I've got this Walthers' Overhead Traveling Crane almost up to final assembly & weathering, but the intructions are painfully short on decal placement. And there seems to be a LOT of them. Thanks to a fellow poster here (whose name escapes me right now) I know where to put "American Crane, 'Keep Off', & 'Think Safety'; but I can't see where to put all those thick diagonal stripes or anything else.
(Sorry for the resolution but it's white lettering on a shiny blue background, almost impossible to reproduce..!) As it's only going to hang by two tiny supports, the operator's cab will be attached AFTER decal placement before weathering, which may wait until after installation...
Any suggestions?
I would pop the broken lines at each end of the lifting/slew areas on the rail supports. A Keep clear would be good in these areas to to alert persons of crushing and pinching hazards as loads move in and out of the area.
Just a thought from the safety side of things
Cheers...
Chris from down under...
We're all here because we're not all there...
bigpianoguy I've got this Walthers' Overhead Traveling Crane almost up to final assembly & weathering, but the intructions are painfully short on decal placement. And there seems to be a LOT of them. Thanks to a fellow poster here (whose name escapes me right now) I know where to put "American Crane, 'Keep Off', & 'Think Safety'; but I can't see where to put all those thick diagonal stripes or anything else.
Seems to me that most of the decals on this sheet are for a mobile or track crane, not for an overhead crane. I see no reason that there would be any of that visibility striping on an overhead crane.
If I were to do anything for visibility on your model, I might consider painting the bottom 8 feet or so of the support legs safety yellow.
maxman Seems to me that most of the decals on this sheet are for a mobile or track crane, not for an overhead crane. I see no reason that there would be any of that visibility striping on an overhead crane. If I were to do anything for visibility on your model, I might consider painting the bottom 8 feet or so of the support legs safety yellow.
I agree. Most overhead cranes are usually lettered with the capacity of the main hoist (and any auxilliary hoist), along with the name of the company which built the crane. Beyond that, there may be small warning labels on the electrical cabinets and safety warnings for operating personnel.
Even where there are multiple cranes working on the same runway, I've never seen safety striping on an overhead crane.
Wayne
After working on the ports over here in Australia for the last 3 years it seems that safety has gone a little overboard. Our Container cranes and even the local front end loader has been attacked by stick on reflective red and silver danger tape.
I think they are trying to illuminate stationary machinery and entrances for night shift. I fear alot of the bulk handling officers may have salvaged their machine licenses from wheaties packets, as we have had to replace and repair entrances (sliding doors) and all kinds of structural members supporting bulk material storage sheds and other structures.
Safety is so tight over here I'm surprised we get anything done.
Cheers
Chris from Australia
The ones I've worked around both at my place of employment and at customers, the beam was labeled with the mfg name and the crane capacity, there were Voltage warnings around the power junction box, and if there was vehicle access, including towmotors, , speed limit signs and pedestrian warning signs. Only saw reflective red/silver striping on outdoor cranes where there was regular heavy after-dark operations.
Oh, and most I've been around have a control pendant hanging by a tether from the carriage. The hand unit is painted the Safety Yellow, maybe with the safety striping. There is also often a loop in the tether so that the pendant is hanging by a spring to accomodate operators of different hieghts.
EM-1 Oh, and most I've been around have a control pendant hanging by a tether from the carriage. The hand unit is painted the Safety Yellow, maybe with the safety striping. There is also often a loop in the tether so that the pendant is hanging by a spring to accomodate operators of different hieghts.
The hanging control pendant thing is a fairly recent development, relatively speaking. When I first started working around power plants in 1970, the larger overhead cranes in the turbine building always had an operator up in the cab. Somewhere along the way they started hanging the pendants, but they still retained the operator's cab. Seems to me that the spring affair you describe is more of a strain relief than a height adjustment, but you could be correct.
I remember seeing pendant controls on an overhead crane in the early '60s, but almost all of the ones with which I'm familiar had an operator in the cab. Some were outdoors and others operated over areas with multiple floor levels, and most were both long span and long travel, not conditions especially suitable for a ground-based operator. Many operated simultaneously on the same runway and also required cabs suspended from the trolley. None were festooned with safety striping.
doctorwayne,
Was any portion of your crane structure from a stock kit?
If you know, what is the width between rails on that Walther's kit??
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
railandsailIf you know, what is the width between rails on that Walther's kit??
5-5/8" (14.3 cm)
Footprint and instructions available from the manufacturer:
https://www.walthers.com/overhead-traveling-crane-kit-12-3-16-x-8-5-8-quot-31-x-21-9cm
The "Heavy Duty" crane is 10 5/8" (27 cm)
https://www.walthers.com/heavy-duty-overhead-crane-kit-11-x-2-3-8-x-2-5-16-quot-27-5-x-5-9-x-5-7cm
Good Luck, Ed
I have a couple of each It looks like you use the same overhead track and framework for each crane.
For the HD crane, you'd have to spread the frame work out more for the 11" width, of the crane.
I don't have a place for'em both. Typical of all the stuff I've bought over the years!
Mike.
My You Tube
railandsail...Was any portion of your crane structure from a stock kit?....
I don't have the Walthers crane, Brian, but Ed has replied with that info.
As for my crane, the only kit-based parts on it are the bearing caps on the trolley wheels: they're from an old Revell model of a Russian T-33 tank, IIRC.I used cut-down brass wheelsets from older freight car models for the wheels on both the bridge and trolley, but didn't bother adding the extra wheel flanges on any of them. The pulleys/sheaves on the bale are ship-modeller's parts, and some of the railings are from Tichy, as the original basswood shapes (angles, channels, and/or tees) were damaged when the crane was in storage.Its dimensions are based on those for the two casthouse cranes in a model blast furnace that I was building many years ago. I had obtained a bundle of blueprints from the steel company where I worked, but the project turned out to be too big and too expensive, and was eventually abandonned. It likely would have covered more than 25sq.ft., and would have dwarfed the Walthers model.I had the basic structure of the crane built, and used a couple of the cranes in the mill where I worked to fill in the details of the motors, gear casings and driveshafts, along with the electical cabinets and collector rails.
The crane runway was all done with Evergreen styrene shapes - much nicer to use than the old basswood ones, and more durable, too. The rails on both the runway and the bridge are code 100 steel.Besides the signage mentioned, there were the usual signs "High Voltage" "Contact Operator Before Boarding" "This Switch Must Be OFF When Boarding or Leaving Crane", etc., etc....the usual safety-related stuff - ignore it at your peril.
There are more photos of the crane and a few of the blast furnace project to be found HERE. I regret to say that I disposed of the blueprints - not that I'd attepmt to build the model again, but just to have them.
I should mention that the photos in the link appear to be mixed-up in their order and perhaps duplicated, too, as there seem to be even more than I usually post. When the Forum changed servers, any photos placed as attachments rather than links from a photo hosting site were retained, but scrambled or reversed in their order of display - therefore, captions won't necessarily match the photo.I've been restoring some of those threads as I come across them, but it's very time consuming, and, as has been noted here, I'm usually pretty generous with pictures.