A nice picture, but I still find there is something creepy about those cranes (probably a left-over from the earlier picture, with the optical illusion that the crane was moving towards us – coming after us… They could play a great role in a SF-horror-movie.)
I like the crane pix because I really like cranes!
I have never operated a crane like those in the pix (speaking of WOTWs, think of Tom. Cruise loading containers with that big dock crane; that was a very realistic scene), but I was a bridge crane operator in an aluminum smelter for a several years. The P&H I operated had a 100 ft. bridge that traversed a 1200 ft. long bay. There was a trolley that ran along the length of the bridge, with a 20 ton main hoist and a five ton auxiliary (for pouring), with the cab right in the middle of the bridge at thirty feet off the floor. Handling 35,000 pound cruces of molten metal is great, scary fun.
I was a good enough c.o. (or just lucky! Which amounts to the same thing?!) that I never had a serious accident.*
As much as I loved the job (the only air-conditioned one on the smelter floor; you can’t have a c.o. with sweat running into their eyes) I still have some pretty creepy dreams about it.
*The worst was when I had just hooked to a full cruce to pour a row of sow molds (sows are big pigs!). A pot room metal hauler had hooked to the trailer. I thought he was going to wait for me to bring back the empty but he thought it was already empty and took off just as I hooked up! I tried to chase him as fast as the crane would move as he headed toward the scales. Big spill, metal splashing all over. A small fork truck near the scales was set on fire, but saved by an alert metal handler who was quick with the fire extinguisher. We were lucky that no one was injured. The driver, who was, incidentally, a friend and fellow shop steward of mine, only received a verbal (always check that cruce!). He was a crazy guy with a crazy laugh: “I knew something was wrong as soon as the tractor hit second gear. It bogged down like I’d driven it into a swamp!†He complemented me for “saving my ass†by chasing him (to be clear, that would have been a losing race had he not caught on in time to what was happening).
And yeah, cool cranes. Mechanical Kaiju on the march.
{ 4 comments }
Alan White 11.21.21 at 9:11 pm
Good companion piece to last week’s. Reminds one of War of the Worlds.
Ingrid 11.21.21 at 9:15 pm
A nice picture, but I still find there is something creepy about those cranes (probably a left-over from the earlier picture, with the optical illusion that the crane was moving towards us – coming after us… They could play a great role in a SF-horror-movie.)
William Berry 11.22.21 at 5:30 pm
I like the crane pix because I really like cranes!
I have never operated a crane like those in the pix (speaking of WOTWs, think of Tom. Cruise loading containers with that big dock crane; that was a very realistic scene), but I was a bridge crane operator in an aluminum smelter for a several years. The P&H I operated had a 100 ft. bridge that traversed a 1200 ft. long bay. There was a trolley that ran along the length of the bridge, with a 20 ton main hoist and a five ton auxiliary (for pouring), with the cab right in the middle of the bridge at thirty feet off the floor. Handling 35,000 pound cruces of molten metal is great, scary fun.
I was a good enough c.o. (or just lucky! Which amounts to the same thing?!) that I never had a serious accident.*
As much as I loved the job (the only air-conditioned one on the smelter floor; you can’t have a c.o. with sweat running into their eyes) I still have some pretty creepy dreams about it.
*The worst was when I had just hooked to a full cruce to pour a row of sow molds (sows are big pigs!). A pot room metal hauler had hooked to the trailer. I thought he was going to wait for me to bring back the empty but he thought it was already empty and took off just as I hooked up! I tried to chase him as fast as the crane would move as he headed toward the scales. Big spill, metal splashing all over. A small fork truck near the scales was set on fire, but saved by an alert metal handler who was quick with the fire extinguisher. We were lucky that no one was injured. The driver, who was, incidentally, a friend and fellow shop steward of mine, only received a verbal (always check that cruce!). He was a crazy guy with a crazy laugh: “I knew something was wrong as soon as the tractor hit second gear. It bogged down like I’d driven it into a swamp!†He complemented me for “saving my ass†by chasing him (to be clear, that would have been a losing race had he not caught on in time to what was happening).
And yeah, cool cranes. Mechanical Kaiju on the march.
oldster 11.22.21 at 6:47 pm
It’s incredible what they can do with origami these days.
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