006 — Direktlink
30.07.2004, 15:10 Uhr
Bernard Haste
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OK
My concerns are as follows.
Sparrows Gottwald MK1000
This machine was sold by Grayston White and Sparrow as soon as they took over Sparrows in 1985. It was bought by an American company (as it is reported) but the contract for which it was bought then fell through so the machine was put back on the market.It was then bought by Scott Greenham who immediately announced it was to be upgraded to MK1200 specification.It was not upgraded by Sparrows.Scott Greenham had the design work done to uprate the machine to the MK1200 standard, but again this work was not done.
In 1987 Grayston White and Sparrow bought Scott Greenham so received the machine back again!
GWS worked the machine hard, but realised they could get even more capacity from the machine, and commissioned another study to see what could be achieved. The result was the MK1500 designation. Again GWS did not have the work done as soon as they had the design work done. In fact the crane did its last job as the MK1000 at the Scunthorpe job where it worked on blast furnaces mounted on high stools to clear various essential services on site. I do not have a date immediately to hand for the actual date of the modification.
This account of the history of the machine was given to me by the lead man on the machine in GWS days within the last two months. It tallies with other data I have from the crane and national press about the machine at the time.
The physical description of the crane should note that it has a five axle dolly not six as noted in the FAQ section. I have photograhs showing this taken at the GWS yard at Thornaby.
Gottwald AK680-1
The machine that is on a ten axle carrier was built in 1980 for Scott cranes not Scott Greenham. That amalgamation came later. It became part of the GWS fleet when Scott Greenham were bought by GWS.GWS was taken over by Initial Rentokil, who sold the heavy crane section to Sarens and the remainder to Ainscough crane hire.The crane was refurbished three years ago according to the present lead man to whom I spoke last week.It was not refurbished as soon as Sarens acquired it.
The other AK680 was supplied to Stanley Davies who traded in part under the Hewden Stuart banner, and it is this livery the crane carried.I would dearly like to know when this machine went to Schmidbauer. Also when it went to
Tecmaco who are a subsidiary of Sarens. So in a sense it has been owned by Sarens for a long time.
It is my understanding this crane collapsed on a job in Maxilift configuration and was sold by the insurance company to Schmidbauer. I was told this recently by one of the ex Directors of Hewden Stuart who was involved at that time. He remembered the circumstances but not the date or the exact rigging of the crane at that job.
Both of these cranes were themselves uprated with heavy duty boom sections. I think this comprised three new 18m main boom sections of 22mm wall thickness rather than the 16mm walls of the original sections.I do not have dates for these alterations. I believe both cranes kept the original 18m sections and used them on jobs where the reinforced ones were not required. These sections are identified by plates with the numbers cut out in a series of holes. You can see the principle in the lovely drawings by Markus Brenner of the AK850.
I also have been told by Hewden Stuart staff recently that they did a job with their crane using 113m of luffer. The maximum normal rig was 95m so this would have required an additional section. The Director referred to above tells me that if this were true, and he does not remember, Hewden Stuart would have purchased the additional section and it would have gone with the crane to Schmidbauer. I have a spec. brochure for Schmidbauer dated 1988 where the crane is listed, but only with a maximum 95m of luffer. Of course this does not prove that they did not have the extra part. No one with whom I have spoken at Sarens can tell me if the crane now has 113m of luffer or not.
Has anyone contacts at Sarens in Woltertem and can ask?
Again I am sorry if I offended anyone. I was already crane watching big cranes from 1981 and have much information of my own from that time as well as more recently acquired information. I still arrange to see big cranes (over500t) when I can and am hoping to see the AK680 again next week, as well as collecting further information of the ex Hewden Stuart machine.
If anyone can show that I am wrong in my account I will be pleased to know, as I am keen to get to the actual facts not opinions of the big cranes owned by companies operating in the UK. |
