More than a paint job?

I'm wondering just how much it costs to hire that crane - that beast is HUGE. The transportation of the cars on lorries via Allelys Heavy Haul is around £1100 per car.

a "cheap" deal!

Top of the carpark is the best place!

Edit: directions: from the railway station follow signs for the buses, then turn left once inside the glass building, up the escalator, carry on a bit, then take a lift/stairs to level 6.

And the nearest cake shop?

Just under 3 minutes to reply (I made it 165 seconds). That is pretty good.

By the way, is there any reason why those escalators are now both up-only? Very confusing! With that lone one near WHSmith, why couldn't they make it a matching pair?

Only used the new layout twice- just cannot work out whether it's Cooplands of Gregg's that you're directing us towards!

(bows to the mighty Tomcakes) ;D ;D ;D

They do look nice since the repaint into lu livery. Hope they are kept in pristine condition, unlike their sisters on the Central.

Over here a 500t crane costs about £ 1500 per day. That includes 2 operators. It takes about 2-4 hours to set it up, depending on circumstances and loads. Of course in a lift like this you need more people and perhaps some special lifting gear.

£ 1100 per car sounds reasonable. Don't confuse a lot of money with expensive, because it's not expensive in the big picture.

Just a question about the lifts: How does the crane attatch to the car - I have visions of a big loop of metal with a massive hook in it... but I imagine that it is not the case.

I've seen the photos but could someone explain how it works...

districtdave.proboards39.com/index.cgi?board=wc&action=display&thread=1151517434&page=2#1154824803

5th pair of pics down (-ish).

I imagine the car will have designated lifting points much like jacking points on an automobile so that the car body doesn't sag under its own weight when lifted up. This would prevent permanent damage to the underbody.

Also the lifting beams used with the crane lift ensures the weight is even distributed to prevent the body from twisting and distorting when the car is suspended in the air.

The train experts here would know more about the evolution of car body designs. But the earlier car's structural strength much depended on the underbody/chassis whereas later designs have moncoque construction much like modern cars/aircraft. Anyone care to post a more detailed history on this? I'd be interested! ;D

I heard some time ago that there was a particular problem with cracking of welds in the D-stock underframe. But I've seen in depots stripped down trains with the welds marked up for inspection. (Hmm just seen a another thread on a similar topic)

I would be suprised if designing and making the necessary equiptment so that they can be lifted by crane was not part of the contract to design and build the cars.