Steve very kindly sent me a set of his crane castings - and very good they were too! I have paid quite a bit for resin kits that required a heck of a lot more cleaning up to get them to a reasonable state. Just goes to show that a good modeller can achieve really good quality castings at home. Must admit, it gets you thinking (and puts the voices in your head into overtime).
Anyhoo, ever since I built the interchange goods yard I wanted to include a yard crane. Problem was I couldn't find space for it to be able to load/unload from standard gauge to narrow gauge and/or road vehicles. The problem was solved by G Rik a little while ago when he showed pics of the wagon mounted crane that he had built - so I just nicked his idea.
I built Steve's crane as intended, but I built an extended frame out of plastic angle (plus Cambrian bolt heads) to carry the counter weight (which was made from a bloke of wood covered in plasticard). The counter weight wheels are from plastic rod and the threaded weight adjuster is a wood screw with the head cut off. The chain drum is made from a cut down cotton reel, the chain being old cheap necklaces from the local charity shop. I found the hook in the spares box. Finally primed, then painted matt black followed by an application of Modeltown Rust Dust, concentrating on the places where rain water might collect. The finished crane is mounted on an Accucraft flat wagon (from Fred).
