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Author
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Topic: Steam crane in New York.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1277b.jpg)
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-01-2004 04:54 PM
On two days this week, Sunday and Wednesday I think, I saw a steam crane working at the Whitehall ferry terminal. It was on the water side of the terminal, mounted on a barge, and was on the left hand side, as seen from a ferry leaving the terminal. On another day it was moored out of use on the other side of the terminal. This crane was painted red, but there was another one, painted blue, at the St. George ferry terminal, which was not in use when I saw it.
Are these machines still in regular use, or have they been brought out of retirement for some reason? Is there a shortage of Diesel cranes at the moment?
Cranes were among the last regular users of reciprocating steam engines over here, but the last ones that I know of, other than preserved ones, were withdrawn several years ago.
Does anyone know anything about these cranes? Are they coal or oil fired? There was more smoke from the boiler than I would have expected to see with oil, but no obvious piles of coal.
When were they built? They didn't look very old, as steam cranes go, most of the ones that I saw in use over here dated from the '30s.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1277b.jpg)
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-03-2004 04:26 PM
I made up a batch of E6 this evening, but then felt too tired to do any processing. I'm working late tomorrow, and possibly Wednesday, so it may be Thursday before I can process, and Friday before I can scan and post a picture. It won't be a very good picture, I had to grab a couple of shots very quickly as the ferry sailed out, with whatever lens happened to be on the body, and without taking too much time. The thing was rather different in design to cranes that I've seen working here. The 'works' seemed to be inside, most cranes I've seen have had external cylinders, acting on crank pins set in a flywheel on each side, or a flywheel on one side and a gear on the other. I didn't notice any makers name on it.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1277b.jpg)
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-31-2004 03:15 PM
Anything to do with Ruston Bucyrus who used to make excavators, draglines, face shovels and that sort of thing, in the days when they were cable operated, rather than hydraulic?
Steam cranes were still being made up to about the late '50s, but the ones which lasted longest were the big breakdown cranes on the railways, most of these were built in the '30s, and the last were withdrawn about ten years ago. Some were converted to Diesel power, but I don't know if any of these are still in service; the modern Diesel cranes with telescopic jibs are much quicker and more convienient to use.
I had a big backlog of film to process; I make up one litre of chemistry, so I can only process four rolls of 35mm at a time, and the pics of the steam crane happened to be in the last batch, which I put through this evening. The film won't be dry tonight, but I'll scan it tomorrow, and post the pics, to see if anyone can identify it.
Processing film costs money , while projecting film makes money (rather a lot of it) , so whenever there's any projection work going this takes priority over processing.
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Stephen Furley
Film God
![](http://www.film-tech.com/ubbmembers/1277b.jpg)
Posts: 3059
From: Coulsdon, Croydon, England
Registered: May 2002
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posted 06-03-2004 10:17 AM
I think both cranes were the same model, though the jibs were slightly different. I doubt that they'll stil be there next year when I go back. Almost all of the old Whitehall terminal building has now gone, and much of the new one is now in place.
I don't know if you know the area; just behind the crane in the first few pics is another ferry terminal, covered in scaffolding. There was a U.S. Coastguard sign on it last year, before the scaffolding went up. I don't know what it was used for, but it's now under restoration, it's a rather fine building, clad in decorative copperwork. This seems to be quite a commonon thing over there, but I've never seen anything like it here. The two terminal buildings standing side by side can be clearly seen in the opening shots of 'West Side Story'.
The old ferry terminal building at Hoboken is going to be restored, some work has already tahen place. The copper cladding looks rather fine, but where some of it has either fallen off, or been removed for work to take place the concrete structure underneath doesn't look too good, there seems to be quite a lot of reinforcement showing, and corroding.
As I said, they are poor photos, but I'll send you some better scans. What sort of Internet connection do you have? Can you handle large files?
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