ROAD & TRACK Tandem Train Lift 'Across the Pond'

Mick Gould Commercials Ltd. is one of southeast England’s leading commercial vehicle recovery and repair companies. Mick Gould formed the company more than 25 years ago in East Sussex. His distinct fleet is a familiar sight on roads throughout the U.K. and Europe.“We received a call in April 2013 from a customer asking what is the largest Hiab knuckle boom crane that we operate,” Mick said. “He said that he had purchased a shed/store and that it needed lifting off the delivery lorry. I asked him the weight and he said it was approximately 33,600 pounds or roughly
15 tons.”Mick figured the best thing he could do was to show up with his Century 1075 rotator and assess the job. The 75-ton lift is mounted on an 8x4 Kenworth TX800 with a vehicle weight of 36.2 tons.“I was a little surprised when I saw that it was 40-plus-feet long and 15-plus tons. It soon became apparent that he was either totally unaware of weights/dimensions, or trying to negotiate a lower capacity vehicle in order to reduce costs,” Mick said.“Reid Freight, the guys with the low loader (very nice set up) were very good and had managed to get the carriage alongside the short track where it was going to live,” Mick said. “They were unsure of the weight, but thought more like 30 tons (67,200-pounds). They usually roll the carriages on/off the trailer using either a winch on the neck or the special one mounted at the rear. It wasn’t possible to use this method, as there was no room at either end or in the yard generally.”The owner wanted the carriage lifted off the trailer and placed on the tracks he had prepped earlier. The site is an old railway goods’ siding that has now been taken over by a railway preservation society. Restricted access and power lines were a problem for Mick’s crew.“A few inspection hatches placed around the working area worried me and, no matter whom I asked, no one could tell me exactly where the services were located. I made a mental assessment of the drainage etc. by lining up buildings/holes and formed a rough plan of where I could work safely,” Mick said.The customer wanted Mick to use one truck to unload the carriage. He had thought they would be able to lift each end individually and place the thing on its track.“I was unhappy with this plan. The articulation of the bogies was insufficient and the length of the carriage/height of the trailer would have caused it to belly out. It was, in my opinion, an unsafe option. I said that the correct way to unload would be with a vehicle at either end.”The customer eventually conceded and Mick called in his Peterbilt with the NRC Sliding Rotator to assist.“We opted for the 1075 lifting at the front, where it would have to reach over the side, and the NRC at the rear.” Being a slider and smaller, the NRC was considered the best way to position the vehicles. They were rigged on two-part lines and anchored to the buffers of the carriage. The bogies had to be chained to the chassis, as they only sit on pins and locators.“I would rather have used spreader bars for this lift, but the problems with cables overhead meant that we would be working at reduced height during the operation. I felt that this would have ‘flattened’ out our apex of the cables, so decided to run without bars,” Mick said. “We raised the carriage off the trailer and it was moved from underneath. We couldn’t use all the leg on the 1075, as there wouldn’t be enough room to get the trailer out. We moved the carriage over to its track, but had to move once as we were getting a little too far on radius.“We had to jiggle the bogies to line up with the rails and I was just getting ready to disconnect everything when the customer decided he wasn’t happy with the position of the track, he wanted us to lift again and then ‘lever’ the track over with crowbars. They wouldn’t move, surprisingly. We lowered the carriage down again, chained the track to the carriage and lifted the track as well, before placing the carriage exactly where he wanted it.”When Mick got back to the yard, he made a few enquiries about the weight. It would appear that the all steel carriage in its complete form weighs approximately 40 tons (89,600 lbs).“I would rather have had notice of this job so we could have planned things better but never mind, it worked out OK,” Mick said. “Although it wasn’t complete, it hadn’t lost much of its weight!”Look for the more detailed version of this very nice lift with the two rotators in an upcoming issue of American Towman magazine.