There is a monster to be found in Farringdon at the moment – just outside the main entrance to Farringdon London Underground Station. Map here.
The monster in question is a DEMAG CC 2800-1 600T capacity crawler crane and it is huuuuuuge!. This size of crane is normally to be found building oil refineries and other such big industrial schemes. You don’t often find them down a hole in central London.
The photo below shows a normal application of such a crane.
The one in in London is being used by COLOR (Costain / Laing O’Rourke JV) in its ongoing project to build the new Thameslink Farringdon Station as part of Network Rail’s Thameslink upgrade project. It is being used to erect steelwork and concrete bridge beams over the London Underground and Thameslink rail lines in the middle of the night. The crane is supplied by Ainscough Crane Hire – one of the biggest crane hire companies in the UK.
A couple of photos of this large (and expensive) beastie are included below. There are more on my picasaweb site here. If you like cranes and are in the area – it is well worth a look at. It beats me as to how they rigged it up down there!
andrew kenyon photography 