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PostPosted: 19 Dec 2010, 13:58 
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Joined: 15 Dec 2010, 22:30
Posts: 298
Location: North Cambridgeshire, UK
I'll kick this off. Though it's not so much an Introduction, more a Life Story!

I'm a member of the crane team at Nene Valley Railway, along with David O'Connell and Richard Busby - all young at heart OAPs! We service, maintain and operate the 1931-built Ransomes and Rapier 40-ton breakdown crane that you can read about under "Selected Chronicles" in the BDCA website.

I didn't take much interest in railways as a lad, probably because I had been obliged to spend my weekends and holidays into my late teens helping my father run bookstalls on the Peterborough North and East stations, and I hated it! I enjoyed seeing A4 and Deltic locos going through the North station of course, but that was about the limit of my interest in railways.

Many years later, in the spring of 1998, I somehow let myself be persuaded to join the Nene Valley Railway as a volunteer mechanical engineer. My first task at the NVR was to help overhaul the gearbox of a Rolls Royce 'Sentinel' diesel-hydraulic locomotive and I got great satisfaction from that, however I'd worked since 1959 for a diesel design/manufacturing company so I decided that my next volunteer project should be different; something steam powered. So I became involved with the restoration of BR Standard Five 73050 and later with the restoration and repair of several other steam locos.

One day I turned up at the railway to see a big steam crane in operation. This was the Ransomes & Rapier breakdown crane and it looked in a very sorry state (there was nowhere to stand on the floor of the jib runner - it was just one big hole surrounded by 160 rivets!) but I was mesmerised by it. I didn't imagine that I'd ever get the chance to drive it but I pressed for some restoration work to be carried out and was soon part of a team riveting new plates where previously there had been holes, and repairing parts that had been hanging on threads for decades.

Whilst working on the crane I studied every part of it and worked out, in conjunction my colleague David O'Connell, what it did and why. Then, having brought the crane back into good working order, David and I would frequently steam it up to make sure everything worked as it should - well that was our excuse, and the management accepted it!

We would take it in turns as driver and banksmen during these crane 'tests'. We found a metal bucket just a little bit larger than the crane's ramshorn hook and the banksman would place this on the ground and then give hand signals for the driver to follow so as to slew and derrick the jib, then drop the hook into the bucket without it touching the sides. A 'clang' would tell us that either the banksman or the driver had got it wrong, and we would repeat the exercise until we got it right every time.

In 2007, David and I, and our very good and able friend Richard Busby, became approved crane drivers, banksmen and slingers. All three of us work very well together as a team in looking after and operating the crane. David and Richard continue to work on other projects as well, at the NVR, but I now limit my attendance to crane team work. Outside of that I spend much of my 'physical' time helping a friend carry out a nut & bolt restoration of his 1926 Morris Oxford 'Flatnose' car.

Now a quick (?) word as to how the BDCA came about:
In 2004 I corresponded with breakdown crane historian and researcher Peter Tatlow for advice on breakdown crane liveries. Peter was incredibly helpful not only in respect of liveries but in particular with providing historical details about our crane. In 2006, Peter introduced me to Roger Cooke, the owner of the 1908 GWR 36-ton breakdown crane at ESR, and Roger and I have since corresponded incessantly on our favourite subject!

It wasn't long before Roger and I agreed that an organisation was needed in support of the preservation and operation of breakdown cranes, and the roots of the BDCA were formed. Peter kindly accepted my invitation to become Hon. President of the BDCA and he put me in touch with the very capable and experienced Dave Carter who agreed to be Safety and Training Adviser.

End of sermon!


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PostPosted: 06 Jan 2011, 14:10 
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Joined: 05 Jan 2011, 11:27
Posts: 31
think we need picture here..


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File comment: The Youthful twins: David Withers Left, David O'Connell Right.
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