Facts
Local school children gaze 150ft below
Oct 2008 – Last day of Season 2
The Clydebank Titan Crane stands:
- 150ft tall,
- weighs 800tons
- has foundations set approximately 80 feet deep.
- It's canteliever is 240ft in length, the long arm being 150ft
long and the shorter 90ft
When designing a Crane, a number of elements had to be
considered by the engineers
- the anticipated maximum lifting load required (hence the
increase to 200tons for the Duke of York in 1938).
- another consideration was the height to which the crane would
have to lift a load in order to clear the structure of the
ship, known as the 'lifting range', and the distance out from
the quay side a load could be taken, known as the 'radial
capacity'.
During construction, small sub-assemblies of the cantilever
weighing just a few tons were lifted by means of hand-powered
cranes and riveted in place after first fixing with temporary bolts
and adjusted for alignment etc. For lifting the heavier sections of
machinery, a steam powered crane was provided.
The crane was initially fitted with two 'hoists' the main one able
to lift very heavy loads of up to 150tons and a 30ton 'auxiliary'
hoist to ensure that the crane remained useful for lifting lighter
loads, as the very heavy lifts were comparatively few. This
lifting capacity was increased to 200tons in 1938 to assist with
the war effort.
The success of John Brown's as a world leading shipyard, was
attributable, in part, to the sheer lifting capacity of the
Titan. This lifting capacity helped John Brown's win
many contracts that led to the huge passenger liners
and battleships for which it is famous being built here.
The crane passed its commissioning tests and was accepted
by John Browns on 24 April 1907. Despite being a
major target during the war, the Crane and shipyard survived the
devastating Clydebank Blitz in March 1941. More information
on the Clydeside Blitz can be found at the Blitz on Clydeside website.
For more information on the Titan, visit us when we open on the 4th May 2012.
