Titan Clydebank

Titan Clydebank, more commonly known as the Titan Crane is a 161 ft[1] cantilever crane at Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It was designed to be used in the lifting of heavy equipment, such as engines and boilers, during the fitting-out of battleships and ocean liners at the John Brown & Company shipyard. It was also the world's first electrically powered cantilever crane, and the largest crane of its type at the time of its completion.

Situated at the end of a U-shaped fitting out basin, the crane was used to construct some of the largest ships of the 20th century, including the RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2. The Category A Listed historical structure was refurbished in 2007 as a tourist attraction and shipbuilding museum. It is featured on the current Clydesdale Bank £5 note.

History

The shipyard at Clydebank was created in 1871 after the company James & George Thomson moved from the Govan Graving Docks.[2][3] John Brown & Company purchased the yard in 1899, and in 1905, a £24,600 order for the crane was placed with Dalmarnock based engineering company Sir William Arrol & Co.[4] Titan was completed two years later in 1907.[4] It was constructed by the Scottish engineer Adam Hunter (1869–1933), who was working as Chief Engineer for Arrol & Co., having served his apprenticeship on the construction of the Forth Bridge. Stothert & Pitt of Bath, England, fabricated and installed most of the machinery for the Titan, including electric motors built by Lancashire Dynamo and Motor Co.[5]

Design

The Titan used a fixed counterweight and electrically operated hoists all mounted on a rotated beam, making it faster and more responsive than its steam-powered predecessors.[17] For lifting smaller assemblies that did not require the full lifting capacity of 150 t, a 30 t auxiliary hoist was used, as large loads were comparatively rare.

Titan is 49 m high, weighs about 800 t and sits on four concrete piles sunk to a depth of 23 m deep.[18] The arms of the cantilever are 45.7 m and 27.4 m long.[18] The tower is 12 m square, and its centre sits just 10.7 m from the edge of the quay.

Following the removal of the Beardmore Crane in the 1970s and the Fairfield Titan in 2007, there are now four giant cantilever cranes on the River Clyde.[19][20]

Awards

The crane was awarded the 2012 Engineering Heritage Award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and described as "a magnificent example of mechanical engineering, which forms an integral part of the local landscape".[12] Titan was designated as an International Historic Civil and Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2013, the fifth such award given to a Scottish structure.[22]

For the restoration of the structure, recognition was accorded by Chicago Athenaeum Award for Architecture in 2008 and by the Civic Trust in 2009.[22]

External links

• Collective Architecture project overview