap box]

Not being very impressed with the available range of small 'platform' cranes and having seen the same offerings used again and again on so many fine layouts I decided to try and make my own.

Googling gave me some ideas and so with some coffee stirrers, bits of a broken egg timer, a piece of a broken sprayer, 0.4mm copper wire stripped from cable, unravelled strands of picture hanging wire [0.2mm] and track pins, I bashed one.

I wanted to represent the forged ends of the stays so flattened the annealed ends of the copper wire and drilled them to take track pins which I cut down to make 'rivets'.



To imitate the heavy bosses at the ends of the jib arms I stuck on some of the little bits on the sprues of Peco plastic models.  The all important safety pawl and ratchet wheel came from the escapement of the egg timer.




The pulley at the end of the jib I represented with two halves of a pair of pop-fasteners.

A man after my own heart there Doug. Something great for next to nothing. Bright ideas too. Just the job. Gotta go in the Forum Index.

Nice job Doug . well done.  :thumbs

Very impressive

that is a great bit of kit, out of nothing and cost just a little patience,

:doublethumb:cool:

I was going to say " Holy S…" but will just say "Golly gosh - very well done Doof" :pathead

The jib arms,  please explain about them. where from, etc

 

 A very authentic looking crane there, Doug. Well done young man :thumbs

Who is a clever sod then :pathead, smart as… .

Looks great and food for thought there mate, well done.

Brilliant work,DD….as usual.Now can you make ME one in n gauge?:twisted:

  It's true Doug,what you say about seeing the same thing again and again on layouts.OK,some things WERE standardised,but its always nice to see something UNIQUE.
  Top job pal.

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

I like the way you think Doug. Out of the box, so to speak.
You are very innovative in your approach to building the crane. But then I've never taken an egg timer apart!

Super Job Doug!

Wayne

Not having thought of the innards of an egg timer and having nothing suitable in the scrap box I approached this model in a different way and used a flywheel instead of gears. First picture shows the bits of card needed to make the crane and the basic crane after assembly. Bear in mind I was making three of these at once.






Here is the finished crane, with flywheel added, weathered, and being tested before going on to full time work.






Tests carried out successfully so hard at work in the goods yard.







Doug's is a much finer detailed model than mine of course and there is no way I am trying to compare the two. Mine is just a simple representation of the genre to show what can be done with the normal household rubbish and a tube of glue.

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

The jib arms,  please explain about them. where from, etc

There you go, the virgin stirrer……….I don't know where I got them from, but I'm sure I got that 'look' and a moan along the lines of 'What the heck do want that for….don't tell me…model railways, why can't you follow football or something else instead…'

I will admit to certain degree of obsession, at my mother in laws funeral I found the little 'fan' thing in the crematorium garden on the edge of the lawn. I HAD to have it, and, yes, I got the 'look' and the moan 'What the heck….etc.'

The subject gets raised occasionally, 4 years later!  Women!!!! Huh!

Bob, it was reading Barchester Chronicles the first time around that made me realise you don't have to spend a fortune to have a great looking railway. MPTYE [More power to your elbow]

 must be dead lucky, my wife is just the opposite "do you want this for the railway "
is what i get.
:doublethumb:roll::cool:

Thanks Doug for that & Bob for his version as well. Indexed I hope?

Right next to each other Ron, C for Cranes and G for Goods.

My kind of modelling.
Both very impressive.
I saw an example of the usual kit built crane in Portugal - wish I'd had the camera ready.

You don't know where to get Virgin Stirrers from, dd :question . . . the mind is boggling as we speak, er, type . . .

Hi Doug.  Excellent work. But I am such a clumsy modeller. And I would be really disappointed in myself if I spent time making a platform crane like your one, and broke it the first time that I went near it. I would require a solid metal version for it to have a chance.   All the best. Kevin

Doug that's an impressive platform crane nicely crafted thanks for sharing. :doublethumb

Yep, it really is a cracker, showing just what can be done with a will, a few  bits and bobs and some real modelling skill.

Well done Doug and I reckon it must look a treat now, with eight years of use and weathering under its belt!

Bill  :)