Factfile: Ransomes & Rapier 45t crane

Ipswich firm Ransomes & Rapier built many types of steam crane on six, eight and ten-wheel underframes that all shared a familiar look. They also shared similar features to cranes from competing manufacturers, such as Cowans & Sheldon and Craven Brothers. Bachmann Branchline has chosen to model a Ransomes & Rapier design from 1939/1940. Knowing that the railways would require extra lifting capacity to repair air raid damage during wartime, the Ministry of Supply ordered six 45t steam cranes from R&R in 1939. They were based on a 36t capacity crane delivered to the Southern Railway in 1936 but were designed with as wide a route availability as possible. Therefore, they fit within the British Composite Loading Gauge and the relieving bogies fore and aft brought the axle weight down to just 15t. The first two cranes went to the Southern (DS1560 and DS1561) and the remaining four to the Great Western Railway (Nos. 16-19). When the War Department requisitioned two LNER cranes in 1941, the MOS ordered two replacements to the 1940 design in 1942. The only differences between the six cranes was the configuration of the tool boxes on the jib runners. All six became BR property and lasted well into the 1970s/1980s. In fact, the two Southern Region cranes remained in service until 1989. One is now preserved at the Swanage Railway. Both former ER region cranes survive (at the Bluebell and North Yorkshire Moors Railway) and former GWR crane No. 18 is at West Coast Railway Company’s Carnforth HQ.

COLOUR RAIL D.J. SUTTON/CJL COLLECTION 2: Ransomes & Rapier crane DS1560 from Nine Elms clears the aftermath of a collision at Staines Central between an Up Windsor/weybridge-waterloo train and ‘700’ class 0-6-0 No. 30688 on August 9 1957. The EMU had departed the station against a stop signal. 1: Former Southern Railway 45t crane DS1561 at Swindon in 1979. DS1561 and DS1560 were not withdrawn by BR until 1989; the former is now based at the Swanage Railway whereas the latter, having spent time in store around Swindon and Tyseley, was scrapped in 2010.