This crane although not a scale model is based on an industrial crane I photographed in August 2006 on Granville island, Vancouver. As soon as I saw this unusual crane I thought it was a must for a Meccano model. The model is built from1978 dark blue and yellow parts. The model needed a considerable amount of narrow strips these are modern grey or zinc. Here I must confess to have gone into the area of non standard Meccano parts. The strips were were cut to the lengths I required by using long strips supplied by Jack Parsisson of Australia. I think the model looks like the sort of design that would have perhaps been in a manual and that was it's appeal when I decided to build it. I like the balance of colours in the parts. It has had to be a bit of a compromise in that the narrow strips are too wide as are some of the other sections. However as I said earlier it was not my aim to build an accurate scale model but a Meccano model based on this lovely, possibly unique old crane.

A problem was the balancing of the boom. Cranes of this type would normally have a counter balancing boom with suspended weighs however on this crane the counter balancing is all on the crane base rear. Perhaps it was built on a tight budget. As you can see in the original picture of the crane a mass of heavy iron sits behind the shed like cabin. I have used about 75g of lead cast into a 5 x 5 hole Meccano module to counter balance the length of the boom. The original crane had, I believe a lifting capacity of around 4 tonnes.

The functions slewing (rotation), hoist, trolley and travel are each carried out by separate motors. The trolley and hoist are driven by the small French, black motors supplied in many sets over the past few years. The Slewing by a Swiss Escap geared motor . Picture on the right shows one section of the base during construction.

The original crane was built in the 1920s to serve the heavy industries that were once situated on Granville island. There were two of these cranes used to load and unload barges but only one now survives and was recently restored. The crane is now firmly fixed to the ground and is no longer able to travel along it's tracks. My picture of the original crane taken in 2006 is shown below.

Picture above shows the base under construction on the work bench in the Autumn of 2007

January 24 2008 Revised March18 2008