After a lot of heating up, hammer bashing and prayers, the Musgrave Crane’s hoisting worm gear became loose. This was the last stuck part of the crane and Tom and the team were over the moon. I particularly enjoyed the heat that the warmed up gear gave off on a

Swansea University students, past and present are helping us to restore the crane. James Hustwayte who is studying a Masters in Mechanical Engineering, Geraint Howells  who is studying a degree in Material Engineering, Gethin Phillips is in his 2nd year of Mechanical Engineering along with Nourelsabah Kamel, who has just

As each part is being restored, its fascinating to see the stamps, numbers and chisel marks that would have imprinted over 100 years ago.

This week, the team have been busy cleaning, burning, sanding and undercoating the parts. Its  a slow and steady process but the base must be right in order to put the final coat on, we want this crane to go another hundred years before it needs painting again!

Now in Tom’s workshop, restoration of key components is coming along beautifully. Check out this short video..

The Musgrave Crane is a scheduled ancient monument so it requires the same care as if we were taking Stone Henge apart. Volunteers have been diligent in recording, with support from Richard Lewis from Black Mountain archaeology and Ross Cook from ArchaeoDomus. As part of the careful recording of each

High powered Jet washing from Phoenix asbestos took place on Monday. At 400psi the jetwashing did the job of removing rust and paint and cleaning up the cast iron parts ready for the next stage of refurbishment. It was a busy day for volunteers of removing and replacing labels on

The crane arrived two weeks ago and in that time the team has worked extremely hard to remove parts, some more stubborn than others, tag, photograph and label each item. Today, as you can see the final pieces were removed and its all ready to be jet washed on Monday

The team has made excellent progress over the last 4 days. Most parts have come away far easier than ever hoped and many moving parts still move! We’ve done a lot of recording, drawings and samples to help us put it back together again. Work to remove the beams and

Work gets underway this week as a team of 25 local volunteers begin the first task to restore the Musgrave Travelling Crane which has not moved for 38 years. The gantry crane will be removed from the building this week, stripped down, cleaned and painted so it is usable once