LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Harborne

Harborne Junction: lnwrhj2188

View of the removal of the main bridge girders that carried the Harborne branch over the Birmingham Canal Navigations waterway. The width of the canal is clearly seen in this view. The diesel locomotive is Sulzer Type 2 (Class 24) D5003 whilst the writing on the rear of the crane appears to indicate that its from Rugby shed. The other crane appears to be a mobile rather than a crawler crane and would have gained access from Northbrook Street. Mike Ponsonby writes, 'This photo was taken from the canal towpath on left halfway down Northbrook Street, off Dudley Rd, in Winson Green. This type of Lift is known as a Twin Lift and is always hazardous if the Safe Working Load (SWL) capacity of both cranes is not identical to each other. (See Cranes collapsing in Big Twinlift on Delhi Underground extension in October 2010, all recorded on You Tube).

The British Railways crane nearest the camera looks like one of the steam powered cranes built by Cowans & Sheldon Ltd of Carlisle. and would have working capacities of 45 and/or 60 tons SWL. The crane furthest away from the camera is a Jones KL66 mobile crane, probably truck mounted as they never made a crawler crane version of the KL66. The KL 66 crane had a maximum SWL of 10 tons, with the outriggers fully extended out and down (which can be seen in photo). It would be possible to calculate the Unladen Weight (ULW) of this bridge beam if I knew its length. But its a fair bet, that the KL66 was working at or beyond the limit of its very limited capacity. (Drivers did that kind of thing then, but would get disciplined for it now) The bridge in the distance is Dudley Road Bridge, which is still in-situ (with City Hospital off to the right of this bridge) The brick piers in mid-canal are still in place and were seen by me only today (1st August 2011) when I drove down Northbrook Street'.

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