Giant crane at former NEM Works

Giant cantilever crane, 1909, by Arrol and Stothert & Pitt for North Eastern Marine Engineering Company (HER 5017). Rivetted steel sections. A fixed crane tower, 125 ft high and forty square supports on balanced horizontal jib, 245 ft total length. The jib swings through 360 degrees and has a trolley with the lifting gear moving along the 150ft working section. Designed to lift loads of up to 150 tons with great precision for ship construction/repair. Only 42 of this type of crane were ever built, from 1905. This is the earliest example built in England and one of only two left on the Tyne. Complete with original machinery. Popularly known as a 'hammerhead crane'. See The Engineer August 20 1909, pp 187-9. Was listed grade 2* but now gone.