Wigan Album
Railways
6 Comments
Photo: Lawrence Thorpe
Item #: 18485
Although at first glance it might look like the crane is dealing with a mishap & derailment it isnt.
It is actually being used to perform an unusual delivery by offloading a very large & heavy machine to walmsleys factory that was being part delivered by rail.
The large machine for walmsleys was too big to fit under the access bridges nearby so it was crated up & craned up onto a flatbed bogie bolster in the GKN sidings & then shunted from the sidings onto the down line where it was then craned off onto the factory premises.
This photo shows the machine being craned off & into the factory.
Lawrence this appears to be a road crane, I suspect hired by Walmsleys for the day. Breakdown cranes are rail vehicles, this clearly is not.
Memory recall,Wooden crate going from Walmsley to GKN depot,To big to go by road from Walmsleys ie Under narrow road bridge,Mick,Correct over road crane.LT
There are two cranes being used.
Walmsleys must have really really needed that machine judging by the amount of work undertaken by many people to get it over & across the railway at douglas bank.
As for the machine,it must have been important.
I wonder what it was??
My grandad used to be a forman at walmsleys in wigan in the 70s I wonder if he was involved with that job ,he used to be involved with railway cranes ,his name was Roy Shepherd
It would of been part of a paper machine that walmsleys had made ,it would be going out to the buyer not a machine being delivered to the factory .they couldn't get under the low bridge before the new road ,
According to my dad .