Grafton Steam Cranes

The steam cranes supplied to Chatham Dockyard were “Locomotive Yard Cranes”, these were cranes designed to haul wagons around the dockyard railway system as well as lifting goods as required.
The cranes were built by Grafton Cranes Ltd at their Vulcan Works in Bedford, and were delivered to the dockyard in the 1930s and 1940s.
The cranes run on a six wheeled carriage, with a coal fired boiler and were designed to work on a presssure of 100psi.
The 30ft worm-driven jib is driven from the 2-cylinder main engine and is fitted with a single hoist rope, which has a lifting capacity of 5 tons at 24 feet or 3 tons at 30 feet.
There are four ex-dockyard steam cranes on the Historic Dockyard Railway, these are:

• Works No.2528 1938   Yard No. 482
  Privately preserved and being restored to working order.
• Works No.2547 1940   Yard No (17?)
  Privately preserved and is fully operational.
• Works No.2641 1941   Yard No. 558
  Currently waiting a decision on restoration.
• Works No.2675 1943   Yard No. 582
  Privately preserved and is fully operational.

Also operating within the yard were:

• Works No. 2580 1941   Yard No. 542

The location of the crane is unknown, if you have any images or information on this crane, do please get in touch.