I like jib cranes, and wish to model a modern era one. Some online searching brought up lots of good modern examples currently being manufactured (the modern jib crane,like it’s predecessors, is in general a large horizon beam attached to a large post in a ‘L’ shape, mounted on bearings, with various hoisting equipment attached - random example - straightforward enough to model at least).
Problem is, the various manufacturer websites seem to show only indoor installation in various material handling facilities, mills, factories, etc. (maybe semi-open sheds, hidden in the back - can’t tell from some images).
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Have outside jib cranes been mostly superceded by other material handling techniques, mostly likely forklifts and truck-mounted cranes? This is what I think has happened, especially in railroad facilities like team-tracks and transload centers.
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For whatever reason, no outdoor crane installations at currently active (c2011) industrial facilities seem to come to my mind - however, since I am not familiar w/ every one of the 100s of thousands of industrial facilities, can anyone suggest some in-use examples? Extra Karma points if viewable on Google or Bing.
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Maybe fixed-base jib cranes no longer make much sense outside, as opposed to indoors (like I mentioned, the various mfr sites seem to exclusively show indoor images, although this can’t be right), as you can always get a truck mounted crane (jib or otherwise), or rig-up a fork-lift or whatever.
Come to think of it, were jib cranes actually all that common in the past (say 1950s or so) to begin with?
In the late 1960s I saw a jib crane, probably about 30 years old at the time, that was mounted on a concrete platform between a `standard’ (1067mm) gauge track and a narrow (762mm) gauge track, used for transloading heavy cargo from one to the other. It was a high capacity unit (used to move transformers and heavy switch gear) and the only thing above it was sky.
In earlier times, when horsepower walked on four legs, jib cranes were common at team tracks.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with, eventually, the aforementioned jib crane)
Well Chuck, Jib cranes were definitely common at team tracks even on many American railroads prior to the 1970s - this I am aware of (caveat - a lot of those team track cranes seems to have been more of a boom style - fixed pillar, boom attached to the bottom, and rigging from the top of the pillar to the end of the boom). Now, just glancing at search results (yeah, not a very accurate way to gauge true counts) most fixed pillar cranes seem to be jib cranes, inside of some building (I think these are supposed to be installations, not some demo models in the manufacturer’s warehouse).
The new jib cranes look kind of cool, and not too overly tough to scratchbuild, but I’d like to see how it works in a modern era material handling yard (or, as I first feared, have outdoor fixed jib cranes gone the way of reefer icing platforms, line side stockyards, or the local coal yard trestle)
Do you have a large truck dealership (Mack, Peterbuilt, Volvo) around your area? Trucks were/ are shipped piggyback style from the factory. There were ones at every dealer I worked at. They were used for removing the towed truck from the front one. The one at Dario Diesel in Worcester Mass was rated twenty ton. A picture of the prototype is nice but there are very good pictures of models from Tichy, Walthers and others. Also very easy to scratch build.
While Jib cranes were popular for light loads the heavy stuff was and is handled by the girder A frame setup.
Pete
I did some more searching, and finally found a few images of outdoor fixed jib cranes (although the overwhelming majority seem to be indoors).
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Used at small marinas to lift small boats out of the water (there were a number of these) - classified as either ‘Marine Jib Cranes’ or Davits*, but they are jib cranes
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At a lot to lift pole mounted electric transformers (the cylinder type), probably on or off of truck beds.
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At a cemetery monument maker, it’s purpose quite obvious (loading tombstones and monuments, silly!)
I am coming to the conclusion that the glorious fixed jib crane at the railroad team track/transfer yard is no more, but have not given up hope that railroad repair depots or storage yards may use one outdoors.
*Fun fact (which I knew before) - several varieties of US heavy-duty military trucks had jib-cranes (Davits) mounted on them to lift their spare tires on and off - e.g. OshKosh HEMTT M977
The cranes I have seen outdoors for RR(around various yards) use are mobile–burro types, vehicle mounted, track vehicle mounted. I want to say I’ve seen an “A” frame in MO not far from a BNSF main.
I am a vendor to GE and have seen them load those huge generator turbines onto the HD flat cars using overhead gantry cranes–indoors(200 tons rating). You should hear the trucks/springs compress. They also use mobile outdoor cranes.
Richard
Hopefully the OP will see this.
Found this on Shorpy.com. Great picture of a 1905 team track of the P&LERR. Notice the stiff leg derrick and the pedestal mounted jib with lattice type boom.
http://www.shorpy.com/node/11412
Pete
He has now [:)]
The boom on the pillar crane remains me a bit of the decades old Alexander Scale Models “Little Hook” model - just the boom, the support and control cab are not even close. The stiff leg crane, I dunno, those don’t seem as cool as jib/pillar cranes - and unfortunately that scene is over a century old, not really compatible w/ 21st century modeling. Also, I am making a distinction, probably artificial, between jib cranes (beam attached to a pillar, more or less L shaped) and a pillar boom crane (boom attached/hinged to the base of the crane, angled out, possibly (not always depending on era) with rigging to a stay-post or equivalent (or to pulleys mounted on the base behind the boom base).
