Morgan Crane Removal Part 1

On Friday, February 27 I hired AB Crane and Steel Service to bring their 30 ton Grove truck crane to Masury, OH to begin the major dismantling of our Morgan crane. My goal was to take the trolley and one crane girder down, and in a little over three hours we had finished the job.

Dale Desser and Jason Graves from Erie, PA came down to assist. Dale works for a crane service company and his knowlege and expertise was greatly appreciated. The trolley was way too heavy to lift in one piece, so we took down the hoist drum first, followed by the hoist idler shaft and finally the frame of the trolley. The total weight of the trolley is somewhere around 15,000 lbs. The last lift involved taking down one of the girders. Dale climbed out onto the girder and rigged up the slings, and then the crane lifted the girder out and down onto the floor.

More preparation work is needed before we can attempt to take down the other girder and the end trucks. Once everything is down the crane will be trucked to the Tod Engine Heritage Park and stored until it is put up in our soon to be built enginehouse building.