[gordon]

That would be about right for the weight of the assembly I think.

The boom stay cables would take about 3 tons each, so I reckon the lift rating would be five tons or less, and being on a relatively unstable railway wagon mounting it would be couterweighted to left even that.

As I understand it the whole area was an ammunition store which also handled a lot of torpedos, so maybe a couple of torpedos or shells at a ton each would be the load it handled.

There is space on the wooden pier for two railway spurs, so the crane would sit next to the edge and reach out over the ship deck, then swing 120 degrees or so and place (NOT drop....) the load on a conventional railway wagon which would ferry it to one of a few dozen storage bunkers which are all spaced a couple of hundred yards apart.

I didn't realise till I got into it that it was electrically powered, but now that I know that the drum on the front end of the truck chassis makes sense as that would be the cable reel for the power cable.

15 tons eh! Unfortunately it is 100 yards or so from any solid footing, so something large enought to lift 15 tons at that radius is probably not on my hire list...

Thanks for the info.

G