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Measured for Transport - 1962

Thanks for posting that. I worked for Ferranti for 30 years but didn't know that the Dinorwig pumped storage station used Ferrsnti transformers. It would have been made at the Avenue Works in Hollinwood. I was involved with the Automation Systems Division, installing and maintaining real time computer control systems, and many times was in the CEGB National Control Centre when the predicted demand required the release of the lake - often to co-incide with the end of a popular TV program, when everybody would put the kettle on !
 
andrewmawson said:
Thanks for posting that. I worked for Ferranti for 30 years but didn't know that the Dinorwig pumped storage station used Ferrsnti transformers. It would have been made at the Avenue Works in Hollinwood. I was involved with the Automation Systems Division, installing and maintaining real time computer control systems, and many times was in the CEGB National Control Centre when the predicted demand required the release of the lake - often to co-incide with the end of a popular TV program, when everybody would put the kettle on !
Click to expand...

That is Ffestiniog power station ,Dinorwig was built in the 80's and is the one in the mountain.

I went on a trip to FFestiniog when I was an apprentice ,good times!

These are the guys that move most of the big stuff these days ,they have a base just up the road from me and I see their equipment all the time.ALE
 
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alskdjfhg said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-DgJZUxTZ8

Another transformer move on a similar trailer.

I really like how these guys are throwing around dunnage(and not pine 4x4 either, real stuff), rail and I beam like it's nothing.....:eek:
Click to expand...

Thanks for both of these videos! I can't hear the sound, so maybe the narration explained something. I was noticing the trucks, well one anyway, that the exhaust was a single, maybe 2" pipe. I'm thinking it must be a small gas engine. My '85 Chevy one-ton has a 350 cubic inch ( 5-1/2 liter)gas engine and its got two 2 1/4" pipes. Those trucks must have some very low gears!

The sign on the side of the transformer said it weighed 168 tons (336,000 pounds)it also said 12000xVA and 275000 volts. I'm assuming that means 120 KVA and 275,000 volts. But that can't be right, 'cause that would be less than half an amp!
They had to have one of our transformers at work sent off to be reworked. ( they had an Italian name, but I don't remember exactly what, so the Ferranti name on the ones in the videos might be the same company.) They used a 200 ton crane to place the transformer on a flatbed, heavy hauler trailer. I think they had 3 axles on the truck and 3 axles on the trailer as well as 2 axles on the flip down attached bogeys on the back of the trailer. This particular transformer was 25000amps and 390 volts output ( for an arc furnace) it was supposed to weigh around 120000 pounds (60 tons) That is less than a third of the weight, yet the truck driver of the rig being used told me that the Kenworth's diesel engine had been tuned up to over 700 horse! I imagine the torque produced was formidable as well! That makes the guys in the video just that much more impressive!!
 
It does say 120000 kVA, so that's a thousand times that. The losses due to resistance of the conductors are the square of the current in the line, so less current is less losses. Should be about 500A line current in there.
 
" Ferranti"in Hollinwood was just down the road from me. The fitting shop was a huge building. It used to be a newspaper printing operation after. " Ferranti " went bang but I don't know what it is now.

I've worked with " Pickfords " guys a few times over the years moving big machines. They were the top men who could make big lifts look really easy. " Beck & Pollitzer " were pretty good too.

I've done plenty of jacking with those " Hydra-Lite " jacks. The 50 ton ones are a lot heavier than those guys made them look.

Thanks for the film.

Regards Tyrone.
 
Onepass said:
Thanks for both of these videos! I can't hear the sound, so maybe the narration explained something. I was noticing the trucks, well one anyway, that the exhaust was a single, maybe 2" pipe. I'm thinking it must be a small gas engine. My '85 Chevy one-ton has a 350 cubic inch ( 5-1/2 liter)gas engine and its got two 2 1/4" pipes. Those trucks must have some very low gears!
Click to expand...

I think you may be underestimating that truck; exhaust pipe size can sometimes be used as a marketing aid and pipe size isn't everything as we know. I think it is probably a Scammell Contractor or similar. In which case it would have had at least a 250hp engine. I believe that there were multiple engine types available, up to a 26L supercharged Rolls Royce/Perkins unit. This is not an off the shelf type of unit. This lorry was also used in a slightly different version as a tank transporter, including action in Vietnam. I'm not a lorry person so I'm sure someone who is will fill in and correct the details. In any case, speed is not very relevant to this type of haulage. The ability to get through tight corners and to run on British roads was rather more important for Pickfords.
 
This is so British it's not even funny. Everyone wearing a shirt, tie, sweater (jumper?), and overalls or an overcoat. Plenty of pipes being smoked and the funny hats.

I just think about how differently we would do this now from a health and safety stand point. In the video people are standing around the job watching. Kids are playing on the side of the rails right next to the huge transformer. Today, there would be high visibility clothing, police escorts, barriers, hard hats, etc.

Lot's more fun 50 years ago.
 
Amazing to think that pretty much everything on that film would have been made in Britain ,we could still make the transformer but not much else, very sad.
 
A couple of notes

Tyrone mentioned Beck and Politzer - top guys I've worked with them 3 times (2 crane lifts and 1 machinery move) and each time just listening to them made my life much easier.

Truck power - when those moves were done and films shot, and goods vehicle over 3 tons ULW (6720 lbs) was restricted to 20mph MAX, 1ton (I think) to under 3tons ULW - 30mph max.

A load of that size and weight would have been under a ''movement order'' from the ministry of transport, and VERY STRICTLY enforced.

A common engine in those heavy haulage trucks was the 680 Leyland diesel which back then was about 150 HP, about the same power if they used Gardners or Cummins - which were rare in the UK in those days ........Britain was still in post war austerity and imports from other than commonwealth / empire countries very strictly controlled.

Rolls Royce had several attempts at building big diesel truck engines, - few if any were a howling success.

Collar and tie were standard work wear of the period for nearly all but the unskilled labouring classes, as were long coats (or ''macs) and hat of choice.

Boiler suits and overalls were very seldom seen outside the manual working classes.
 
Such is progress my man. It's roughly the same here. If we were doing that job today is US, there's a good chance we'd use a Canadian built locomotive. The truck and trailer would likely be US made, but might be a Mack (owned by Volvo) or a Freightliner (Diamler). We might use jacks made in Taiwan and self propelled transporters made in Italy.
 
I'm curious who made these videos and what the audience was. Seems to be high quality picture. Was this a government commission?
 
Great film-also the all pervading Health and Safety culture was totally absent. All the kids loved it,Mrs Jones shuffled past with her shopping,as if nothing was going on! I grew up with steam Rallies (I hardly go to them now they are so old-hat),I was always impressed with the old low-loaders with the knock-out back axle and a man each side would be working the Duff toe jacks to line the pins up again. Also the old touches like the wooly jumpers,cloth caps,pipes etc.
 
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