Cranes for Crane - Part 2

Work continues dismantling a Potain tower crane that came down during Hurricane Dorian (see Part 1, September 27.) A second large crane has now been raised to assist in the work.

 This one is a Manitowoc 440 ton crawler with lattice boom. I estimate the boom to be about 300 feet.

The Manitowoc model number is 14-440T-03, 16000. A number of cranes of this type are advertised on line for sale or rent, the nearest in Mississauga, ON another in Syracuse, NY. I imagine R&D Cranes brought this one in especially for this project.

There are "smaller" cranes on the job too, including a Grove 9000-02, used to assemble the crawler and a Grove GMK 5240 (no clear view of this one for a photo.)

The mast of the Potain tower crane is still resting against the adjacent building, but since this photo was taken it has been lashed to the structure of that building. That building was under construction, but work has now been suspended.

The red arrow shows where the mast clipped another adjacent (occupied) building on the way down.

.

Heading Home

This Volvo with its 90m articulated boom is heading back to Europe after a time in Canada as a demonstrator. It was spotted near pier  23 waiting for its ship.

The boom was built by Janneniska OY in Finland. They have now established themselves in Canada, and no longer require the unit. The Janneninska Group is the parent company of Bladefence Canada Ltd which  specializes in wind turbine repair and maintenance. Bladefence set up in Canada in 2016 with an office in Toronto, but services the whole country. (That is one of their smaller units in the left of the upper photo). Bladefence Canada currently operates a fleet of more than half a dozen units ranging from 90 to 105m.

I first saw the crane truck truck just before Christmas 2016, shortly after it came ashore.

The Volvo chassis is a 5x4 with twin steer axles forward, tandem drive axles and a trailing axle at the rear.

.

Crane for a Crane

On September 8, 2019 Hurricane Dorian passed through Halifax. The class 1 storm toppled trees, tore off roofs and brought down utility lines.

The most spectacular damage however was the collapse of a tower crane that draped its boom over a nearby building and left its mast leaning against the same building.

Removal and clean up will be a lengthy and complex operation, and a variety of equipment has been mobilized to handle the job. One particularly impressive piece of gear is the Grove GMK 6400 all terrain crane owned by R+D Cranes of Dartmouth, NS (a division of Cherubini Metal Workers).

Boom stowed in the conventional position, the crane appeared to be newly arrived from the factory in July.

Manitowoc introduced the GMK 6400 model in 2017 and is rated at 400 tonnes, 450 tons (US) and has a self-rigging auxiliary hoist. It has a 60m main boom and a 136m maximum tip height.

The crane requires a dolly to distribute the load sufficiently to travel on Nova Scotia roads. Gross vehicle weight is 72,000 kg or 158,730 lbs.

The tower crane that came down was manufactured by Potain in France, and has been used on other projects in Halifax.

(2014 photo on a different project)

A major street in the area, and several businesses  (one block from my house) remain closed until the remains of the  crane can be removed.

.

RV Catch Up

The yearly influx of RVs from Europe continues, and I was able to catch a few of them during the summer.

Mercedes Sprinter types remain favourites including this very North American looking LMC Liberty.

A rare MB100D small van dates from 1992-1995. Note the two handled side door.

Ivecos remain popular too. This much travelled unit, sports a Mobilvetta Icaro 510 RV body.

Carado rebrands their RVs, at least with the radiator badge, but the hubcaps still have the Fiat name.

Not all RVs are from Europe. The North American visitors, often from the US, are usually fairly typical, but there are occasional odd balls.

 

Isuzu "stealth" RV from Oregon sports a tiny exhaust stack. The small side window is a bit of a giveaway, but so is the tail board with bike stowage and propane bottles below. It looks like there might be some solar panels on the roof.

Back in May I caught this early season visitor an unusual Merc "dually". Not sure I've ever seen a double rear axle on such a small vehicle, but it does serve a useful purpose for a light suspension chassis. And yes those rear axles have single tires -not duals.

.

Road Trip Oddities

While on the look out for interesting trucks, sometimes real oddities or virtually unique trucks pop into view. Here are a few from this summer.

This Citro H van would not attract much attention if seen on a Paris street, so perhaps Quebec City was not so unusual a place for it, but it certainly stood out in a waterfront parking lot.
The H model traction Avant was produced from 1947 to 1981 with few changes. The squared rear fenders were introduced in 1969 and the single piece windscreen in 1964. Otherwise the suicide doors and corrugated unibody were retained throughout.

 A local produce distributor has been operating this Navistar for several years, but as far as I can recall it is the only Lone Star straight truck I have ever seen.

 A very rugged looking Toyota Land Cruizer pickup is just the thing for rough work. It suits the well used wheel barrow in the background.

.

Road Trip Report

A road trip to Quebec usually includes a stop at the Navistar International dealer in Rivière-du-Loup, QC. Aside from a number of new Lone Stars lined up on Temiscouata Blvd, there were a couple of interesting units in the back lot.

A beefy AWD plow special was awaiting a new spreader body. Note the "blind" hood with no headlight openings. The headlights are mounted on wands, high above the plow frame.

New HX awaits installation of a body. Also painted in highway department yellow, it has perforations in the bumper for some purpose, perhaps hydraulics. The bumper projects out about a foot ahead of the fender line.

There are "Binders" in other parts of the Province too:

Lone Stars are fairly rare so a quick "grab shot" was necessary for this chip hauler at Pointe-au-Pic. Too bad I didn't take a video - those large diameter pipes were nearly deafening at close range.

The HX model is also popular for the heavy work and the Clermont, QC dealer has a special painted version on display.

A favourite of mine has always been the Paystar 5000 model from the 1970s. A preserved former Quebec highways unit still sees regular use hauling firewood. I like to check in on it every year to see that it is still running, so you will have seen pictures of it here before.

Another oldie, which from the fleet number is either a 2001 or a 2005 (likely the former) is this Eagle with plow fittings.

Getting a major refit, it should be on the road before the snow arrives.

.

Kenworth - Quebec Loyalty

Both Kenworth and Peterbilt are assembled at a mammoth PACCAR (Pacific Car and Foundry) plant in Ste-Therese, QC. Although only medium duty Kenworth T120, T270 and T370s are assembled there now, there is still a lot of brand loyalty in Quebec for the heavier rigs.

Thus many KWs make their way to the Simard Suspensions shop in Baie St-Paul, QC. a recent sampling:

Interesting to see a red frame, maybe the rest of this hauler will get the same treatment.

 Not visible in the photo is a large notch in the sleeper roof, indicating a likely crane installation.

The big tombstone grille is still popular.

Autocars - Volvo Era - on the road trip

Original White Autocars are pretty rare, but even the late model Volvo Autocars are seldom seen, but I keep my road trip eyes open.

This semi with dump trailer was taking at lunch break at the Tim Horton's /Shell at the east side of Moncton / Dieppe, NB. Note the skid plate - once an Autocar trademark.

A twin steer dumper near Quebec City was idle for the last weekend of the construction holiday. It does not wear the Volvo diagonal rad bar (it may have been removed).

The rad, headlight frames and even the famed monogram were nicely picked out in red.

Volvo built nearly identical trucks without the Autocar radiator/grille, such as this pristine straight operated by Miller paving, also seen in Moncton, NB. It normally tows a draw bar trailer carrying a roller.

Volvo produced Autocar branded trucks from 1981 to 2001 before selling the trade name.

.

Road Report, Western Stars

A recent trip to Quebec, also known as Western Star country, turned up a number of interesting Stars.

Many if not most timber haulers seem to to be Western Stars, and this one is typical of the heavy rigs.

What better to load the logs than a Western Star equipped with a Barko grabber.

There are also lots of long haul Stars on the road, including this deluxe unit with massive moose bars and extra lighting.

There are also numerous plane jane Stars, such as this day cab peat moss hauler.

There are Western Stars back home in Halifax too,

Atlantic Tiltload runs thus twin steer crane equipped unit that is kept busy with odd loads.

.

CN 100

Canadian National Railway is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and as part of that they are setting up exhibits in various places across the country. Today it was a parking lot near the Halifax waterfront and score of CN's intermodal boxes of all shapes, sizes and colours, began arriving, for the most part using CN trucks.

CN has a large fleet of impressively painted trucks -of all brands it seems - no two were alike as far as as I could tell, and I did not see them all I am sure.

Navistar International BH74

Kenworth BN103

Freightliner BN135

Mack BH84

.

Atlantic Truck Show, Moncton, NB June 7,8, 2019

All the major brands were represented, but not all were photograph-able due either to the tight spaces or the masses of people around the exhibits blocking the view. Apologies to Peterbilt and Volvo- their displays were just too popular!

I found most of the trucks on display indoors fairly unexciting. They were obviously demos and thus few had any custom paint schemes and there were no dramatically new models that I had not seen before.

Autocar

Freightliner

Navistar International

Kenworth

Mack

Western Star

It was a different story outside, where the trucks were supposed to be secondary to trailers or cranes or truck bodies, but they were real working trucks, and they were all Western Stars!

Then there was the parking lots where there were some real finds:

.