KONECRANES HELPS DIRECT RAIL SERVICES REMAIN ON TRACK IN SCOTLAND

Continuing its long-held association with national rail fright operator, Direct Rail Services (DRS), Konecranes has manufactured and installed a 110T fixed goliath crane at their new facility at Georgemas Junction in the North of Scotland. As a major rail freight provider to the nuclear fuels industry, DRS - a level 5 contract service customer of the UK’s foremost lifting equipment manufacturer - is using the goliath crane, which provides a lifting height of 11.9 metres, to tranship flasks from road to rail transport for delivery to a nuclear reprocessing plant in Cumbria. Spanning some 21 metres and having an overall length of 24 metres, the double girder goliath crane was installed by a team of six crane service engineers who remained on-site for the duration of the contract. In order to ensure that the customer could make the terminal fully operational in accordance with its contractual obligations, and despite facing some extreme weather conditions in the process, the Konecranes team spent a combined total of 17 days onsite, often working through the night. As a result, Konecranes delivered the project two days ahead of schedule. Involving the combined efforts of Konecranes’ Industrial Cranes, Modernisations and Crane Service business units, both the structural and electrical design of the goliath crane was undertaken by the company’s in-house design team at its crane production plant in East Kilbride. It is here that the crane was also built and functionality tested before being subjected to rigorous H&S and quality checks. Commenting on the successful delivery of the project, Tony Hewitson, DRS Head of Civil Engineering & Terminals said: “The project has been a huge success and I would like to commend the professionalism and dedication of the Konecranes’ engineers involved in helping delivery of the project ahead of schedule. The service provided by Konecranes throughout the project exceeded our expectations, which ensured that it progressed efficiently. I would like to pass on my personal thanks to everyone involved. Work of this nature will undoubtedly help strengthen the excellent relationship that DRS has with Konecranes and I look forward to working on similar projects together moving forwards.” A spokesperson for Konecranes added: “This project is a perfect example of a number of business units successfully working together to deliver a project efficiently and in a timeframe that exceeded the customer’s expectations.”