RAAF Articulated Cranes
 

G'day Everyone,

this has been a very interesting thread!

I have been collecting images of engineering machinery that was used in the NT during the war and it would seem there was at least a couple of these used in the Darwin area.

However, the ones I have photos of up here were mounted on C60X chassis, rather than the GMC 6x6 or FWD (as Lang mentioned). See attached images. These came from a book called "Restore To Service - A History of 4RSU" by Walter Venn. This is a fantasitic book and contains images of vehicles you will not find anywhere else.

It is easy to see in these photos that the crane is mounted on a turn table on the tray - they must have been an interesting jigger to operate!

Jared

More Beaufighters with Cranes
 

G'day again,

I knew I had seen a pic very similar to the one in the first post. I just found it at the end of the book "Whispering Death" by Parnell - a history of the Beaufighter in RAAF service.

Once again it is a GMC being used as motive power. This is in 1955 so the RAAF kept them on strength for quite some time.

The scene in either photo would make a great model diorama.

Jared

And Yet Another 10 Ton RAAF Crane...
 

I have just gone through my files and found this collection of images that saw on epay some years ago. The album sold for a ridiculous amount but I did download the few scans of pages that were placed on the auction site.

This page shows a bogging mishap with the 10 Ton C60X crane at RAAF Base Darwin. This would have been during the Wet Season. It is interesting to see the Cletrac aircraft tug (I have the remains of one of these) and also the pic showing the Blitz (tipper?) and the Jeep towing the crane in tandem from the rear.

Have a great weekend,

Jared

Cranes
 

Australian War Memorial examples.

http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/P02270.008 check the refuelers in the background.

http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/125221

Hello Jared,
Another interesting Beau pic,
This Beau was converted to a target towing aircraft and would probably be with 30 SQN if it is 1955.
My records indicate it was scrapped in 1957.
Be interesting to see what Col comes up with.

Justin.

Well by early January this crane was gone from Richmond at least.

Perhaps to disposals as all the Beaufighters were long gone, and Neptune engine changes were done using a Fawler.

A8-358 has a very mild history.

Was stored until 30/5/51
Then was converted to target towing and allotted to 30 Sqdn.

Undercarriage collapsed on landing at Richmond 14/11/55.

Aircraft sent to Tocumal 3/2/56 for storage and sold for scrap 28/657.

So we know that the crane existed on 14/11/55 and was gone by 8/1/57.

I suspect that these cranes were taken out of service, because they were not allowed to be driven by groundstaff. Where as the Fowlers could be driven by any approved driver.

Makes sense not to tie up a driver when doing an engine change.

Thank goodness for aircraft the RAAF kept and have retained good records.

Shame they had not done it with transport.

Regards

Col

RAAF Crane
 

Having had another chat with Dad over the crane he used at Balikpapan in 1945-46 - he says that it was a self propelled crane that it steered by hydraulic rams (that steered the rear end). He says it had a farm tractor seat and not a cab.

He remembered the name Massey Harris and I've found this on the Museum of Victoria site. I'll show him when I see him as he is not on the web! However I cannot see from the photo how it would have hydraulic steering but after 65 years its hard to remember I guess.


I presume the RAAF had these too?

Crane
 

I've just found another Massey Harris - this has four wheels that he said it had.

RAAF crane?
 

While driving around Aust in the CGT we came across this example in the opal mining town of Coober Pedy in central Aust. It just took me a while to find the pic.

Larry,

Dale Barnard of Brisbane has one of those tractor cranes. I saw it last week and he wants to sell it.

Lang

I can tell you a little more on that crane because I owned it.
It is a 1939 H model Farmall trike with a Fowler crane conversion.
It has its original brass plate and is fully operational.
If you are over 6 foot tall don't forget to duck when lowering the boom!
Cheers
Jeff

Euan,

Your photo was a little small - can you attach a larger version?

Crane
 

Heres part of a DIY kit.
Ebay # 320492983721

Cranes
 

Actually Rick, the cranes in Wilsons junk yard are G-Well's They are different to the picture as they have a single hydraulic ram to lift the boom whereas the crane pictured is all cable operated.
As for the cranes near Ballarat I presume you are referring to the two at Rokewood Junction. The GMC there was owned for a period by Rickey bros Ballarat. I drove it many times in the late 70s. Prior to that it was owned by "Barney the wrecker" in Sebastopol.He used it in his wrecking yard and contracted with it. The Inter crane was previously owned by a tank maker in delecombe, It had a cab-over prime mover before the inter. It may have been a foden, but I'm not sure. I don't know who made the cranes as there was no makers plate that I know of, but I was told they were left behind by the Americans.Rickeys were big buyers of war surplus trucks and machinery and there was still a lot left in use until the early 80s.

Welcome JFL
 

Thanks JFL for that info. I didn't realize that there was a difference between the cranes.
Welcome to the Forum. I see that this is your first posting.
Who is JFL? We would like to know more about you. You look like you have plenty of knowledge to share, and this is the place to share it.
Regards Rick

Thanks
 

Thanks for the welcome Rick.
I worked for Rickeys in Ballarat over a period of 11 years,. Besides the CMG crane He had two fwd's ,one was a crane and the other carried a drill rig , a cletrac tug , a dukw, a Mack (e model I think)a k10 international and the pride of the fleet, a 604 federal.All of these were operational and there were many more trucks that were not in use. After the death of Huey Rickey everything was sold at auction , including sheds full of new spares brought from the post war auctions in Darwin. After that I worked for Bob Davies, also in Ballarat, who had a number of Ford blitz cranes. Some time later I was mining in north west NSW and part of my plant was an NH Mack, which is now located in Broken Hill .

Back in the 70's there was one of those huge cable operated cranes in a yard out towards where Melbourne airport now is (Tullamarine). I was more interested in the truck it was attached to, a GMC 6x4 which is a rare vehicle in this country. It was originally a hard cab but had the roof cut off similar to the one in the photo. From memory it was all cut up and scrapped where it stood.
There is a similar crane attached laterly to a Studebaker US6 just south of Coober Pedy where a fellow intended quarrying red granite. He was lifting a rock with it that he estimated at about 20 tons when the 4 inch diameter solid steel axle broke off next to the wheel bearing. Strangely enough he had a spare axle assembly for it.
JFL, I have Hue Rickey's M2 Cletrac. He had two in fact. He broke a track on the one he was operating and bought another one with a broken track to get the remaining track from. John Bellfield got that one, I got the one he had been using.
David

Welcome David
 

Its about time you joined MLU David.
Welcome, It's good to see your finally part of this great WWW forum. You have plenty to share I'm sure.
regards to Maggie
Rick

Thanks Rick.
I'm still battling with the technology so enter with some trepidation. Besides, I've always held that your better to keep your mouth shut and look a fool than open your mouth and prove it. I'm better at listening.
Cheers

Having read right through this thread again, it seems that not much is known about these larger airfield cranes be they atached to GMC, FWD or C60X.
I must confess that when I was looking at the one on the GMC 6x4 near Tullamarine I had no idea whether the crane was military or civilian. There was nothing to tell that from. Gradually over the years I became aware that it wasn't just a one off. It would also seem that they don't exist anywhere else on the planet so they must be a home grown product.
The questions remain:- Where were they built? Who built them? Was there more than one manufacturer? How many were built? Is anybody attempting to preserve one? And the fellows that knew these things are dying off fast.
That should be a tasty morsel for an archive excavator to chew on.
David

Cranes
 

Motto, Yes I remember there was another cletrac in the symons st yard. In the later years Huey would not let us move the cletrac because he was afraid the cables in the tracks would be rusted and break. As I wrote before I have no idea who built the cranes, But it certainly wasn't Letourneau, They had their own lift and carry crane design which was completely different.There was a Touracrane at Rickeys quarry . One possibility is Garwood, apparently they built a lot of machinery outside their usual fields during the war years.

Other truck mounted crane photo:
http://www.allappys.com/Intakes/8tra...on%20crane.jpg
source:http://www.allappys.com/Intakes/8trade/RSTT.html

I would like a lot to build a model, anyone has found some more info about them?

G_Mendes

The crane we are looking at here Goncalo is based on a Long Wheelbase GMC CCW 353 6x4 hard cab truck that has had the cab top cut away. This is exactly what I saw out Tullamarine way years ago and described in an earlier post.

David

Hello David,

Many thanks for the reply.
I´m sure that the crane was from australian made source, all the photos were from there. As for the maker, from what I had searched, it was built on purpose, and I had seen a lot of smaller cranes using the same type of main wheels structure and carriage connection, to a tractor rear, instead of a truck, as seen on some posts. My toughts are that they were made by the same maker.
It would be fantastic that someone take a complete photoset of one of these things, along with a few mesures... and surely, if someone restore and preserve one it would be great too :yappy:

G_Mendes

Well, some more photos that I find, not mine, but due to the scarcity of the theme...

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9160

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/at...8&d=1400155701
Source: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=22076

In Coober Pedy:
From Biglorryblog, at commercialmotor.com/big-lorry-blog (Bob Murphy 2005):
http://static.commercialmotor.com/bi...Pedy%20082.jpg
http://static.commercialmotor.com/bi...Pedy%20081.jpg
source: http://www.commercialmotor.com/big-l...d-scenes-on-bi

From user "jim sewell" at mapleleafup.net/forum:
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/at...1&d=1185703112
source: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9160


From user "101 Ron" at 4wdaction forum (2011):
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...n/DSCF2999.jpg
Source: http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/vi...rt=15#p1432391

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p...n/DSCF2997.jpg
Source: http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/vi...rt=15#p1432391

The big rock on the rear is the crane counterweight!


In the same scrap yard in Coober Pedy:

From user "jim sewell" at mapleleafup.net/forum
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/at...1&d=1185709656
source: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9160

In Wilson's Steel scrapyard, in Cabarita, about 10km west of Mildura:

From user "EMC", at www.warbirdz.net/forum (2011):
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps7b4a70c0.jpg
source: http://www.warbirdz.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2194

G_Mendes

Hello, Mr Euan, coud you post a higher resolution image or link?
Thanks! :note:

Just for curiosity, here is the scrapyard where seems to exist two, maybe three of this cranes. Public online images from googlemaps satelite and street views.
Its located in Lia St, Coober Pedy, SA 5723, Australia
Note, in the left rectangle is the US6 crane truck, as shown above, and from the street views, appear to exist another one, with a boom extension, in a darker colour (and not with the white painted main structure). On the right, there is the yellow one viewed earlier too.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...pscq49y6jq.jpg
Source: https://www.google.pt/maps/@-29.0101.../data=!3m1!1e3

The one in Wilson's Steel, is seen on the google street view too, and it looks that it could be more than one too, as the main boom look to have the base frame sheeted over, and not opened as in the photo above:
https://www.google.pt/maps/@-34.2076...UPWfthWlOA!2e0

In a note, by viewing the larger US6 crane truck photos, it looks that there is a vertical power shaft, to operate the winch crane, in the center of the crane/truck attachement structure.Where it is connected? On other trucks, like the GMC, and the CMP C60X, the crane attachement is forward of the rear wheels... In this truck it looks to be over the rear wheels suspension center.

From the Australian War Memorial
https://static.awm.gov.au/images/col...P02270.008.JPG
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02270.008/

https://static.awm.gov.au/images/col...P02270.007.JPG
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02270.007/

https://static.awm.gov.au/images/col...P02270.009.JPG
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P02270.009/

https://static.awm.gov.au/images/col...P01302.005.JPG
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01302.005/

https://static.awm.gov.au/images/col...P01302.008.JPG
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/P01302.008/

The yard at Lia Street, Coober Pedy belongs to a well known local identity named Emilio Chignola. Emilio is an energetic and skilled modifier of machinery to make it do whatever he wants of it. The Studebaker/airfield crane would be an example of his work.
In his time he has acquired and in many cases passed on quite a few ex military vehicles most of which have been abused, dismantled, modified or cannibalised which is the usual fate of any vehicle on the opal fields.

David

From a flickr album, there is one behind the front truck. Unfortunayly it is a photo from 1973...
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5611/...30bd5d5c_b.jpg
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/299031...-cmp_vehicles/

The big crane truck base seems to be based in a Toyota FQ-15... quite a ligght vehicle, compared to a GMC a Studebaker US6, or the heavy duty CMP!