Cranes

 

 

Two Heljan container cranes are employed on Holland Park. They are DCC fitted as standard with two built-in programmable decoders; one controls the trolley/hoist and the other the gantry. There are nine adjustable speed steps for each movement and they feature LED lights along the gantry and two floodlights on the operator's cab. Control is via a 'joy pad' that can be used to control up to three cranes. Some modifications have been made to make the controls more durable and a minor rewiring has been effected which allows the handsets to be switched for use for both in front and behind the layout.

Although proportioned for 3.5mm/'HO' scale, the cranes do not look too out of place in a 4mm scale setting although there is only enough room to stack containers two high. After studying photographs, it was decided against repainting the cranes in Freightliner yellow but the 'feet' were given a coat of warning yellow with additional warning signs applied. A little weathering was applied using powders and sealed with matt varnish. The cranes are the obvious centrepiece of the layout and always draw crowds who are fascinated by their 'dance routine'.

 

 

 

 

 

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