WRRC Forum

On p. 34 of Railway Cranes Vol. 3 by Peter Tatlow (Crecy 2018) there is a statement that GWR 6T 4W traveling hand crane No. 230 is preserved at Cardiff Industrial and Maritime Museum (sic). This presumably meant WIMM and now at Swansea as the NWM. I ask because there is no mention of crane No. 230 in the GWR Crane Orders book, nor is it listed in the GWR Breakdown Travelling Crane Allocations as at 13 August 1936.
Furthermore, I have a photo by JM Hodgetts allegedly showing No. 230 at Cardiff Docks on 27 May 1968, but the image is not good enough to confirm the details.
Can any member confirm there is such a crane as No. 230 somewhere in the National Collection?
Robin Simmonds

Jim
Thanks for the info from NMW Collections Online. It’s a pity they do not show an image of DW230 as that would help to identify the type of 6T crane they have. The manufacture date of ca. 1926 given in NLW online is way out. The last order for a GWR 6T hand crane was placed with the Locomotive Factory in November 1912 and was delivered in July 1912 to Shrewsbury Junction for use on the GWR/LNWR Joint Line as its no. 5. The prefix DW was added to GW travelling crane numbers post nationalisation. My image of the alleged 230 is of what Peter Tatlow terms a GWR Mark 3 6T crane.
One possible origin of 230 is in the cranes the GWR constructed specifically for the GWR/LNWR joint lines. These were numbered in a separate series: 6T cranes nos. 2, 3 and 5, and 3T crane no. 4. These do appear in the Crane Order book and the Allocations Register, and were ordered in January 1903, April 1899, November 1912, and March 1908 respectively. The odd order is accounted for by the fact that these were replacements for unspecified earlier cranes. No. 5 of November 1912 is within the date range when the Mark 3 cranes were being constructed and is thus a candidate for renumbering somewhen post-1936 as 230.
Robin Simmonds

I have rescanned my photo of putative crane no. 230 at the highest resolution available to me (2400dpi) and convinced myself that it is possible to make out this number on the match truck. A lower resolution scan is attached, clearly showing what Peter Tatlow terms a Mark 3 GWR 6T hand crane. This version is distinguished from the others by the squared-off side plates of the crane and the rope and pulley derricking gear.
As far as I can make out, cranes were assigned to an owning department, which had to account for them. The 12T crane at Didcot is plated as follows: G.W.R//Loco & Carr Dept//No. 205, so that 230 was at one time a Loco Dept crane.
Robin Simmonds

A match truck plate for Crane No. 230 has just appeared on the GCR Auctions website, see attached. Whether it is genuine or a replica I have no means of telling. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of these things could comment, particularly on the style of the G.W.R., and whether it is an indication of when it was made.
Robin Simmonds