16mm scale Rail Mounted Crane

The French narrow gauge rail-mounted crane is a fascinating and elaborate piece of engineering. Only special circumstances could have brought it into existence. Indeed, the story of this crane and the whole system of narrow gauge portable railways begins under special circumstances. The picture below shows a 16mm model of an ammunition crane, built from a Wrightscale kit. Photo courtesy MD Wright.

In the War of 1870-1, France suffered catastrophic defeat against Prussia. As a result, most German-speaking states united under William of Prussia and France was forced to cede territory in the east – the Lost Provinces. In the early 1880s, Prosper Péchot devised a system of portable military railways. His motive was to create transport for the French Army which would strike into the Lost Provinces and recover key cities such as Metz.

Backed by Paul Decauville, he struggled to persuade his superiors to adopt his innovative system. The diagram of a Péchot bogie (Type 1) shown below demonstrates the care and detail that went into every part of Péchot's designs. Diagram drawn by Malcolm Wright. In fact, between 1884 and 1886, the Navy was the Service which were most interested; thanks to Decauville and the Ministère de la Marine, several kilometres of portable track, and about a hundred special bogies were built. The Navy was particularly worried about Britain! The Army professed no real interest; they were going to depend on a line of modern earth-sheltered forts to keep out the enemy.

In 1886, the first of a new generation of ammunition was introduced – the high-explosive shell. The Army were foolish enough to demonstrate the value of their forts in front of the Free Press. Modern guns were lined up against Fort de Malmaison. The place was blown to smithereens in an afternoon; worse still, under the noses of newshounds.

Something had to be done!

Senior generals were still keen on their forts. It was clear from the exercise that the real problem was letting guns get too close. If a protective screen of subsidiary forts, defended in their turn by small batteries, defended in their turn by subsidiary batteries and so on ad infinitum, could be constructed, the enemy could be kept away.

These sub-fortifications had to be supplied efficiently. The Army realised it had just the system, the système Péchot.

Between 1886 and 1889, this was refined and expanded. At the Great Centenary Exhibition of 1889, the public were moved around on Decauville 60cm gauge railways. Péchot style locomotives were used and, displayed in pride of place, was a 64 tonne gun carried on Péchot bogies. By way of thanks, within a couple of years, Decauville was removed from his office in the Company he had built up and Péchot was virtually exiled in Castres. But that is another story.

Péchot was always considerate of his foot soldiers. He designed everything to be within the limits of what could be reasonably carried or pushed by a human being. On the other hand, his wagons were designed to carry loads almost unimaginable for portable track – artillery ammunition was getting bigger and angrier. Stations and loading areas were equipped with gantry cranes. Away from permanent installations, the Army and Marine depended on pulleys and winches mounted on sheer-legs. The French called this type of lifting gear the chèvre (literally goat). Colonel Péchot: Tracks to The Trenches has photos showing these sheerleg cranes in use between 1886 and 1890.Over the years, ordinance grew in bulk and mass, as the picture below shows.

As anyone knows, sheer-legs have their disadvantages, particularly in cramped spaces and when time is of the essence. Prosper Péchot wasn’t going to let his squaddies down. Two sorts of rail-mounted crane were devised. We have reason to believe that they were designed and built in the 1890s (the photographic record and studies by Jacques Pradayrol.)

One type was the grue Magnarde with a theoretical rating of six tonnes. This was basically a scaled-down version of a standard gauge rail-mounted crane. We can tell from the name that there was another hand as well as Péchot’s in the design. Grue is a crane with a movable jib, Magnarde the name of the officer which commissioned it. The grue Magnarde was a large device carried on four Péchot bogies, which required stabilisers when in use.

The other type was definitely more ‘Péchot’. This was a small crane suitable for single shells or, as we might say, pieces of heavy ordinance weighing over 30 kg. Mounted on a single Péchot bogie, its typical use was to handle large calibre shells and their propellant. They were needed when a supply wagon reached a gun battery and then again at the point of fire. Its official name was the grue a obus - crane for shells.

The crane was brought up by rail then positioned over the wagon. It picked up a shell in a scissor-grip. The load was balanced by a counter-weight that ran out on a parabolic track. The greater the load, the further out the counterweight travelled. The device was safe without a safety ratchet or brake. Thanks to the design of the bogie, the jib could be turned, if necessary through 360 degrees. The picture below shows a 16mm model made from a Wrightscale kit.

A 370mm gun, just one of the uses, would be supplied by Péchot track. A turntable was inserted in the track and the wagon would be diverted to a siding at right angles running alongside the gun. When firing a the available crane would pick up a shell, run along the back of the gun, swing around and release the shell on to a track which led up to the breech of the gun. The crane was then withdrawn. A painting by Henry Cheffer shows the crane in action.  Interestingly, Cheffer has omitted the system of track around the gun.

Wrightscale has produced a 16mm scale model kit for this, the ‘people’s’ rail-mounted crane. It is designed to be mounted on a Péchot bogie. The standard support provided by the bogie is a turntable, capable of turning through 360 degrees. The circular baseplate of the crane acts like the rotating top. To the baseplate are attached the jib supports. They in turn support the jib and the counterbalance rails.

With the cable rig in place, the lifting gear is connected to the counter-balance. The cable travels from the fixing point on the drum, three turns around the drum and then on to the second top pulley, up round the hook, over the top pulley, round the pulley  fixed to the rear of the counterbalance rails and finally is fixed to the back of the counter-balance itself.

A handle equipped with gears moves the drum. Thanks to the gears, no extraordinary effort is require in lifting a significant weight. Thanks to the counterweight arrangement, there is no danger of the weight suddenly falling. Thanks to the bogie, the crane can be pushed along easily. It has brakes, operated by screws; because of the protruding jib and counter-balance, the brakewheels, as used on the standard bogie, have been removed.

The colour varied. When originally used in the 19^th century, most military railways were painted ‘horizon blue’ – a sort of grey, as can be seen from hand-tinted postcards of the period. This is the colour of the 16mm models shown in the pictures above. During the Great War, the science of camouflage came into its own. Military equipment was more likely to be painted a khaki green, and perhaps decorated with splodges to further break up the outline. By now, colour printing was more widespread and there are a number of pictures of camouflaged material – the picture below, featuring a 370 mortar, as used in the First World War, shows the crane in new colours.Picture courstesy MD Wright.

The Péchot model crane has proved to be a popular product. It has a fascination – a charming little crane which finds a place on many sorts of layout. It can be installed line-side or the mobile version runs along the track.

Further, we all like a model which works. The bogie runs along the track, the crane turns on its pivot. Turn the little handle and the hook goes up while the counter balance runs out. The only disappointment is that we supply a hook rather than a scissors grip. We would be delighted if an enthusiast sent us a picture of a 16mm scale working scissors grip!

The grue a obus offers something else – a story. It is an old-fashioned story. It is how an officer spoke to decorated generals and the elite of French society but also cared for the lowly men who laboured under his command.

If you can, find out a copy of Dr Cénac’s ’60 centimetres for supplying the French Army during the 14-18 War’ (French language)

Sarah Wright ‘Colonel Péchot: Tracks to the Trenches’

 

16mm Alice on an incline

The gravity hauled incline has a long history. There are fascinating traces of early wooden railways around the Mediteranean, but that is for another time. Suffice to say that those pioneer porters knew that, when there was timber, coal, wheat etc to be carried, gravity was a good friend and an implacable enemy.When commodities were being extracted from a hillside, gravity was a potential friend, so the principles of using gravity to take freight out of a quarry were not new. The Germans used it, then the miners of North-east England, then the quarries of North Wales. In our part of the world, at the Wells of Lecht, near the watershed between Spey and Don, manganese was extracted from an adit into the frowning face of Cairnmor. 

Below in a more rural setting, a 16mm Wrightscale model of an 'Alice' Class Hunslet conveys some wagons. Here is the story of how the prototype negotiated a gravity incline and could do so on your layout.

The Welsh prototype was of world-wide importance. Before going on to conquer the world, the Frenchmen Paul Decauville and Prosper Péchot always acknowledged their debt to the slate quarries of Wales for valuable ideas and for saving them many painful mistakes.The Dinorwic quarries, poised above the Menai Straights, taught the French valuable lessons. The area around Dinorwic provided a series of challenges; a river and two bonny lakes – or llyns – led up to a mountain composed of slate. In the 1870s, slate from these quarries was transported by a 4’ (ie almost-standard gauge) railway. Above this railway were the quarries which were connected by cable-worked inclines.

2’ gauge proved to be the most convenient gauge - as Prosper Péchot was to demonstrate though he translated this into 60cm. Wanted! A locomotive tough enough to stay out of the workshop for long periods, small enough to be cable-hauled up and down where necessary and powerful enough to haul significant tonnages of slate and waste. Although the company loved a bargain as much as any, only three of the 31 they purchased were second-hand. A worn loco was a false economy.

Most of these were from the Hunslet Engine Co Ltd of Leeds. Above is a 16mm model by Wrightscale. Broadly speaking, they provided three types of loco. Port and Tramway were both seen around the loading docks while the Alice class, as pictured above,  generally stayed in the high quarries. Although the quarries are closed, the National Slate Museum of Wales gives an idea of the atmosphere and grandeur of the site. If you can’t get there yet, at least visit the website, (directions below).

The Alice locomotives which were destined for narrow slate galleries had neither cab nor steam dome. Their looks were peculiar.They catered neither for health, safety nor comfort. And yet … these ‘Quarry’ Hunslets are much loved. Although they have been manufactured in several different workshops in 16mm scale, the interest in the Wrightscale model is undiminished.

Strictly speaking, your Dinorwic (Dinorwig) Hunslet, or any other well-loved Quarry locomotive, should have its own little circuit on your garden railway. It should be connected to the main layout by a gravity incline. Above, we see a short train on the gravity incline on Peter Kinnear's layout.  Most people won’t want to reproduce the majesty of a Welsh quarry in the back garden, but that shouldn’t stop you from having your own little gravity system. Peter Kinnear, as mentioned before, has made a splendid feature of one. Some day, our South Deeside Railway will have one too.

Thanks to Jim Hawkesworth, we have some pictures of an incline he knew when he was a lad. It was built to serve one of the Beeston collieries. These would have been known to DH Lawrence. The hero of one of his novels tries his hand as clerk in the office; no doubt Lawrence wrote from experience. He himself quickly decided to become a ‘stool-harsed Jack’ and become a writer instead.  The area was well known. The labouring class knew the mines, of course and the Quality also liked it. They would drive past workings and Incline to picnic by the Hemlock Stone picturesquely placed on the top of the hill.

By the 1950s, the incline was abandoned and became a playground for naughty boys. The photo above is courtesy of Jim Hawkesworth. It was great fun to pull an abandoned wagon to the top of the slope and let it roll down again, until, one by one, the wagons were smashed.  In 1979, Bramcote crematorium and garden of remembrance was built on the site.

Jim’s first photo is the view from above. You can see the line running into the loading shed. This was fed from the left by a ramp up which was hauled the coal, or spoil, ready to be dropped into the tippers waiting below. A small engine house beside it would have provided the power. DON’T ask what powered the engine – coal of course! Empties would be hauled back up on the bypass lane – an overturned example is seen on the track. Near the top of the photo can be seen another building.

The second photo, also courtesy Jim Hawkesworth, gives us a better view of this building, no doubt at one time the lower winding house. An incline and the remains of a coal store are visible. The building was also shelter for the switchman – the site of the original turnout is clearly visible. Two naughty boys are engaged in an altercation while a third looks on, waiting for a bit of help in removing the ‘dead’ tipper wagon.

Jim’s third photo show the line then running alongside a lane, complete with telegraph poles. The footprints show just how narrow the gauge is.

Although the scene is one of decay and the weather is filthy, you can just see its beauty. It makes use of a valley – hills, trees and swift-flowing stream. There must be potential for a modeller.

Peter Kinnear modelled his incline on the Waste Transfer System at Powderhall, Edinburgh. Although the prototype is no more glamorous than the Nottingham one, Peter has made it beautiful. inspiration for art can be found anywhere, even in a waste transfer system!

The above photo shows a wagon and haulage rope.

Unlike a true gravity system, the Kinnear scheme depends on a Prime Mover. The sequence goes as follows. The train gets shunted on to the incline track, leaves the wagons that are going down the hill. The 'Mule' (blue loco) comes from the shed, couples on, then pushes the wagons along, they start to roll down the incline and the mule carries on lowering them down.Peter explains that to reproduce a true gravity worked balanced incline, there has to be a lot of human intervention. We 16 millers don’t like too much ‘hands on’ and the alternative, humans in 16mm scale, is not yet available!

In this system, the 'Mule' is attached permanently to an endless cable; the winding-house powers the cable, one direction of winding taking the mule down the hill, the other direction bringing it up again. Before you embark on your model, a fact-finding tour is highly recommended. Once lockdown ends, watch out for East of Scotland 16mm Association Open Days. There will be an opportunity to see Peter’s layout.

A trip to the Welsh Slate Museum would be worthwhile. Alternatively, you can visit the old manganese mine. It is free, and open to the public all year round. Follow the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road. The Well of Lecht nearby is clearly visible and there is a public footpath. The main limit is weather.

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