RO November 1977

"Cowans Sheldon 45 Ton steam breakdown crane ADB966103 from Immingham is on loan to Stratford whilst resident Cowans Sheldon 75 Ton steam breakdown crane ADB966111 is away at Derby works being converted to diesel"

Interestingly I had photographed ADB966103 at Stratford in 1977 (see link) however this was in March. It appears that ADB966103 stay at Stratford continued into 1978, was ADB966111 away for a year or more?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pics-by-john/5598873398/

In his book "From Steam to Stratford", Stratford's BDV supervisor William Peter Robinson tells of the 45-tonner 966103 standing in for 75-tonner 966111 whilst the latter was at Derby for conversion.

His first mention of '103 relates to it being warmed up on one of the last days of March 1977, when it was found to be "in a dreadful state". He suspected that "the other gangs who had it when their own crane was at the works didn't do any maintenance on it, or even use it". But Stratford must had received the 45-tonner before that date as he included a photo of it about to lift the canopy off '111 on 19th February 1977.

I don't think WPR said when '111 went to Derby for conversion but it was most likely in either March or April 1977. He said that it came back from the works, in diesel-hydraulic form, on 2nd December 1977, seven or eight months later.

The dieselised crane gave lots of trouble. Derby sent some fitters to see to it on 24th January 1978 but found it to be a bigger job than they had realised, so they went back to Derby on the 26th and returned with more fitters for two days of repair that same month. WPR said the crane was "just 200 tons of scrap at the time"!

'111 continued to give trouble and was returned to Derby in February 1978 for the work "to be done correctly". This was completed on 10th March and several days of testing followed. It was back at Stratford on 14th March.

In August 1978, Derby asked for '103 to be returned to them, to stand in for another 75-tonner that was about to be dieselised, but Stratford weren't going to let it go until they were satisfied that '111 was trouble-free - and it wasn't! Derby had another go at '111 and said, at the end of the month, that it had been brought into good order. But Stratford had heard that tale before, and decided to hold onto '103.

The big crane did give more trouble, as predicted, and in November 1978 Derby arranged to take it back for more work, leaving the 45-ton steam crane '103 to carry out its duties again. On the 10th November, '103 had run a hot box and was taken out of service and, with '111 also being inoperative, Stratford were without a crane. Thankfully a new bearing was found for '103 on the 11th and, after fitting, it was decided to check the wheel loads with a comparator borrowed from Derby. The comparator gave all different and unexpected readings so the exercise was repeated. Two days later, the springs had at last been pulled down correctly (Neil, please note what you may be facing with the Bluebell crane!).

'111 had returned from Derby by the 16th November 1978 and Stratford's check with the borrowed wheel comparator showed up "many discrepancies", which explained its tendency to break springs. The springs were reset and the crane put into service, apparently now reliable. WPR's book finishes at the end of 1978 and doesn't tell us when or if '103 was returned to Derby.

John, I hope that answers your question. As you may know, I'm not famous for my brevity!