FFF 40 Friday Facts & Fotos 28th April ’23.
Cranes at Newport (1)
While on the topic of cranes at Newport, all heavy engineering needs heavy lifting equipment to suit the job. So Newport not only needed cranes, but it manufactured cranes it needed and for other use around the railway system.
We have already mentioned in past issues of FFF, the travelling rope-operated cranes in West Block (WB), but also the dozens of wall-mounted block & tackle cranes, and the single rail travelling crane in the machine shop WB 2 road.
Probably the most famous crane which was the first locomotive built at Newport in 1893 is locomotive Z526 which in 1903 was converted to No3 crane. As a useful operating crane it outlived all other steam locomotives in the state and in 1980 – 1985 was converted back to its original configuration as 0-6-0 tank locomotive Z526, now on display at Scienceworks.
The cranes all swapped around the different workshops over the years, so No1, 2, 3, 4, 8, & 9 all had regular stints around the yard at Newport. Some came from other builders, such as No2 built by Dubs in Glasgow in 1892. Occasionally the little cranes got trips on the main line mainly to pick up the wreckage after a derailment. One photo from an unknown source shows No 3 & 2 working together to retrieve wagons following the Molesworth derailment in 1911.
Photos: T Middleton, & PROV
FFF 40 Cranes at Newport (2)
The VR also build four large cranes, two thirty tonners No5 & 7, and two sixty toners No18 & 19 built 1942. The ‘big hooks’ were kept in light steam and were on hand whenever a major need arose such as picking up N453 following the paper train crash at Laverton in May ’52. However, at times they did get more constructive work such as lifting in this span over Kororoit Creek during the Geelong line duplication in Dec ’66. Fortunately No2, 3 and 19 made it into preservation. Photos: PROV, & L Whalley
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