2020 — jobs we can show you

A water turbine moved from New Mills to Bury

An Archimedes screw water turbine collected at New Mills and delivered to Bury. Long, round, heavy at one end and impossible to sling casually.

A lifeguard station for the RNLI at Birkenhead

Installing a new lifeguards’ cabin for the RNLI at Birkenhead, craned into position on the front.

A container placed below ground level

Lifting a container down into a space below ground level at Dukinfield — the sort of lift where the crane has to reach out and down at the same time.

An American fridge that would not fit through the door

Craned in through an upper opening instead. Domestic jobs are rare and always memorable.

A triple-stack site set-up

A 32ft by 10ft anti-vandal unit refurbished by our cabins team, delivered and then lifted on top of two existing units to make a triple stack.

Installing cabins at Glossop

Cabins craned in at Glossop, up on the edge of the Peak District where the weather decides the day.

Helping Carrbrook community centre

A unit delivered to the community centre at Carrbrook.

Cable drum collection at Tameside

A cable drum collection at Tameside carried out as a full contract lift — our plan, our appointed person, our responsibility.

A fourteen-tonne freezer unit, dual lift

Two cranes on one load again, this time a fourteen-tonne freezer unit.

Brighton festival

Festival infrastructure delivered on the south coast - a converted unit set down on the grass and opened out, with the rigid alongside on its legs. About as far from Miles Platting as a day job gets.

Accrington Stanley, from above

Working inside a football ground while the roof structure over one stand was taken down, with both vehicles working. The stand roof came off and the new accommodation went in on the same visit. The aerial photograph is the only one in the archive that shows a whole job at once.

Roof trusses out, cabins in

The trusses lifted clear and set down, and the site accommodation craned in behind them. Two jobs on one visit, which is the only way a ground will let you close a stand.

A modular building at Oxford

An open-fronted modular building landed on its pads at railway sidings in Oxford. Everything about a unit like this is set before it arrives — the pads, the levels and the order the sections go down in.

Double-stacked at Kings Dyke, Peterborough

A double-stacked site set-up built for the Kings Dyke crossing near Peterborough, with the turbine turning behind it. Stacking cabins is a lift plan, a level base and a very short temper for wind.

A pod delivered to Bicester

A cedar pod with a glazed arched end run down to Bicester and set into a field. Wide, light and worth a great deal, which is the combination that decides how it travels.

Accommodation at Hesketh Bank

A run of accommodation cabins delivered to Hesketh Bank for seasonal vegetable pickers to live in. Two vehicles on site and a line of units set out along the hard standing.

A boiler collected and run to Derby

A large cylindrical boiler collected, chocked and roped on the flat, and taken down to Derby. Round loads take longer to secure than they do to lift.

A hoist off a tower, central Manchester

The mast sections and drive unit of a builder's hoist coming off a tower block in central Manchester and onto the deck. Dismantling work is the same job as installation, run backwards and usually in less room.

Plant moved to Abergele

A load of tracked and wheeled plant on the drag, heading into North Wales. Machines load quickly and then every one of them is chained down on its own.

Alongside the ferry, Liverpool docks

Waiting on the quay at Liverpool with the ro-ro's stern door down. Dock work runs to the ship's timetable and nothing else — you are either on the berth in the window or you are not.

West Langton Dock

Working alongside at West Langton with the bow door open and the boom up. The same job as any other lift, done between a wall of steel and the water.

Manchester to Leeds Bradford Airport

January 2020. Aircraft jacking trestles and ground power units loaded on the trailer and run across the Pennines to Leeds Bradford. Airport work is booked to a window and everything on the deck is calibrated equipment.

Unloading a fourteen-tonne machine indoors

A fourteen and a half tonne machine coming off the low loader inside a works, with the shutter up and the roof steels close overhead.

The 855 and the artic in position

Both units set up and ready to lift at Accrington Stanley. Two vehicles on one site is a planned operation, not two drivers deciding to help each other out.

Accommodation into the ground

A cabin on the bed alongside the stand at Accrington Stanley. Football grounds are all access - the gates and the pitch surround decide the route in.

A refurbished office unit sold and delivered

A 9'10 x 9'6 office unit refurbished by our cabins side - new floor, painted inside and out - on the hook for delivery to a garden centre in Preston.

Loaded for Preston

The same unit on the bed and ready to run. Selling the cabin and delivering it on our own crane means one company answers for both ends of the job.

Charity work at Carrbrook

A painted community unit going in for Carrbrook community centre. Charity jobs get the same lift plan as everything else.

On site at the community centre

Set up outside the centre with the boom over the fence. Community work in a village means a tight yard and neighbours on both sides.

A dual lift, head on

Two vehicles and two booms on one fourteen-tonne freezer unit for Destiny Foods. A dual lift is a planned operation with a lift plan behind it.

Fourteen tonnes on the slings

The freezer unit in the air with both cranes taking their share. The weight is split between the two machines and neither one is anywhere near its limit.

Brighton Festival, on the slings

A structural frame off the bed at the Brighton Festival site. Festival work is a fixed build window with everybody else on the same grass at the same time.

Off site at Preston Park

Taking the same kind of structure back out of Preston Park in Brighton after the event. The de-rig is usually tighter than the build - everybody wants off the grass at once.

Dismantling in Manchester city centre

Taking the site accommodation off a completed Sir Robert McAlpine job in Manchester, working from a live city centre street with the finished building above.

The last unit away

The last of the site units loaded out. When the building is finished the accommodation is the last thing to leave, and there is rarely any room left to do it in.

A 32 x 10 over the stack

A 32ft x 10ft anti-vandal cabin, refurbished by our cabins team to Kenny Waste Management's specification, going over the top of their two existing units in Manchester.

Three high, on the deck

The triple stack finished. Stacking is a levelling job as much as a lifting one - the bottom unit decides whether the top two ever sit right.

Alongside at West Langton Dock

Working alongside the ferry at West Langton Dock. Dock work runs to the ship's timetable, not ours.

Manchester to Leeds Bradford Airport

January 2020, off the trailer at Leeds Bradford Airport. Airport work is passes, escorts and timing before it is anything else.

A modular building into a Salford school

A timber-clad modular classroom placed at a school in Salford. School work happens in the holidays or it does not happen.

A lifeguard station for the RNLI

A new lifeguard cabin on the strops for the RNLI at Birkenhead, going in over soft ground.

Cable drums loaded, Tameside

Two cable drums down on the flatbed at Tameside. This one was a full contract lift, so the lift plan, the appointed person and the insurance were all ours.

The Archimedes screw loaded out

The water turbine screw on the bed for the run from New Mills to Bury. Long, round and reluctant to sit still - it goes on chocked and strapped rather than slung.