Mini Blocksetter Crane

Built by Brian Elvidge in February 2023

This model appeared in Constructor Quarterly in 2022, and has been slightly altered in my version. The crane is hand-operated and replicates four motions: slew through 360°, travelling, crab travel along the top rails, and hoisting.

The turntable is built using a Märklin 2½” diameter ball race, dating from the 1980s threaded Meccano thread, as I could not see how the Constructor Quarterly version was built up. There was another version of this model shown by the builder Ron Frith at the 2022 Hainault Hangout.

In the future it is proposed to rebuild the model as a monotower or hammerhead crane, like the one preserved in Glasgow.

Comments

On 21 February 2023 Leslie Chatfield wrote:

Neat.

On 6 March 2023 Chris Warrell wrote:

Hi Brian,

This looks remarkably similar to my Mini Block-setting Crane which I made back in the 1990s, and still have. You can see a photo of it in the report of the Hornby Trains Exhibition in 2017 (on the SELMEC website). In mine, I used a stack of Flat Trunnions as a counterweight under the floor at the back. I haven’t seen the recent CQ model, but mine appeared in CQ probably a couple of decades ago — I have a copy somewhere! I was at the Hangout, but didn’t spot Ron’s model.

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